Mark Bennett: Gatherings made Monday's eclipse a success, despite clouds | News Columns
The sky grew dark and the sun couldn’t be seen as 2:22 p.m. arrived Monday.
Just as the scientists predicted, right?
Not exactly. Clouds stole the show from the sun and the moon, at least in the sky above Terre Haute. The visibility of the United States’ first coast-to-coast solar eclipse in 99 years ended right as the celestial display got interesting. At around 1:53 p.m., clouds covered the unfolding eclipse — fluffy white clouds, at first, then light gray and then darker ones.
Hauteans saw only the early stage of the eclipse. The Wabash Valley lies northeast of the 70-mile-wide “path of totality” — a swath running through 14 states, from Oregon to South Carolina.
Yet, local folks could’ve seen a near-total eclipse, with 94.2 percent of the sun obscured by the moon at the peak of a process lasting from 12:55 p.m. to 3:47. But clouds, along with lightning and rain, covered the view at 1:53 and didn’t disappear until after 4 p.m.
Disappointing, eh? Especially with all of the images of awestruck people in videos from clear-skied vantage points along the eclipse’s course. Just Terre Haute’s luck, right?
Maybe not. Consider the community’s eclipse glass partially full. Hundreds of folks gathered to watch an astronomical rarity. Co-workers shared those funky eclipse safety glasses. Five hundred parents and young kids congregated on the Vigo County Public Library lawn, guided by staff and volunteers from the library and the Terre Haute Children’s Museum. Other people relaxed in lawn chairs at Fairbanks Park, gazing skyward through their glasses occasionally. Eclipse watch parties happened across Vigo County.
The outcome wasn’t perfect, of course, but it wasn’t a washout.
Mae Davis marveled at the eclipse from a chair outside her apartment in Dreiser Square. At age 81, she witnessed her first solar eclipse before the clouds rolled in. The moon already covered about one-fourth of the sun’s glow, when Davis explained why she hadn’t before seen even a partial eclipse. “I had a bunch of kids, and I just never got to it. I’d watch it on TV, if I could,” she said. “But this is my first, and it’ll probably be my last.”
On the lawn at the library, Paul Campbell watched his 5-year-old daughter, Solana, make a pinhole camera to view the eclipse, with the help of Jane Morse, a volunteer with the Children’s Museum. Solana’s name means “sunshine,” and it was inspired by the song, “You Are My Sunshine.” “We’ve always loved the sun,” Paul explained, “so I had to take her to this.”
Nearby, Michelle Souza helped her daughter, Audrey, position her pinhole camera to see the eclipse. “I remember when I was a kid, the excitement of [an eclipse],” Michelle said. Last weekend, they studied together pictures of eclipses, the moon, the sun and the earth.
South of the city in Prairieton, I got to watch the moon cut an initial crescent out of the sun’s image with my mom, standing outside her house on the sidewalk.
Even if I couldn’t see the full course of the eclipse, that chance made the day success for me.
Close by in Prairieton, Bob and Judy Dillion and their family — Michelle, Darin, Zak and Justin Pemberton — congregated in the garage, popping outside to glance up at the eclipse’s progress periodically. Lunar eclipses and meteor showers have always fascinated Bob. “It’s just interesting, because it’s things that don’t happen very often,” he said as the group stood shoulder to shoulder, looking up.
Indeed, a cross-country total eclipse last occurred in 1918 over the U.S. Terre Haute hasn’t seen a total eclipse since Aug. 7, 1869, but another is coming on April 8, 2024, just seven years from now. With all of the watch parties, the scramble to find NASA approved eclipse glasses, and the crash courses on astronomy sparked by this week’s event, Terre Haute should be ready for its moment in the “path of totality” in 2024. Tuesday doubled as a dry run for ‘24.
“We’ll be experts then,” said Sarah Trover, programs and events manager at the library, as she and others packed up stands and games before a thunderstorm hit. “And we’ll get the weather to cooperate.”
And save those eclipse glasses.
Mark Bennett can be reached at 812-231-4377 or mark.bennett@tribstar.com.
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