2024 Total Solar Eclipse

Seven years ago, in August of 2017, I wrote about the Solar Eclipse and how we watched it at Behnke’s. I remember how excited we all were to see it.

Yesterday, April 8th, 2024, we had, as many of you know, a Total Solar Eclipse. Millions of us watched it all across America as it went from Texas to Maine, putting people in total darkness for a few minutes.

Here in Maryland, we saw a partial eclipse that blocked 85 to 90 percent of the sun and this time, it was just my husband and myself holding a colander so we could see the moon passing between the Earth and the Sun.

We did not have the special glasses to look up in the sky as I had in 2017, so we were all set to use a hole in a piece of paper and watch old school. But then, while watching The Weather Channel, one of the newscasters was holding a colander! AMAZING! Watching all the little dots slowly become little slices was so much fun.

My cousin, Jeannie Behnke Byrnes, and her husband, Jim, drove to Texas to celebrate Jeannie’s April 8th birthday in style. After working for NASA their entire careers, where else would they be but being among the first in America to be able to say they were there during totality? I saw the photos she shared with me, which were so neat.. This will be a birthday she will never forget.

Did you get to see this event? Did you have your special glasses? Did you drive somewhere to see it? You may have had a group of friends you watched it with. I know my grandchildren got to see it. Our five year old grandson was very excited to tell me all about it. I heard it will be 2044 before we in America see this again.