A little Sunday night learning

Today we had a chance to 'observe' the solar eclipse that was occuring just a little north of us. Since we were not in the direct path, we were only able to observe a partial eclipse. Armed with our pinhole piece of cardboard and using the back of Matthew's truck, we were able to see this:

It was amazing to me that with this much of the sun covered by the moon, the sun was almost as brilliantly bright as it usually is this time of the day:

(Note: I did not take this picture while looking at the sun. This was an over the shoulder trick shot.)

 Kelsey was doing a running commentary about the eclipse on her iPod. It will be fun to see if she does a blog post on her blog about the eclipse.

We read that the moon usually travels at about 1200 mph. You wouldn't know that just by watching the progress of movement through the pinhole. But it was incredible to watch the progression of where the moon was when we started watching to where it was when we decided it was time to go in and get dinner started.

The next total eclipse will occur in November and will be visible in Australia. Wonder if we should start planning a trip? :o)