Solar Eclipse Photos - Philippines July 22

It wasn't a total solar eclipse in the Philippines, but nevertheless, the partial Solar Eclipse today (July 22) still elicited some excited giggles from my female colleagues, some expressions of awe and wonder, and some feelings of minisculity.

I half-ran back to my office after a meeting, glancing at the sun, but just hurting my eyes in the process. I stopped and squinted to see if there was anything happening up there, only to be betrayed by my eyes, tearing up from the glare.

When I got to my office, I found a couple of my colleagues had taken out some x-rays of pipelines (I work in a refinery) and were using those to watch the ongoing eclipse. When I got my turn to look, I was hugely disappointed! It was already 830AM by then and all I could see was a small chip on the upper-left portion of the circle that was the sun, so small it was virtually unnoticeable! Bah!

But I was sure that it was going to be amazing. So sure in fact that I did not, could not, stop watching, waiting for the awesomeness to happen.

A few minutes passed. Then I realized... the eclipse was not ending, it was only beginning. :D woot! And my spirits picked up.



I still had to work, but for that hour before my 10AM meeting, I went out every 10 minutes or so to see the eclipse in progress. A few colleagues passed by after learning that we had some materials for viewing the spectacle. They left with exclamations: "beautiful!" "amazing!" and "awesome!" reflecting what I had been shouting in my heart as well. The moon's shadow covered about one fourth of the sun's face at it's "peak". Not much, but still remarkable.

Yesterday, I was reading the Time magazine's article on the celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the first moon landing, and today I was floored in amazement, seeing the shadow of the moon run past one side of the sun. Wow, the moon's really there even though we can't see it. It really is! Haha.

I felt small, watching the solar eclipse. Tiny. And awestruck. And now I wait for the next one, the countdown to the next Total Solar Eclipse begins today!


*Thanks to Boks for the photos!


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