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Paul and Wyndi quickly realize getting the perfect cellphone selfie with completely dark solar eclipse glasses isn’t as easy as it looks. It was a cool experience anyway. Paul Gaudette | Citizen staff photo
Hearing that you and your husband get to cover a oncein- a-lifetime event in your coverage area brings about smiles, nervousness and preparation aplenty as the April 8 Total Solar Eclipse approached.
We were blessed and pleased to hear that Dublin ISD wouldn’t be releasing students because teachers wanted the opportunity to watch the eclipse with their students, and to have an extremely interactive science lesson.
Paul and I knew we wanted to capture that, along with actual photos of the total eclipse, and the library and museum handing out free glasses.
We also researched how not to kill our cellphone cameras and Pulitzer (our Canon D60 we use) during the event, and invested in some cheap lens covers for our cellphones.
(I wish I would have paid for one for the camera too.)
To be honest, I was pretty excited. I had never witnessed a total solar eclipse and wasn’t sure what to expect. I did learn that the bees apparently stop buzzing during totality because they think it’s night, which is pretty cool.
Setting up at Dublin Elementary School we had a plan. I would focus on student photos and Paul would focus on the phases of the eclipse with his cellphone. (Some of his successes are on the front page).
The students were excited and had definitely paid attention to their lessons about the moon and sun.
They knew what a crescent was (though banana was also given as an answer to what the sliver of the sun remained is called ... hey, the kid wasn’t wrong!)
They knew the difference between totality and partial eclipses.
And they didn’t quite understand when totality hits thattheycouldn’tseeanything! Bless the teachers as they had the students look down, take off their glasses briefly to see the darkness and then put them back on safely before the eclipse continued on its way.
As a journalist, it was really fun. As a human, I was just as excited as the kids were and so was Paul.
I honestly wasn’t prepared to be in awe as much as I was. I was blown away by how much colder it got and to be able to see the beautiful stars that God created in the middle of the day.
Or to see a really quick sunset. It was breathtaking.
It was also amazing to get to share something as special as a once-in-a-lifetime total eclipse with my husband as newlyweds.
It’s also a great chance to use the cheesiest eclipse headline ever. (Sorry readers, we had to do it.)
— Wyndi Veigel-Gaudette is the Content Editor for The Dublin Citizen and can be reached via email at composing@ dublincitizen. com.