NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Theo Wellington grew up with her head to the heavens.
"I'm a child of the space age," Wellington said. "When I was growing up we were going to the moon, and we all thought we'd grow up to be astronauts or maybe we'd be living and working in space."
Today, Wellington is the president of Dark Sky Tennessee, and it's what's going to happen next week that has her so excited: a partial solar eclipse.
We all remember the sights from seven years ago. And while Nashville won't be in the path of totality this year, Wellington says there are fun ways to enjoy the eclipse's effects, even if you don't have a pair of viewing glasses, including looking at the light through a collander.
"It is actually a great way to watch a partial eclipse, you can hold it and it projects little circles, usually, but on eclipse day they're little crescent suns," Wellington said.
You can also create a pinhole viewer out of a shoebox, or even see the crescent suns made through the holes of a saltine cracker!
"Kids can punch their name into a piece of paper or cardboard with a pin and let the light fall through and now your name is spelled out in little tiny suns," Wellington said.
Of course, those glasses would be the only way to look at the eclipse directly.
But Wellington says these tips can extend your viewing fun throughout the day next week.
This is a story I immediately went home and showed my boys - young athletes with big dreams. The Vanderbilt football team's success has stolen the spotlight - what I love about Steve Layman's story is he reveals the individual hardships it took to get there. As Clark Lea says, "we all have scuff marks." This team proves perseverance pays off!
- Carrie Sharp
