Total Eclipse of the Sun

(i just couldn't resist that title). last night (early this morning), tristen and i trekked to the exploratorium (sf's science museum) for a night of eclipse-themed events and a live webcast from turkey where some nerdy scientists were eagerly anticipating TOTALITY. that's what they call it when the moon totally eclipses the sun - totality. which always makes me giggle just a little.

we were joined by about a thousand kids. they were way more prepared than we were. sleeping bags! pillows! i would have paid cash for either of these things by 2am. if it hadn't been for the free Peet's coffee, i wouldn't have made it.

it was a LOOOOONG night. the eclipse happened at 2:54am PST (what is that? almost 1pm turkey time? ha- turkey time). we got there at 9pm. so we had 5 hours to kill. the museum was exciting, and they also had some brazilian dancing (we took a free lesson!) and capoeira (reeeeally exciting brazilian combat/dance....so hard to explain). and they had some turkish folk dancing. for those of you who don't know, turkish folk dancing consists of step-touching and occasionally stomping to zither music, and then pantomiming life on the farm - milking cows, churning butter, sowing crops, reaping crops, wiping brows, drinking water. i'm serious. these were actual dance moves.

when we had seen all the dancing, played all the mankala, marbled two pieces of paper, made a sun catcher, made two patterned cloths, and touched all the crazy science exhibits, we laid down on the stage with some other folks and drowsily watched the scientists in turkey explain the phenomenon we were about to see.

the scientists were very excited.

i'm not kidding. one of them - a gentleman - was a little ill-at ease in front of the camera - just a little nervous. he kept nodding in agreement whenever his co-host said something like "now, the sun will be eclipsed by the moon." (nod) "the sun has sunspots" (nod, nod). He had white hair in a ponytail and was tall, lanky and white with glasses. definitely a berkeley resident. so was the really nerdy bald guy with the mustache who mc'ed the evening at the exploratorium. at the end of the capoeira performance, his snappy comment was "wow. that was amazing. don't mess with brazilians." (ha, ha).

but the quote of the night goes to the second scientist stationed in turkey. she was very at ease with the cameras and looked a little like my mom (tortoiseshell glasses, capris, short brown hair). we were looking at some of the sunspots on the surface of the sun as it was being eclipsed (with about 15 minutes to go), and she was unable to contain her excitement.

"Wow," she said. "This is fantastic. We are going to have such a good time during totality."