We watched the August 20th solar eclipse at a Dark Sky Preserve on Manitoulin Island. Amateur astronomers had three sun-viewing telescopes set up and free eclipse glasses for everyone.

We tied the dogs up under a tree and wandered from station to station to watch the sun along with maybe ~70 other people. I shamelessly visited the kids’ craft table and painted myself a solar eclipse mobile on slices of wood.

Totality on the island was only 60-something percent, but it was fascinating to watch the sky dim out and midday shadows fade. The very hot day noticably cooled as the eclipse began to peak near 2:25, then heated back up again before sunset. When the event was over and the crowd cleared out, we immediately switched from our damp, woodsy campsite up to the dry, wonderful meadow to watch more sky overnight.