Fog a ‘close call’ for S.F. eclipse viewers
For Bay Area fog-dwellers who want to see the big solar eclipse Monday morning, the message is clear: Head east beyond the cloud cover, and aim north.
Be prepared to view the sun — but only with astronomer-approved solar viewing shades to prevent eye damage — roughly between 9 and 11:30 a.m., when the moon will pass over the sun and block out about 75 percent of it from Bay Area vantage points.
But those who can’t ditch work or other Monday morning obligations to escape the fog should not despair, says meteorologist Charles Bell of the National Weather Service.
“If you’re in San Francisco, you’ll have a better chance of seeing the eclipse in the (downtown) Financial District than at Ocean Beach,” Bell said, adding that the fog could
burn off — fingers crossed — just before peak coverage time, around 10:15.
“It’s nearly impossible to say whether this community will see the clouds burning off at this specific time,” Bell said. “But we do feel the burn-off will occur at this particular time — hopefully by the peak.” On Twitter, his employer is calling it a “close call in #SF for the #eclipse.”
As for Bell, who works in Monterey and has the Sunday night shift — he hopes to be sound asleep while everyone else is figuring out how to safely view the eclipse.
Seemingly everyone, anyway.
Millions of people are expected to visit areas across many states to see the total eclipse of the sun, a sky show unseen across this country since June 8, 1918. States within the narrow “path of totality” stretch from Oregon to South Carolina, and key hotels have been booked for months. Prices for parking and accommodations have soared. And the grand phenomenon — in which the earth, moon and sun are perfectly aligned — has participants in a party mood.
“We’re going to have a wonderful time,” said John Kelly of Vallejo, an insurance adjuster who, with his friend William Bunting, a San Francisco lawyer, drove up to Oregon with family and friends for their latest “boondoggle” — otherwise known as their annual search for adventure. The pals take these jaunts so seriously their friends call Bunting “Boon” and Kelly “Doggle.”
“We had to have a boondoggle this year, so they had an eclipse — just for us,” Bunting joked. “This was the universe getting this all lined up for our boondoggle.”
It’s clear that the pair — who plan to dose up some booze with Oregon blackberry juice and call it a Tequila Eclipse — are not exactly there for the science. Like many people, they’re up for the fun of a national event that for once has nothing to do with the political divide.
“My entire family is going to be there, so it’s going to be fun,” said Jean Moshofsky, a San Francisco gardening teacher whose birthday is Tuesday. Her older sister, Kathleen Swayze, turns 70 on eclipse day and happens to live on 14 acres in Brownsville, Ore., smack in the path of totality. Now 100 people are showing up.
“I feel really fortunate,” Moshofsky said. “A lot of people would die to come up here.”
Like Aaron Endre, a Bay Area marketing consultant, who drove to the Ochoco National Forest in central Oregon for the Symbiosis music festival because organizers moved its annual fall date to coincide with Monday’s eclipse.
“Being able to see the full eclipse will be unique and special,” Endre said. “I think it’s a really cool thing — we’re all connected, just tiny little ants watching these celestial bodies millions of miles away doing what they’ve been doing for billions of years.
“I know a lot of people who see this as a spiritual event,” he said. “But that’s not for me. What’s intriguing is that this is happening for the first time in nearly 100 years. That’s a big deal for me. And the cost of driving a few hours is not that great, considering that I might never see anything like this again.”
And yet, he might. Endre is 31. He’ll be just 38 years old in 2024, when the next total eclipse becomes visible in the United States from Texas to Maine.
On Monday in Walnut Creek, however, freelance journalist Carolyn Newbergh will have a more practical concern than the astronomical significance of the eclipse or its spiritual meaning. She’s wondering if the workers who are scheduled in the morning to paint her daughter’s room light blue will be able to see what they’re doing.
As she watched a news clip about the eclipse the other day she thought, “‘Oh, my goodness! We hadn’t thought of this!’ ” Newbergh said. “The light could be pretty dim for a chunk of the morning.” So she’s hauled in some standup lights to make up for the expected blackout.
Well, 75 or 76 percent blackout.
“A total eclipse is when the sun is completely hidden by the moon, the sky becomes dark, and the sun’s faint atmosphere (its corona) becomes visible — like a beautiful halo,” said astronomers Andrew Fraknoi and Dennis Schatz in their free, online guide to the 2017 solar eclipse: “The All-American Eclipse.”
As for the rest of us, they wrote: “A partial eclipse may not be as awe-inspiring and memorable as a total eclipse, but it is still a beautiful experience that will not quickly be forgotten.”