While we celebrated my daughter’s spring birthday in March, my son declared that there was going to be a solar eclipse on his birthday!
Although it wouldn’t be a total eclipse, it would be an annular eclipse, which means the moon covers most of the sun, only revealing the outer margin.
1984 ANNULAR ECLIPSE – SAN ANTONIO
I told my kids I saw an annular eclipse in San Antonio, on May 30, 1984.
While not in the line of totality on that day in 1984, which fell to the Southeastern portion of the US, from Louisiana to Georgia, we definitely noticed the effects in San Antonio.
Surrealistically, it seemed as though the earth put on sunglasses for a few minutes.
The dimming experience was totally unique in all my life.
2023 ANNULAR ECLIPSE – SAN ANTONIO
Proclaiming that San Antonio was the largest US city in the path of the eclipse, he encouraged us to join him in San Antonio on his birthday.
Since my parents and my brother and his family live in San Antonio, we could gather in my parent’s backyard for the event.
Unfortunately, my daughter and her family couldn’t make the trip, however the rest of us did.
A couple of days after my husband and I flew in, my son and his wife arrived flew in.
Meeting at my Mom and Dad’s house with my brother and his family, we collected our eclipse glasses for safe viewing.
TELESCOPE PREP- ECLIPSE VIEWING
When I walked to the backyard, I was surprised to see my son’s massive telescope, with him smiling widely beside it.
Properly outfitted with special filters for eclipses, he used his cell phone’s gps to sync the telescope with the sun’s position.
SAFELY VIEWING THE ECLIPSE
At 11:45am CDT, the crescent shape of the sun was amazing to view with our solar safety lenses and on the telescope’s screen.
By 11:53am, it seemed as though the earth put on sun glasses again!
That was the moment to view the sun’s ring of fire clearly, yet safely, with our eclipse safety glasses…and the telescope’s screen!
…while the shadowy effects amazingly danced around….at 11:53am CDT…
at 11:58am CDT…
Lasting 4 minutes and 21 seconds in all of San Antonio, parts of San Antonio will be part of the total eclipse in six more months on April 8, 2024.
Wow! Gotta come back for that!
After doing gifts and cake for my son’s birthday, he and his wife presented me with a few gifts, since my birthday had been a few days before.
Opening this box, I found a note telling me to crack open the egg.
Then my kids told me to unfurl that green strip that tumbled out of the confetti egg…
My son and his wife are going to have a baby!
Finally, they had me open another gift…so sweet.
Later that night we celebrated his birthday dinner at his choice of restaurant, a blast from the past…Salsalito Cantina!
This was SO amazing since we had been away from Tex Mex for so long in Virginia.
What an amazing time I had with my son and his wife in San Antonio, reliving our old haunts. Wish my daughter and her family could have joined us.
Hopefully we can return for Fiesta week in San Antonio in April…and see bluebonnets!
