Double Feature

Eclipse 6:33 PM & Sunset 8:17PM Marin Headlands & Ocean Beach

When Animals are People Too, a talk given by Rachel Mayeri and Laurel Braitman at the Marin Headlands ended, the solar eclipse was well underway. My friend Vangie and I had slipped out a few minutes earlier and were trying to figure out how to watch it without going blind. We tried poking a hole through some paper with a pen; then an earring. Both holes produced teeny tiny images of the sun, already covered by a small black crescent. It was so exciting but sooooo small. Then I remembered Bob Miller and the Exploratorium.

All we needed were our hands, criss-crossed like a lattice. Placing our hands in the air, our backs to the sun and whamo!! Multiple suns images. By the time everyone came outside, we had it down and passed along the pinhole-generating tip. Then someone noticed the images of the sun that the leaves were producing. Even though it wasn’t a full eclipse, it was still thrilling. The last solar eclipse I can remember was the one in August 2008, which I witnessed remotely from the Exploratorium. The museum had sent people to China where they experienced a full eclipse. As remarkable as that was, it couldn’t compare to actually being right there with the little crescents dancing all over your body.