The Associated Press
Marcia Dunn
The stars came out in the middle of the day, zoo animals ran in agitated circles, crickets chirped, birds fell silent, and a chilly darkness settled upon the land yesterday as the U.S. witnessed its first full-blown, coast-to-coast solar eclipse since World War I.
Millions of Americans gazed in wonder at the cosmic spectacle, with the best seats along the so-called path of totality that raced 4,200 km across the continent from Oregon to South Carolina.
“It was a very primal experience,” Julie Vigeland of Portland, Ore. said after she was moved to tears by the sight of the sun reduced to a silvery ring of light in Salem.
It took 90 minutes for the shadow of the moon to travel across the country.
Along that path, the moon blotted out the midday sun for about two wondrous minutes at any one place, eliciting oohs, aahs, whoops, and shouts from people gathered in stadiums, parks, and backyards.
It was, by all accounts, the most-observed and most-photographed eclipse in history–documented by satellites and high-altitude balloons and watched on Earth through telescopes, cameras, and cardboard-frame protective eyeglasses.
In Boise, Idaho, where the sun was more than 99 percent blocked, the street lights flicked on briefly. In Nashville, Tenn., people craned their necks at the sky and knocked back longneck beers at Nudie’s Honky Tonk bar.
Passengers aboard a cruise ship in the Caribbean watched it unfold as Bonnie Tyler sang her 1983 hit, “Total Eclipse of the Heart.”
The path of totality, where the sun was 100 percent obscured by the moon, was just 96-113 km wide.
But the rest of North America was treated to a partial eclipse, as were Central America and the upper reaches of South America.
Skies were clear along most of the route–to the relief of those who feared cloud cover would spoil the moment.
“Oh, God, oh, that was amazing,” said Joe Dellinger, a Houston man who set up a telescope on the Capitol lawn in Jefferson City, Mo.
“That was better than any photo.”
For the youngest observers, it seemed like magic.
“It’s really, really, really, really awesome,” said nine-year-old Cami Smith as she gazed at the fully-eclipsed sun in Beverly Beach, Ore.
NASA reported 4.4 million people were watching its TV coverage midway through the eclipse, the biggest livestream event in the space agency’s history.
“It can be religious,” said veteran eclipse-watcher Mike O’Leary of San Diego, who set up his camera along with among hundreds of other amateur astronomers in Casper, Wyo.
“It makes you feel insignificant, like you’re just a speck in the whole scheme of things.”
More than one parent was amazed to see teenagers actually look up from their cellphones.
Patrick Schueck, a construction company president from Little Rock, Ark., brought his 10-year-old twin daughters, Ava and Hayden, to Bald Knob Cross of Peace in Alto Pass, Ill., a more than 100-foot cross atop a mountain.
Schueck said at first his girls weren’t very interested in the eclipse. One sat looking at her iPhone.
“Quickly that changed,” he noted. “It went from them being aloof to being in total amazement.”
Schueck called it a chance to “do something with my daughters that they’ll remember for the rest of their lives.”
Astronomers also were giddy with excitement.
NASA solar physicist Alex Young said the last time earthlings had a connection like this to the heavens was during man’s first flight to the moon–on Apollo 8 in 1968.
The first, famous Earthrise photo came from that mission and, like this eclipse, showed us “we are part of something bigger.”
