How many clichés did you have to endure during the SOLAR ECLIPSE 2017? How many times did you have to hear Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart”? How many people used the word totality ad nauseam in your presence?
It doesn’t actually matter. For one, the eclipse is over (but you can start planning for the next one in 2024). And for two, it was a really super cool astronomical event so let us science geeks have our moment.
This guy was so excited he called the eclipse the astronomical event of the century!
I was fortunate enough to have many moments to make the Solar Eclipse 2017 memorable for many years to come.
A few weeks ago, I was invited as a guest of Nissan to head to Nashville, Tennessee, home of Nissan North America, to spend an evening outside enjoying nature and science hearing appropriately about their new Midnight Editions.
Gazing Out at Owl’s Hill Nature Preserve
There was a lot to gaze at when we arrived for an evening under the stars at Owl’s Hill Nature Preserve, including, of course, an OWL! This Barred Owl had been hit by a car and has problems with his wing and eye so I knew not to get too close.
We mixed and mingled and and made our way out to the Midnight Editions of all the Nissan lineup.
Can you ask for a more Tennessean setting?
The Midnight Edition is an immensely popular equipment package available on most of Nissan’s vehicles that generally includes black aluminum-alloy wheels and black exterior accents. Think of it as an aftermarket accessory package but straight from the dealer! (See the full lineup at the end of this post).
But the big news of the night was the introduction of the availability of Midnight Editions for the 2018 Frontier, TITAN and TITAN XD, available in late fall 2017. If you’re a truck lover, this is a big deal. Apparently, the ability to “black out” your truck can make or break a sale sometimes. And judging from the response to Nissan’s teaser on Twitter, truck fans were hoping for this announcement.
Midnight Edition will be available on the 2018 TITAN, TITAN XD and Frontier available late fall 2017.
But with the Solar Eclipse looming, talk of trucks gave way to talks of nature. We spent the rest of the evening on a nature hike learning owl calls and frog sounds, checking out some amazing views of Saturn, Jupiter, and a few nebula and globular clusters, and dining under the stars.
After dinner, the lighting changed to red so as not to affect our stargazing.
Solar Eclipse at Acme Feed & Seed
The next day, midnight was behind us as we sought to put ourselves right in the perfect path of totality in downtown Nashville on the rooftop of Acme Feed & Seed. While my husband and son were at home trying to craft a projector box to view the eclipse, Nissan provided me to correct glasses to view the solar eclipse and I tried to do what everyone suggested I do: put the camera away and simply enjoy it.
For the most part, I simply stared up marveling at the sight before me along with hundreds of people on the rooftop and packed in surrounding areas of downtown Nashville.
And I might have set up a little tripod so that you could at least see the remarkable light change as we went from a partial to a total solar eclipse.
In case you missed it in the video, as we were anxiously awaiting the moment of totality… a giant cloud came and covered up the entire sun. I was sad to miss the perfect view of the sun’s corona but it gave me time to stop and enjoy the 360 degree sunset on the streets of Nashville – at 1:30pm!
Although I didn’t see the view I was hoping for, the entire experience was nature at its finest. A truly magical experience thanks to Nissan!
Midnight Edition will be offered on nine 2018 Nissan models – Altima, Frontier, Maxima, Murano, Pathfinder, Rogue, Sentra, TITAN and TITAN XD. For a glimpse at the current Midnight Editions, see below.
