Swinging across North America today is an annular eclipse. The path of the shadow enters the US west coast in Oregon and swoops southwest toward Texas. Seattle is somewhere in the 80-90% range, yeilding a crescent partial eclipse. If the weather were better, we might have gone southward to see it, but overcast and raining was the forcast, and that is what we got overnight with partial clearing in the morning. Clearing enough to see some of the eclipse.
The photo shows the peak of the eclipse as projected onto our driveway. The mechanics of this effect are complex. The driveway is unusually reflective from the overnight rain. There is a small maple tree in the copse of woods that produces an array of pinholes. The same effect is not seen in other areas where only evergreens (trees with needles) or rhododendrons are growing. Finally, one needs to be standing in just the right place to see the crescents. When standing off to the side or too far back, one sees just a blur of light and no crescents.
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