A Few Eclipsical Facts

First and foremost, you must understand that that I know nothing about this sort of stuff and that anything in this article that even resembles factual scientific information came from NASA. 

The second thing you must understand is that, "eclipsical" is not a word. It should be. "Today, we'll talk about all things eclipsical." It fairly rolls off the tongue. Be that as it may, this article will deal with some little known facts about the eclipse.

Thirdly, and perhaps most damning of all: The picture at the top of this article is not that of a solar eclipse. There were too many clouds when I went to take a picture and it just looked like clouds. I came inside and took a close-up of a burning light bulb and created my own eclipse.

1. It doesn't seem possible that it has been 38 years since the last total solar eclipse. My gosh that would have been back in 1979! I remember that eclipse quite well. I was standing in the parking lot of a Buick dealership in Beaumont and watched it through a welder's visor. It wont be another 38 years before we see another solar eclipse, the next one will happen on April 8, 2024.

2. I never thought of this, but since we live in the great expanding universe, one day there will be no more eclipses. Why, you ask? Well, it seems that the moon is drifting further and further away from us. Don't panic right away about that. It's not going to get crazy as far as that goes for another 500 million years or so.

3. Here's one of those scientific things I told you about: During this eclipse, scientist say that in the parts of the country that are directly in that narrow band that will see a total eclipse, they will get about as much sun as Neptune or Jupiter. How am I supposed to fact check that? I guess we have to take their word for it.

4. Some animals may act kind of weird during the eclipse. Folks who work in zoos say that animals who are nocturnal will wake up and start looking for food and that other animals will exhibit strange behavior. No word on the effect on werewolves.

If you miss today's eclipse, the next one will be in April of 2024.  Animals like owls, elephants, and armadillos will probably go nuts during the eclipse.  And NASA will be livestreaming the entire thing if you can't get outside.