Over the past month, everyone has been raging about the solar eclipse. Thousands of people traveled where the line of totality was, which happened to cross right over Poland, Ohio! People who came here were able to see the full moon pass in front of the sun. It even created a 360 sunrise for the people who had a clear view of it. 

Before we dive into what happened this year during the eclipse, we must understand what the eclipse actually is. An eclipse is not necessarily restricted to the moon and sun, but when any object, often a planet or moon, gets in the way of our solar system’s light source, the Sun.  There can be two types of eclipses; Solar and Lunar eclipse. A Lunar eclipse is when the earth’s shallow shadow obscures the moon’s source of light, the sun. A Solar Eclipse, which is what we recently experienced, is when the moon passes over the path of the Sun. Because of the astronomical size of the Sun, there is only a slim path in which direct darkness can be achieved and experienced. 

There were 3 seconds of totality where people could take off their glasses and see the sun without damage to your eyes! 

My experience seeing the solar eclipse was something I will never forget. My family, friends, and I bought special glasses to ensure we would be able to see the eclipse while also keeping our eyes safe. We also got special camera lenses so we would be able to take as many pictures as we could! Throughout about a 30 minute period of time the sky and world around us started to get dark. It looked like it was 8:00p, but it was only around 3:30pm.! It was super exciting when the moon started moving past the sun because slowly the light came back around us. We got to see a 360 sunrise around us! It was beautiful and something I am so happy I got to experience! 

Because a complete solar eclipse is so rare, many people all over the world took advantage of the event in any way they could. That meant that some wild thing happened. For example, 350 people were married under the solar eclipse, and a hospital in Illinois celebrated the birth of 8 children born  in the path of totality. 

The next solar eclipse will be August 23, 2044! So, if you did not get to see it today, you can look forward to seeing it then! It was truly a once in a lifetime experience, so if you get the chance you should go!