The Solar Eclipse on July 20, 1963

I wish I could have been in Seward during the eclipse on August 21, 2017.

When I was living in Seward, I experienced an eclipse that happened on July 20, 1963. At that time, I was ten years old and living on Faculty Lane.

The total eclipse passed through Canada, but some of the effect was seen in Nebraska. The following screen-shot, from the Time and Date website, shows the full eclipse passing through Ontario (upper-right) but effecting Lincoln (lower-left).

Eclipse on July 20, 1963, passing through Ontario

Below is another screen-shot from the same map.

We kids were warned that if we looked directly at the sun, then we would be blinded immediately. Therefore we were instructed to make pin-hole boxes to use to see merely an image of the eclipse.

 

We spent the time and effort to make such boxes, but they were useless for seeing the slight eclipse in Seward. Even before the eclipse began, we could not see the sun at all.

My memory of that day is rather vague. The eclipse effect was not much more that the effect of the sun passing behind clouds. I got bored and went inside to watch television or something like that, and so I missed the eclipse's culmination.

During the eclipse of August 2017, I was living in New Jersey, where the distance and effect was similar to the effect in Seward in 1963. Again, the effect was slight, and I got bored after about 15 minutes and went in side and missed the darkest moment.