Sunbelievable!
Millions across U.S. admire eclipse as even N.Y. feels cosmic togetherness
MILLIONS OF skygazers got a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see a rare total solar eclipse as it swept across a narrow corridor of 14 states from Oregon to South Carolina on Monday afternoon.
New York City wasn’t in the path of total darkness, but many were still caught up in the celestial mania, whether they glimpsed the phenomenon from parks, sidewalks or rooftops.
The total eclipse — when the moon completely blocks the sun — was first visible near Lincoln City, Ore., at 10:16 a.m. Pacific time.
“Sudden darkness of totality is just something a lot of people can’t compare to anything else,” said NASA visualizer Ernie Wright, who created an exact map of the shadow’s route.
As the path of totality swept southeastward across the country, for the first time since 1918, the daytime blackout confused night-chirping crickets, roosters and other animals. In some places, streetlights with automatic sensors went on during the brief darkness.
In New York, the moon began to put the sun in the shade at 1:23 p.m. The eclipse peaked with the moon covering 71% of the sun’s surface at 2:44 p.m.
Viewing parties — with protective glasses as giveaways — took place all across the city, attracting thousands of skyward onlookers.
Julia Clanton, 50, said the most remarkable thing about the eclipse was that it brought people together.
“Nothing else has done that recently,” she said as she watched the sky show from the Great Lawn in Central Park.
“Now it feels like we’re all on the same side, all on the same level, all enjoying the same thing. We can put the other stuff aside and share in this experience.”
NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill echoed that sentiment.
“Amazing to see something cosmic bring so many New Yorkers together,” he tweeted. “For just a few minutes, nothing else mattered.”
In Central Park and throughout the city, strangers shared special glasses to prevent damage to their eyes, and helped each other take pictures with their phones.
Hundreds also gathered in Rocket Park at the New York Hall of Science in Corona, Queens.
People there brought cereal boxes made into pinhole projectors and others fashioned similar projectors on the spot using construction paper and tin foil.
Eight-year-old Brianna Contento explained how the contraption worked.
“You look through the hole and point the pin at the sun and the moon,” Brianna said.
Julian Rojas, 7, from Bayside, Queens, got one of the rare pairs of glasses given out by the museum, coveted by the scores of spectators.
Across the city, the special spectacles were almost as hard to come by as a winning Powerball ticket.
As a precaution, the city’s Department of Health shut down carriage horses for more than four hours out of fear the animals would stare at the sun or get spooked by a suddenly dark sky.
The move enraged some drivers. “It was totally unnecessary,” said carriage driver Christina Hansen. “We were miles away from the totality. There was zero reason to think our horses would be bothered in any shape or form.”
NASA scientists studied the
eclipse from 11 spacecrafts and 50 observation balloons, officials said.
“It allows us a window into the universe,” said Alex Young, a solar scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. “This is the most well-observed event that we’ve ever had. The data and experiences are going to be amazing.”
A few gloomy Guses pooh-poohed the big event.
“It wasn’t really dark,” said Ernesto Morales, 24, a tourist from Venezuela who didn’t stop his sightseeing around Wall St. Donovan Peters, 59, agreed. “I saw an eclipse before in Jamaica in the ’70s,” he recalled. “That was totally dark. Nothing like this.”
Tracey McGloster, a social worker in the Bronx, said he didn’t see a thing.
“And I was out all day,” he added.
In cities where the sun was totally covered, crowds erupted in cheers when the darkness took over.
“It can be religious,” said veteran eclipse-watcher Mike O’Leary, who set up his camera along with hundreds of other amateur astronomers gathered in Casper, Wyo.
“It makes you feel insignificant, like you’re just a speck in the whole scheme of things.”