Me and my (adult daughter) view the eclipse*

There was a solar eclipse along the east coast of the US in my childhood. My main recollection is that I had seen somewhere the description of how to make a pinhole camera but misunderstood. My idea was that if a pinhole would give a good picture of the eclipse then a bigger hole would be better. Not, as it turned out.
In February 1998 Arthur, Flo, and I went to Aruba to see a total solar eclipse. Wonderful. Seeing the totality makes one want to do it again. (We three were also together for an annular eclipse in 2012 when Flo was still living in Oakland). In 2017 the three of us went to South Carolina. It left us craving more. This time it was even closer to home. Sunday afternoon I went to western MA (where Flo lives) and then we drove together to Waitsfield, VT, one of the only places I could find a room when I started seriously trying to book in January. I don't know why I waited so long - I've been planning to do this for a long time, and picked that part of Vermont at the suggestion of someone online who thought it might be good to support areas hit by floods last year with our tourist dollars. A pleasant B&B.
A reminder of the floods.


On Monday morning we went to Waterbury and staked out a spot behind the library, which was doing a great job distributing glasses to people who didn't have them, plus offering bathroom use and charging plugs and crafts projects. Wandered around, bought snacks, visited a really nice knitting shop but didn't buy anything, watched the Amtrak train arrive, etc.
I had bought a filter for iPhone cameras. This is a picture Flo took as the moon was encroaching.




My photos of the actual eclipse don't give a good idea of the wonderfulness of totality, or the weirdness of the light before and after.
Arthur was more than a thousand miles from us, but we all have phones. The icon above is an amazing photo he took and sent to us as it happened. We saw corona and Baily's beads but not that good a version of the diamond ring effect. I was also in text communication with my sister and email with a couple of other folks.
This is my picture of Jupiter in the daytime (sort of daytime, anyway)



The trip back to Flo's house along 89 & 91 took five hours, about twice what the reverse had taken the previous day. People were on many of the bridges watching the hundred mile traffic jam, which I found worrisome. Still, it seemed to be just for entertainment, no malice involved, nobody dropping things onto cars.

I was a little sad that it might have been my last time, but by this morning I had hatched a plan to go with my sister to Spain in August 2026 to see another one. I haven't discussed it with her, because she and her husband are still Rv'ing her way back home after driving to the eclipse path.

Reminder to self - I have put the eclipse glasses and filters on the shelf next to the binoculars. There is a big push to collect used glasses to send to Central America for an annular eclipse in October, but I am holding on to mine. I keep losing them, but now I have them in an obvious place (?)

* I always think of Lee Smith short story collection on these occasions
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/399474.Me_and_My_Baby_View_the_Eclipse

a (sub)cultural experience

This evening I went to see a concert film (carefully edited, not one whole concert) by Suga (Min Yoongi) of BTS. The concerts were last year. There were showings today and another day on Saturday. That's it, so we've been told. No more chances.
I went to the Assembly Square IMAX. I think the only time I had previously been to a movie in that spot was in 1988 when we went to see "Who Framed Roger Rabbit." The area has changed quite a bit. The IMAX holds 269 people (according to the occupancy sign). Maybe a third full? There were empty seats next to me. I'm not sure it was worth the stress of driving home at night, but I did enjoy aspects of it. I liked some of the songs (I knew in advance that I wouldn't like all of them). I'm not sure the elaborate sound system in the IMAX room was actually the best choice - it is set up to shake your body with the vibrations, but sometimes it was overwhelming, as when he was paying acoustic guitar. I was wearing the heavy-duty ear protectors I use for vacuuming, but the room sometimes shook. I was definitely happier watching it in a movie theater than I would be with thousands of people all around. Being in a comparatively smaller room full of other BTS fans was nice, even though as usual around here I seemed to be the oldest one there. Someone had prepared little gifts for everyone and handed them out before the coming attractions previews started. I was happy to come home with swag, in this case photo cards and a caffeinated candy, sometimes seen in Kdramas as product placement.



There was one person with an official-looking light stick. Each group has a specific version. Some of them have bluetooth, so that an entire arena of them can be synched. Samples here:
https://kpopmerchandiseguide.com/image/kpop-light-sticks.jpg
The MFA Hallyu exhibit has a whole wall of them.
I think one was about the right number for me - seeing it in person instead of just on-screen was fun, but I wonder if the thousands waving at concerts could be dizzying. See this short trailer.
https://youtu.be/4mtUOuK7TOU?si=UHJNqP6xVnIWPQaG