Today was the big day!  The solar eclipse finally happened.  It came to ‘merica!  Haha.  In Philadelphia, we had a view of about 75% coverage.  It started at 1:21 pm EST.  It hit its maximum coverage at 1:21, and ended at 2:44 p.m.

I decided to watch from my backyard.  Unprepared, I charged 2 sets of camera batteries this morning.  I found my tripod tucked into a closet.  I had no glasses, so sunglasses, a baseball hat, and a tablecloth (to cover me and the camera) had to do.  I even had to pull out the camera’s manual because it had been so long.

Minutes before the eclipse started, I decided to go old-school and cut up a shoe box to make a viewer.

It worked.  For the first half hour, I took photos of the sun from within the box with my cell phone.

But then I realized that there sure was a lot of cloud cover, and . . . why not?

Next thing I knew I was snapping away, trying not to look.

I ended up with some really lovely shots.

(P.S. – I was prepared to buy a new camera if necessary.  Rats!  It is still working.  Luckily, my eyes are too!)