Ok - sorry for the slow update, but here it is:
So the kiddo and I had a field trip for the eclipse. I found an eclipse tracker map and wanted to be as close to the blue line as possible for the longest totality. It is east of a small town of Lathrop in MO on SE Mule Barn Rd. (see image, bullseye was the blue line and the road intersecting) I was going to pull off the side of the road and picnic with Lydia, even bringing a bucket potty if needed. But just north of there, you can see on the map, was a berry farm with food and port-a-pottys so I decided to go there for for the kiddo’s sake and it was only .7 miles away.
So we had a great spot but the damn weather didn’t cooperate. It started to rain hard and we sat in the car. But about 20 min after the start of the eclipse it stopped raining. It was partly cloudy but for the next hour or so kept peeking out so we could see the moon move across the sun. She really liked it and took notes for school. Too bad it was so dim from the clouds. I wanted to do a pin hole camera and maybe make a cyanotype, but it wasn’t bright enough. I could use a lens to project an image of the clouds on to white paper. But still I wish we could have done a few more science things. I did make us viewing shields out of paper plates to help block any light around the glasses.
Unfortunately for the actual totality we could not see it directly but did experience 2min and 40 secs of darkness and the sudden cooling down. It was really neat.
When it was over I was hoping to stay awhile as the show was only half over. If it cleared up we could see the moon leave the sun. But it got worse and then started to rain again. So we headed home. Getting there only too an hour but due to traffic, construction, and accidents I took back roads home so it took us 2.5 hours. But we had enough time to finish watching Ghostbusters.
In the end she said she had a great time, and while I wish it was better, that is what it was all about.
The farm house north of the blue line is where we ended up.
This sorta shows just how dark it got.
PS after screwing things up and panicking, I managed to replace my laptop keyboard!! Had to jerry rig a solution after breaking the damn clip that holds they keyboard ribbon the motherboard. I can use the X key again! Yay! XXxxxXxxxX
