`Oh my gosh — incredible!': total eclipse wows crowds
Thousands take in rare spectacle from sites across Essex County
Monday's total eclipse was only two or three minutes long in Essex County, but to some the celestial spectacle was still a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
That was the consensus from people at Seacliff Park and Seacliff Beach in Leamington, at Lakeside Park and Mattewas Beach in Kingsville, at Point Pelee and Pelee Island, at viewing parties in Colchester and at wineries and elsewhere on Monday afternoon.
Thousands of people gathered at various locations across Essex County, bringing portable fold-up chairs, blankets, cameras, coolers full of food and toys for children as they awaited the big moment.
The darkness, the strange silvery-green hue, the sudden chilly weather and the sun's corona — streams of light from the sun's outer atmosphere that shot out from the moon's shadow — impressed eclipse watchers.
“It was getting really eerie,” said Kevin Boyer, who watched the eclipse at the Leamington beach with his fiancée Daniela Cosme. “It was just that experience of seeing that darkness come in so fast … and then looking up and seeing that ring and seeing the little flames coming off the sun. That was amazing.”
When the partial eclipse began shortly before 2 p.m., onlookers glanced at the sun through safety glasses.
As the moon crept along the face of the sun, the temperature began to fall substantially, transforming a warm day into a nippy afternoon. Even when the moon covered all but a fingernail of the sun, those who glanced up without glasses, still saw what appeared to be a full sun. When the moon finally covered the whole surface of the sun around 3:13 p.m., the crowd erupted in cheers and applause. A few minutes later, they looked on in awe at the extraordinary phenomenon — a giant black disk, surrounded by streams of glittering light — seemingly hanging in the sky.
“Oh my gosh — incredible!” said Kingsville's Althea Janke as the midday sky went dark over Mettawas Beach.
“I won't have this moment again — ever,” said Janke, 64, after she and hundreds of others counted down the seconds before the Moon completely covered the Sun.
“I'm so elated,” Janke said of the experience. The Moon had only covered about a third of the moon when she observed: “Why do I seem so cold? Everybody was saying, `Yeah, it's getting colder.' Amazing.”
Even at only 99.2 per cent magnitude, the “deep partial” solar eclipse that Windsor experienced was enough to darken homes, cool the air and provide a silvery hue to the outdoors.
Easy to see why non-scientifically minded folks used to foretell the end of times back in the day. And easy to see why Egyptian astronomers in the know, back in ancient times, could readily cash in on their early scientific awareness that a total solar eclipse would result in total midday darkness, but that sunlight — and calm in the land — would soon enough return.
“So many people die without seeing it.”
That's Dawslom Peter, 40, occupying a picnic bench in Mettawas Park in Kingsville with her family. The family, who moved to Canada from Thailand six years ago, joined about 400 others at the park on Monday, many enjoying the eclipse with free viewing glasses distributed by the town.
“In Thailand and Southeast Asia, there are so many experiences like this, but only rich people can buy the eclipse glasses. None of the other people could afford them,” said Peter.
“It's beautiful. It's a once-in-alifetime experience.”
Kayla Jakobszen had read a book on eclipses to get a better understanding of the event, but Monday's eclipse was better than she had imagined.
`It was awesome in the root meaning of the word awesome,” she said. Reading about the eclipses “really kind of elevated my idea and my expectations. So I was worried I'd be disappointed.”
The suddenness of the darkness surprised her. “The disappearing of the sun is incredible. I can understand why people travel to see eclipses.”
She watched the eclipse on Seacliff Beach with a group of friends — Liam O'leary, Madison Bygrove and Sahar Solanti.
“I was just amazed by it ... awestruck,” said O'leary. “I didn't know what to expect. Just the way the moon (covered the sun) and you got like that halo, it was amazing.
“I'm just thinking back to civilizations that had no idea what was going on. I understand why they thought it was like this huge thing, like the world was ending. It's just amazing to see.”
The sudden darkness and cooling of the temperature caught Bygrove's attention. “Seeing it in real life is not comparable to a picture,” she said. “You kind of just have to see it to appreciate it.”
Sahar Soltani said she saw a total eclipse when she was a child in Iran, but all she remembered is that it got dark.
“That was one great experience,” she said of Monday's eclipse.
Adriona Ciotoli owner of Windsoreats, watched the eclipse on the beach, clutching his dog Zoey. “It's actually beautiful, seeing something like that,” said Ciotoli. “One of the first things that goes through my mind is before we knew the technology ... what people must have thought back in the day. It may have been scary back then. I'm looking at it as a good sign.”
Jesica Gerdevic and Nicholas Manzon also watched the eclipse on the beach.
“I didn't think it was going to get this dark,” said Gerdevic. “It was cool to hear the cheers and everyone freaked out while it was all happening.”
“It's definitely cool just being a part of it,” said Manzon. “You're in the moment and you see everything gets dark and you're there. It's way different than seeing it on your phone.”