Between 9:29 and 11:48 this morning, there was a solar eclipse in the sky above Aachen-- the very cloudy sky. It was quite an exciting phenomena at Viktoriaschule and Germany in general. The past few days all over the news there have been scientists talking about the breathtaking astrological occurrence, optometrists freaking out and telling everyone to "NOT LOOK DIRECTLY INTO THE SUN WITHOUT PROTECTIVE GLASSES!!!" and the weather dude a bit too optimistic about the fog burning off, in Aachen at least.
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| Sonnenfinsternis 2015 im Live-Stream!! |
During Biology third period (10:30-- the height of the eclipse) we checked out a live stream broadcast from sunny Munich. We all sat there staring at what looked like a still photo of the moon with a 2001: A Space Odyssey-esque soundtrack playing in the background until about 30 seconds later our teacher decided we had to do something productive. It did get darker outside, even if just a tiny bit. Our biology teacher told us about the last solar eclipse visible in Germany back in 1999. She was in a meadow somewhere in Eifel National Park and it got so dark the cows started panic-mooing.
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| So close I can... touch it... |
In German solar eclipse is "Sonnenfinsternis," which I really like. It directly translates to "sun darkness/gloominess." I even saw a few news outlets calling it Sofi 2015 as a cute little shortening. The next total solar eclipse visible in Germany isn't until 2081. However, at 10:19am on August 21, 2017 directly above good ol' Salem, Oregon there'll be a total eclipse. So even though I missed Sofi 2015, the world keeps on turning, the moon keeps on whirling and the sun keeps on shining. Maybe I'll even buy a pair of those special sun glasses from the Montessori school next to Viktoriaschule that bought a ton of them for their students but just ended up watching the Live-Stream. You know, now, before all the "solar glasses" sell out again leading up to 2017!