Last night, I visited the town of Stanley, a small tourist spot so lovely every view looks like a postcard. Since Stanley is smack in the middle of the eclipse track, and so they are anticipating tens of thousands of visitors in August.
At the invitation of Sarah Cawley of Sawtooth Interpretive and Historical Association, I spoke at the Stanley Museum to a crowd of nearly 100 about the eclipse.
As usual, folks asked some brilliant questions, including the classic “Why does the Moon move west to east during the eclipse, instead of the usual east to west motion?“.
The answer (which I tried to demonstrate by spinning on my axis) is that the Moon’s motion during the eclipse involves both the Earth’s rotation – that causes the Moon and Sun to move together east to west – and the Moon’s orbital motion – that causes the Moon move west to east relative to the Sun.
After the presentation (posted below), my hosts and I adjourned to the Redfish Lake Lodge, where I enjoyed the grilled trout and one of my hosts attempted to teach me to fold a napkin flower. I have to admit that the trout came out much better than my flower.