Total(ly) Solar Eclipse

At first I didn’t really feel like joining the euphoria.

I was just too busy to bother thinking about that.

But moments prior to the big day, I started to sense the splendor of the phenomenon. It’s like, a very great and important day was coming to town. The similar sensation to expecting Eid or Christmas. Only bigger, because it had been all around the media for the last one year.

And the people, I never felt such enthusiasm before. Maybe because it’s a once-in-300-years opportunity? I mean, in 30 years we still can see a partial solar eclipse, but as for TOTAL solar eclipse, on the same track that’s going on this year, well, it won’t happen again until year 2316 something.

It reminds me a bit to the part of Naruto I’m currently watching. There’s this project initiated by the villain to create an illusion moon (“Tsuki-no-me”) that can send anybody to the realm of imagination, where people can live inside their best dream forever, leaving the chaotic real life behind. I mean, well, it’s pretty different to what‘s happening now, as this Tsuki-no-me is obviously objected by people, while our solar eclipse phenomenon is positively expected. But the uproar of the anticipation feels the same.

The terrifying Tsuki-no-me. Pic's from here.

Well that’s what I was thinking.

Until today, exactly just now,

I saw the real eclipse.

No, I was at home. And Jakarta was only served with around 80% of the eclipse. Island of Belitung in the west, and city of Palu in the east, are the ones who were exposed to 100% of the eclipse. And both cities were aired by the national televisions.

It was pretty odd here at home. The morning sun feels like dusk, bright but sunset-like bright. And praises can be heard from nearby mosques. A situation I never felt before. I mean, it’s normal to catch Islamic praises in the morning, but when the situation feels like it’s about to get dark, it doesn’t happen everyday. Well but that’s all, no significant thing happened.

Knowing that I might not get the full experience of this solar eclipse, I switched to my TV because I knew I could get something more with it. And of course I was right.

The footage in Belitung and Palu, clearly showed how a total solar eclipse is supposed to be. From its partial form one hour before the full version, to the seconds when the moon fully covers the sun. It was pretty intense, and breathtaking. Especially when the my screen switched from a normal sunset moment screen –well, a ‘sunset’ at 7:30 am was not supposed to be normal but, yea– to a complete dark in one second. Literally in one second, as if there was a giant was suddenly standing in the way. Then the eclipse ring appeared on the TV. And people started to shout Lord’s name. And the news reporter cried.

I was just watching from home, but all those things that came out of my TV really touched me deep inside. A phenomenon once in our lifetime, was revealed before my eyes. I couldn’t imagine if I was actually there in either Belitung or Palu, standing upon an open air space, seeing the best dark of my life. I might shed a tear.

Well, I didn’t really have to be there to shed a tear.

I cried already, seeing all those on my screen.

Because you see, it was that beautiful.

The majestic total solar eclipse. Pic's from here.

Then you see, I was just stating the obvious throughout this post. You may be able to get these facts from news portal or something, mine is just explaining what I know –which is soo little– and not much about the scientific reasons of the phenomenon.

Still, I’d like to get in the mood of this total solar eclipse thingy.

It’s bad enough that I didn’t even bother thinking about traveling to Belitung or anywhere around Sumatra, just because I was busy with something I can always do again later. While this exact phenomenon, will never appear again in my life.

Thank God I still get to see it at least on TV.

Sensing how crowds crumbled in tears of gratitude.

Completely realizing the fact that they—I mean, WE,

We are TOTALLY nothing

Compared to Him

Hi There, Pluto

Everybody seems to be talking about the outer space right now.

Well, I don't want to miss it then, because inserting #Pluto will lead people to this blog so--lol no, kidding. I sincerely want to join the talk, because space thing has always been one of my childhood fetish.

All picture of Pluto in this post, belong to NASA's Instagram.

I can’t recall when exactly this interest began. It’s pretty blurry either because there was once a TV quiz show which characters explored the universe to solve questions provided in all nine planets or maybe because, Sailor Moon? Can’t tell, really –maybe Sailor Moon.

Pluto, turned out to be my favorite. It was the furthest one, making it the coldest too, it took 250 earth years for the planet to orbit the sun, it was the smallest kid on the block until finally, it sadly was reclassified and excluded from our solar system’s planet list. Oh and of course, never forget the fact that Pluto was also the name of Mickey Mouse’s beloved pet dog –I think I even knew this Pluto way earlier than the planet Pluto itself.

Years after, the former planet still got me mesmerized. After almost 10 years of being forgotten, in the last two days Pluto brought its fame back to the table.

You might now, of course, know that NASA’s New Horizons probe just flew by Pluto yesterday, giving us all a closer look to the outcast sibling. It just blew me away of how far the spacecraft had traveled 3 billion miles through space, spending 9 years in total to finally be able to get close to Pluto it’s just—crazy.

And speaking about closer look. I remember how distorted the pic of Pluto was, when I slowly observed every single detail of each planet on my physics module. Now, the figure taken by Hubble’s telescope has transformed to something we can’t just stop looking at—oh, that heart figure, I wonder what kind of creature resides on that area…

Left is NASA's, right is Hubble's.

Oh and speaking about heart. I found a super interesting article on Buzzfeed, collecting how people see the heart shape with their eyes. Some said it looks like a sloth, Snoopy, and even a suspended bear head –critical way of thinking by the way! But what caught me in awe, was when somebody claimed that Sailor Pluto had long known about the heart shape.

I love coincidences.

Haha.

Practically, this post is just a compilation of interesting facts I found uber-necessary to be shared. Because I adore our solar system, I adore Pluto and how mysterious it is –or ‘was’, to say the least, and this is just a momentum I couldn’t take for granted.

Thank you, NASA.
You didn’t just answer our wonders.
You also brought our lonely away cousin

Back to our big family