A ‘Galileo moment’ as people gather to watch the eclipse
Americans mesmerized as eclipse turns day into night
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 Monday as the U.S. witnessed its first full-blown, coast-to-coast solar eclipse since the First World War.
Millions of Americans gazed in wonder at the cosmic spectacle, with the best seats along the so-called path of totality that raced 2,600 miles (4,200 kilometres) across the continent from Oregon to South Carolina.
“It was a very primal experience,” Julie Vigeland, of Portland, 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.
ence had given out.
“A lot of people have been really nice and letting us use their sunglasses,” said Kaitlyn Bentz, a 20-year-old concurrent education student from Waterloo.
The turnout was overwhelming, Science Outreach manager Heather Neufeld said. The shadow show above the Waterloo campus residential lawn was impressive, too.
“It looks really cool,” Bentz said. “It makes you feel so little and unimportant.”
But there was no need to rely on the many sets of glasses being passed around for a safe view of the moon passing before the sun in a total eclipse that promised to peak at about 78 per cent locally. There were telescopes, one from the university’s Gustav Bakos Observatory, and a grocery story assortment of homemade pinhole cameras.
They were made from shredded wheat and cereal boxes. One inspired university student crew assembled several telescopic pinhole cameras using Pringles canisters, red solo cups, duct tape and a magnifying glass. Of course, they had to eat a lot of stacked potato chips to make their recycled pirate’s spyglasses.
“Want some?” they asked as one student devoured a handful.
But snacks didn’t interest young astronomers like Alex Cochrane. He was hungry for the sights awaiting to be viewed through the two telescopes set up by Steve Holmes, past president of the local chapter of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.
Through the special lenses, Alex had a magnified look at solar flares. More gasps of wonder followed.
Lifelong amateur astronomers were being hooked with every glance.
“All you’ve got to do is look up and say, ‘Wow!’ and you’ve got them,” Holmes said. “That’s what we call the ‘Galileo Moment,’ when Galileo first looked through a telescope and saw these things going around Jupiter.”
The Galileo Moments were many for the eclipse watchers.
And more will be on the way in 2024 when the next solar eclipse swings across our skies.
“We’ll be able to see totality,” said Alex, pondering the full eclipse to come in seven years. “It’s super cool.”