Bestway trip with the Toronto
Centre of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada
All pictures copyright Katrina
Ince-Lum
Ostensibly, I’m on a trip to see
one of natures wonders, a total solar eclipse. My first. This rare phenomena gathers people from all over
the world to watch as the moon passes in front of the sun, turning day into
night. By a freak of nature, our
relatively large moon is almost an exact fit. Watching streamers from the Sun’s corona that we would not normally
be able to see fan outwards from our star as the moon helpfully creates a shade, watch animals prepare for what they think is night, see stars and planets
pop into view that are normally visible at night instead of the day, see the
phenomena of Bailey’s Beads as the craggy craters of the moon along the limb
line up with the sun, the diamond ring as the last point of light meets as a
bright exclamation mark, etc.
However, this is also a family
event for me – along for the ride is my Mum. We don’t get to see each other too often. She lives in Melbourne, Australia
(where I grew up) and I live in Toronto, Canada. She’s my companion and room-mate with our group of 22 – I
haven’t shared a room with my Mum since I was about 3, so this should be
interesting. My hope is that
she’ll have some fun, and find something in common with my astro-geek friends.
I’m going to ramble on for a bit
as things come up, and as I time permits.
It’s my first blog, so we’ll see how it goes.
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