Once in a lifetime!

According to NASA, it occurs only once every 360 to 410 years. What, you might be asking occurs so infrequent. It's called an Annular Eclipse; or maybe better known as the Ring of Fire, and it would be occurring on Saturday, October 14th! There are 3 types of solar eclipses; a Partial Eclipse, which is self explanatory; a Total Eclipse, which is also self explanatory; and then there's the Annular Eclipse which occurs when the Moon is near apogee (The farthest orbital distance from earth) and its diameter is smaller than the diameter of the sun (as we see it), so that when they are aligned the moon does not completely cover the sun's diameter and at alignment there is a ring of the sun visible around the moon. For all you science/astronomy geeks that might have made sense; so if it didn't, wait to see the pictures and it should be a little clearer.

We were so excited when we found out Panama was a prime location to view the eclipse and immediately made plans to go to Pocri, a town about an hour and a half away from us where the eclipse would occur directly over the town. We could have remained in Coronado and seen the eclipse, but would not have been able to see the Ring of Fire as we would have been off to the side of the direct path of the eclipse.

As we all learned when we were little, you don't look directly at the sun. An eclipse is no different, so if you don't want to go blind, you need to have the proper viewing equipment to see the event. Sha is the Queen of finding things on Facebook. She found a man (Jorge) outside of Panama City that had Eclipse glasses for sale and over the course of a couple of days she verified he was legit and that his glasses were certified safe for viewing the eclipse and ordered a pair (the only ones left) for overnight delivery. During the course of that verification process, we weren't sure if we could get the glasses or if they were safe, so we sought out alternative ways to see the eclipse if the glasses fell through. Internet research revealed that a welder's googles or mask was an alternate to eclipse glasses, as long as you had the proper shade of lenses. I didn't realize until we went to our second hardware store in town that there is quite a variety of shade darkness of lenses for welding. They had a cool pair of welding goggles, a welder's mask and multiple lenses for the mask. Fearing to get the wrong equipment and go blind at the once in a lifetime event, we hit the internet while in the store and tried to figure out what we needed to buy to be safe. Several websites said to be safe you should only use a level 14 shade to view an eclipse. Well damn; the store didn't have a level 14 shade lens. NASA website to the rescue! NASA said the level 14 is optimal but that it would be safe to view the eclipse with a level 12 shade lens. The goggles were shade level 5...they're out. The welder's mask could be fitted with any lens, and there was a good supply of level 12 shade lenses available. We went home with the mask and 2 level 12 shade lenses. Prior to departing for Pocri, we went back and bought a 3rd lens to put over our phone's camera when we found out that without it we would damage our phones if we took a picture of the eclipse. So with viewing equipment secured, we were feeling pretty good. 

Our thoughts now turned to packing for the trip. The Annular Eclipse will last 3 hours and 30 minutes with first contact at 11:25 am, Ring of Fire occurring at 1:12 pm, and last contact at 2:56 pm. A cooler was mandatory with plenty of water, homemade sub sandwiches, chips and cut up cheeses and sausages for a snack. Umbrella (for shade), hand held fan (which we left at home), sunscreen and paper towels and a garbage bag rounded out the necessary items to be loaded. Having our own pool at the house proved fortuitous because we have lounge chairs around the pool. Yep, we packed 'em for the trip, along with towels and pillows and brought the little plastic table as well. Excited with our preparations for the big event; we tried to be responsible and get a good night's sleep for the early am wakeup and travel to Pocri.

It was a beautiful sunny Saturday morning and our drive to Pocri was pleasant and smooth. As we arrived and drove through Pocri on our way to Virgen del Carmen Park, (this is where Jorge had said he was going to view the eclipse), the clouds started to increase and we gave each other a silent look as we found a place to park along the square of the Park and set up our viewing space.

Sha coming back from the Pharmicia with a deck of cards we forgot to pack.

​Iglesia Virgen del Carmen across the street from the Park.

​Father and son riding their horses by the Park as we set up our chairs. (missed dad)

​Sha and I getting ready for a game of cribbage as we await the eclipse.

