The moon passed between sun and earth last Sunday, casting a perfectly aligned shadow across a band of New Mexico stretching diagonally from Farmington to Roswell. According to the NASA website, a 90% alignment of the annular eclipse would be viewable in Taos. One hundred percent sounded much better to us, so we made a day trip of it, heading to Cochiti Lake, which turned out to the perfect spot for viewing the Ring of Fire.
Severe eye damage, including blindness, can result from looking straight into the sun–whether eclipsed of not–for long periods of time. Our first thought was to look through a telescope while wearing solar-equipped welder’s goggles, but a last-minute online search indicated even that was unsafe. The best solution? Project the telescopic image onto a some white paper–in this case a paper plate did just fine! The welder’s goggles worked incredibly well too and we were glad we had both options.
This image was shot through one of the welding goggle lenses.
And this is the how the projected image of the sun looked at the height of the eclipse!
And this is photograph was taken as the moon made it’s way out of the sun’s path. What an amazing experience it was to witness this rare solar event!
This article and photographs are by Susan J. Preston, a Taos web designer who has specialized in the creation of websites, interactive presentations and animation since 1995. She is the webmaster for the Valverde Energy website and resides in Taos, New Mexico.
