This morning, after showering and getting ready for work, I woke Aiden up for the eclipse. Since the next partial solar eclipse visible in KL will only happen in Dec 2019, I didn't want to miss sharing this experience with him. He isn't really a morning person, hence it wasn't easy getting him interested in looking at the sun. It was only after I told him that "Something is wrong with the sun, the moon is blocking the sun, and it is dark outside!!!", did he agree to wake up. He trudged lazily outside, put on a pair of sunglasses, gazed upwards at the sun for a good 5 seconds, then went back in to continue his snooze.
I wasn't quite ready to give up, so I walked in and explained how the eclipse was an extremely rare phenomenon and that the next time it will happen he will be 10 years old! Only then did he agree to give it another try. With his sunglasses, he squinted for a while and finally he was able to make out that the sun was in the shape of a crescent. He squealed gleefully, exclaiming that something was obscuring the sun! Aaahhh finally he was excited!!!
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| Pointing to the solar eclipse. |
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| A solar eclipse results when the moon passes directly between the Earth and the sun, casting a shadow over the Earth. It is only possible during the new moon phase, when the dark side of the moon faces the Earth. |
Sometime ago, I had explained to him that as the Earth rotates, it also orbits around the sun, and due to this rotation, different locations on earth will experience night or day at the same time. Hence when we went traveling to Europe last year, he understood why we would call him at weird times of the day... when it is daylight in Malaysia, it is night time in Europe.
This morning, he asked me a simple question. "So Mummy, since the moon is covering the sun in our country, does this mean that in Europe the sun is covering the moon? Or are they seeing the same thing?" I was dumbfounded! I actually didn't have an answer! I actually had to use Google for the answer.
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| http://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/solar/2016-march-9 |
The simple answer is, not all parts of the world will be able to see the solar eclipse. For those on the other side of the world, it will already be night, so the sun will not be visible.
Ian woke up shortly after, and of course he wanted his own sunglasses.
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| Ian actually smiled! |
We soon got bored looking into the sky (the moon was moving too slowly!) and went in for some breakfast. As soon as we were done, we walked out, and it was nearly over! As the eclipse period drew to an end, I bade goodbye to the kids and left for the office.
So how did you guys enjoy the solar eclipse? I hope you created a memorable family experience with it too. *smiles*
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