The parking spot we picked turned out to be the absolute best spot we could have chosen. Not 5 minutes after we parked, and as we were determining where to set up our chairs, several people started to move barricade fences to block off the square around the Park (and we were already inside!). As you can see in the bottom right pic above, we were about 50 feet from the corner where the professional astronomers were setting up their telescopes. We were right across the street from the Park and right next to the main corner of activity.

​As the pros set up their equipment, the music started and the crowd grew.

We had the best set up to see the eclipse of anyone there; only thing we didn't have was a cool telescope. Although we did find Jorge (Sha's FB friend and eclipse glasses provider) who did have a telescope and set up about 40 feet from our chairs. We had multiple people come over to talk with us, including a man who we think was the Mayor of Pocri who did a little video of Sha talking about the eclipse. The day stayed mostly cloudy, but not so dense that you couldn't track the sun as it moved. We found our equipment was perfect for seeing the sun through the clouds and the views we were seeing through our #12 shade lenses were hard to describe as the event began.

You can't, for safety reasons as well as boredom, continually stare at the sun as the moon began to move across its diameter. Checking in to look every 5-10 minutes began to be our routine after 11:30 am. We tried to take some pictures using the shade lens covering our cameras, but they didn't come close to what we were seeing with our viewing equipment.

As 1:12 pm approached, the buzz of the crowd grew and you could feel the excitement building. We had been following our routine of periodic checks and were continually amazed at what we were seeing despite the clouds in the sky. We were very fortunate that Sha had contacted Jorge as he allowed us to look through his telescope shortly after the Ring of Fire was visible. Before we left Sha asked Jorge to share some of his pictures he had taken through his telescope with us...with a ton of thanks, here's a small sample of what he sent to us and what we saw with our own eyes. (Note the time stamps in the bottom right corner.)

We left Pocri thankful to have been able to experience the Annular Eclipse first hand and in awe of the natural phenomenon we just witnessed.

When we're not helping NASA, we've still been enjoying our little piece of paradise here in Coronado. Although, I guess NASA did want my photos of the morning near full moon and the full moon a few days later...I've since had to block them from calling me due to their constant need to ask me for stuff.

We continue to love our house and all its outdoor living space.

Our iguana friends still come to visit us; although their waste products they've been leaving on our outside table and pool deck have made them less cute and more of a pain lately. NGG's still got it!

In some quick catch up news; my nephew Kaleb is the second Seibel to become a Nebraska Cornhusker and is a member of the Husker Hockey team! GO BIG RED! Proud of you nephew!!

In other super cool news; our niece Jen's hubby Kev ran his 4th Chicago marathon, setting a PR of 4:18:02! Jen is the best marathon reporter and supporter that ever was! Kev is my hero!

In just the run of the mill news, we hit the local bar (Picasso's) up the road from the house for Trivia Night and teamed up with Mat and Christine who are a couple living here from Canada. No pictures to prove we were there; you'll just have to take my word on it. We didn't win any prizes but felt like we represented North America in fine fashion.
We followed up that wild evening by hitting the same bar for afternoon BINGO the next day! Unbeknownst we came on week 3 of a 10 week tournament. Sha wasted no time in putting the Seibels on the leaderboard by winning the first two games. She gave someone else a chance on the third game, but cried BINGO again in game 4. I did chip in win 2 wins of my own, but my bride of almost 38 years took the afternoon prize with three wins! 

Oh by the way, Sha and I will celebrate our 38th wedding anniversary on October 19th. Pretty cool.

Well, I'm out of astronomical, super cool, nature and mundane news for now. I'll work on gathering some more data to share in the coming weeks. Don't forget, we may be out of the country (USA), but we are not out of touch. WhatsApp works worldwide...you can even video call if you want to check to see how my tan is progressing. Thanks mom for video calling from the Seibel family reunion; it was great to see everyone!

Sha and I hope you and your family are well and happy. Until next time.

​Pura Vida!