Skywatchers unite
Just in time, clouds part to give Lehigh Valley a glimpse of solar eclipse
It was a washout, a bust, a dud, a flop and a fizzle.
But then …
“It’s coming back!” a young voice shrieked. “It’s coming back!”
And there, indeed, came the sun, emerging in mid-eclipse from clouds that just moments before had been spitting rain on the Promenade Shops at Saucon Valley.
The hundreds of people who gathered to watch Monday’s celestial waltz and were ready to call it a day erupted in a walk-off homer cheer and slapped solar glasses back on to watch the moon devouring the sun, or some 92% of it over our stretch of the Earth.
It made you think of Tinkerbell returning from the brink of death just because the audience believed in her. It may have been less wishful thinking than science — eclipses are thought to dissipate clouds because they affect the heat and moisture content in the atmosphere — but the explanation didn’t matter. Everyone would go home happy.
Close call, though. Just moments before this miracle in the heavens, Allentown School District teacher Lora Vaknin lamented how disappointed her students would be.
“We got out of school early today and the kids were so excited,” she said. “We were all going to talk about it tomorrow.”
People gathered hours before eclipse time to wait in line for one of the 100 pairs of protective glasses being given away by Lehigh Valley Health Network, sponsor of the viewing party at the Upper Saucon Township shopping center. The sun had been shining all morning, so things started out promisingly.
Some people planned to try viewing methods other than glasses. Connie Laarendi, who works at the J. Crew Factory store, fashioned a viewer out of an empty Special K cereal box.
It had a strip of aluminum foil with a pinhole in it wrapped over one side and a
sheet of white paper on the bottom of the interior. The sun was supposed to shine through the pinhole and cast an image on the paper.
“I made it this morning after I saw it on TV,” Laarendi said, manipulating the box every which way. “But it doesn’t work.”
Happily, a mood of sharing infected the crowd. Laarendi got to see the beginning of the moon’s transit past the sun through a pair of glasses borrowed from Diane Richter of Schnecksville, who seemed as excited as anyone in the buzzing crowd at the prospect of watching the cosmic show.
“It’s the biggest eclipse we’ve had in many years and I don’t know if I’ll be around for the next one,” she said.
The next one is 20 years from now, so more than a few people shared that sentiment as they eyed the encroaching clouds and wondered if they’d see the better part of this one. No one wanted to give up hope, because the prospect of the eclipse had a firm hold on the group imagination.
“It’s a visual delight and it’s rare,” said Lee LevinFriend of Emmaus. “It’s just two objects coming together but what’s fascinating is that science can predict it accurately.”
Robert DeNicola of Springfield Township sat on a concrete step with his year-old son Dominic on his lap while his girlfriend, Courtney Van Fossen, waited in line for glasses. He recalled sitting in a health club parking lot to watch a lunar eclipse a few years ago — that’s when the Earth’s shadow comes between the sun and moon — but had never seen a solar one.
“It’s just something to do with the little man,” he said, bouncing Dominic on his knee. “He’s not going to remember it, but it’s fun.”
Nearby, Fred van Naerssen kept checking his phone, because his father, who lives in Texas and was in the path of totality, was texting photos of the darkening sun.
The Allentown resident said he came to the Promenade after learning his first choice, a viewing party in northern Northampton County, was sold out. He didn’t have a pair of glasses and didn’t seem likely to get one.
“I don’t plan on staring at it,” he said.
Generosity triumphed again, however, when a kindhearted woman handed a pair of glasses to both van Naerssen and DeNicola.
At that point, it didn’t look like they’d need them.
Then everyone believed.