“Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun, and I say
It’s all right.
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes.”         
~ George Harrison

Did you doubt – even for a moment – the sun’s return during Monday’s Great American Eclipse? Ancient peoples had this fear, and for good reason. Astronomer E.C. Krupp of Griffith Observatory explained their reasoning.

“The sun comes up every day and goes down every day, while the moon each month goes through very familiar phases. But then [in the case of an eclipse] the unexpected happens, for no good reason, and the sun goes black, which is the exact opposite of what it should be doing.”

With knowledge, fears have quelled. My only fear on Monday was that the predicted marine layer and its fog would obscure the celestial event.

Many of my friends traveled far to be directly in the path of totality. I stayed home and watched by the pool. I wore the correct eye protection and even sunscreen.  Fortunately, the aforementioned forecast did not come to pass. Clear skies were a welcomed sight by many.

As millions of people across the United States experienced a total eclipse as the umbra, or moon’s shadow, passed over them, only six people witnessed the umbra from space. Aboard the International Space Station were NASA’s Randy Bresnik, Jack Fischer and Peggy Whitson, from the ESA (European Space Agency) was Paolo Nespoli, and Roscosmos’ Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Sergey Ryazanskiy. The space station crossed the path of the eclipse three times as it orbited at an altitude of 250 miles above the continental United States. They followed the moon’s shadow!

Here comes the sun! A warming trend is expected across the area for late this week and into early next week. Summer-like temperatures will return to Southern California. Temperatures will soar above the century mark in the valley and foothill areas. It seems the sun is more than making up for those lost minutes when overshadowed by the moon!
Sue Kilpatrick is a
Crescenta Valley resident and
Official Skywarn Spotter for the
National Weather Service. Reach her at  suelkilpatrick@gmail.com.

  Sue Kilpatrick