Experiencing The Magical Solar Eclipse

A lot of teachers in my school felt a bit disappointed when they had to sacrifice their holiday on March 9. The school had planned a big event since a month before to experience the solar eclipse. The teachers along with grade 5,6,7 students should spend a night at school to observe the stars and planets using a telescope, continued by witnessing the partial solar eclipse.

I didn’t really get the excitement but I planned to at least do eclipse prayer (solat gerhana). A day before, all students should decorate their eclipse glasses which they bought for Rp 20.000 each. Surprisingly, they were really prepared since most of them brought glitter, templates, flanel, etc. The result was really great! After decorating, each class took picture together with their glasses on.

The teachers came home earlier that day and returned to school at night to sleepover, but I slept at home since I had a toddler. The students watched a movie about solar eclipse and two students from ITB who studied astronomy explained some facts about the sun and the eclipse. So far, they enjoyed the event.

Use and ex X-ray film, why not?

In the morning, I rode my motorcycle at 6 to school under the bright sky. Arriving at school, the sky got brighter and almost all students, some parents, and teachers were gathering beside the school yard where the sun was clearly seen. I wore my eclipse glasses and subhanalloh...I saw a bitten sun! It’s like Apple icon but it’s circle in shape. Soooo beautiful. The situation was like 4 pm where the sun is usually shining bright and its position is almost touching the horizon.

Some people lined up for the telescope, while others captured this rare moment with their cameras and gadgets. Some teachers spiritfully took lots of pictures becausethere was a photo competition using cellphones (in which I joined also). I haven’t taken pictures for photography purpose for quite a long time, so I feel the excitement. It’s like going back to campus life haha..

Line up for the telescope

Around 7.30 -if I’m not mistaken- when the sun was only a half in size, suddenly the temperature dropped. The skies went darker. I could feel the breeze. It’s really magical. Since we didn’t experience the total eclipse, so the situation was like maghrib. All of us went back to school to pray on the field and when the prayer was almost done, the sun showed up again. It was back to bright shiny sky.

Look at the son with a cardbox decorated glasses. So creative!

I feel so grateful to have experienced the solar eclipse and I appreciated the school team who brought up the sudden event because it turned out to be memorable. I also feel lucky to still be able to see the eclipse because it doesn’t come every year, or every ten years.  Alhamdulillah.

This post was a part of English Friday Challenge by BEC

I like these pics that were taken by my colleagues: