EYES TO THE SKY
Solar eclipse captivates observers throughout RI
NORTH SCITUATE – It wasn’t ecliptic totality – just a little more than two thirds of it – but even a near blackout of the sun was plenty good for Stella Noecker.
“It’s actually really cool,” said the Mount St. Charles Academy senior as she watched the moon max out a rare and historic pass in front of the sun yesterday. “I really didn’t know what to expect but I’m happy I got to see it and expe- rience it.”
Rhode Island wasn’t anywhere near the coast-to-coast strip of continental USA in the path of yesterday’s rare, total eclipse of the sun. But Noecker, of Douglas, Mass., was among some 300 people who converged on the Seagrave Memorial Observatory in this normally sleepy outpost to see the best of what the state had to offer – about 72 percent’s worth of a complete eclipse.
The event, which drew spectators from miles away and around the corner, was hosted by Skyscrapers Inc., the non-profit group of amateur astronomers that owns the observatory, known for a rare refractor telescope built in the 19th century by Alven Clark, a noted lensmaker of the day. Visitors didn’t have access to the big scope, but they got to peer at the diminishing sun through smaller, tripodmounted units provided by members of the astronomy club.
They were more than happy to do it.
After all, it’s not every day an amateur astronomer like Steve Brown gets to chat up laymen about his personal fascination with the heavens – and they listen.
“There are lots of things that happen in astronomy that are interesting to astronomers,” said Brown, who lives in Lyndeborough, N.H. “But very rarely does it catch the eye of the public.”
The viewing event had the atmosphere of a weekend festival, with young mommies pushing tots in strollers and families spread about the grassy grounds on mats and lawn chairs. Some were seen oddly squinting in an empty box of Cheerios tilted over their heads toward the sky – but that was no ordinary box of cereal. It was a pinhole camera, a homemade device made for viewing the eclipse safely.
As everyone knows by now, looking directly at the sun – even one that’s completely blacked out by the moon passing in front of it, can cause permanent damage to the eyes.
“You’ll burn your retina from the intense light of the sun,” said Tracy Karin Prell, a Skyscrapers board member. “Just like a welder that can’t look at the light from a welding torch – it’s the same principle.”
The risk made Prell one of the most popular people at the viewing event, because she was passing out the very, very hard-to-find, extradark sunglasses needed to look directly at the eclipse safely. Some visitors looked everywhere for them, but they found the stockpiles on hand at various public libraries empty and prices online, well, astronomically high.
“Through the roof, if you found any at all,” said Peggy Blais of Foster. “I saw one offer where you could get three pairs for $200.”
If it hadn’t been passing in front of the sun at midday, no one would have noticed the moon yesterday because it is in its “new” phase – a point in the lunar cycle when the part we see is backlit – the very opposite of a full moon. Normally, the new moon is invisible, but it was the cause of oohs and ahhs from viewers yesterday at it began to cross paths with the sun.
“It’s starting,” someone said excitedly.
“It looks like someone took a little bite out of the sun,” said Kerri Luchka, a teenager from Scituate.
The nibbling away of the sunshine started out looking like a black mark the shape of Mickey Mouse’s ear. The incursion officially began at 1:37 p.m. and gradually grew larger until there was nothing left but an orange crescent at the uppermost rim of the star at the center of our solar system. That dimming peaked at 2:47 p.m. with about 72 percent of the glowing orb blackened by the passage of the moon, according to Prell.
As the moment arrived, daylight took on an eerily silver hue and shadows grew darker, giving the scene the aspect of an oddly timed twilight.
Unlike twilight, however, it was followed by gradually improved daylight as the moon completed its journey across the path of the sun, a trip that took until about 4 p.m.
Seagrave Trustee Jeff Padell, an astronomical photographer, watched it all in crystal clear detail from a digital telescope hooked up to a computer monitor.
He says solar eclipses of some degree or another aren’t all that rare – they occur on average about once every two years. What made this one so unique wasn’t just that it was total – but that its path cut clear across the United States. Most of the time they’re happening over the ocean or less populated areas.
“Even though this was only a partial eclipse, it’s still fairly rare,” he said. “This is just fascinating and the enthusiasm of everyone that’s here, that just adds to it. It’s like going to a football game.”
Rhode Islanders will have to wait until April 2024 for another opportunity to see a solar eclipse. It will still be technically a partial one, but roughly 95 percent total.
Conrad Cardano, 63, a longtime member of Skyscrapers, says it will be worth the wait. He remembers watching a total eclipse as a teenager in Maryland and says “its very weird.”
“Just before totality, it’s like dusk,” he said. “All the birds stop chirping. All the insects stop making noises. It’s like going into nighttime, it really is.”
While some traveled from miles away to schmooze with experts like like Padell and Brown as they watched the eclipse, others walked from homes a street or two away.
The Seagrave Observatory, on Peeptoad Road, is open to the public at no charge most Saturdays, but it took an eclipse to draw Deborah Panullo there for the first time.
“And I live on the next street over,” she said. “I think it’s wonderful. It was a phenomenal event. But more important than that, it’s seeing my neighbors and families coming out here and enjoying this event together. We need more of that. Not everything is a cell phone you know.”