Getting a glimpse of solar sensation
Out of eclipse’s path, Bay Area residents still gazed skyward
At 10:14 a.m. on Monday, the moon’s shadow started falling across the Bay Area, kicking off the first solar eclipse the country has seen in seven years — a highly anticipated celestial event that made Texas an in-demand destination for thousands of West Coast dwellers seeking to take in the event firsthand.
The path of totality stretched from Texas to Kentucky, Ohio, Maine and up to Canada, with Northern California seeing about a third of the sun covered by the time the peak eclipse hit at 11:13 a.m.
In the Bay Area, the day was a bit dimmer, and through protective glasses or a pinhole camera, viewers could see a slice of the sun was out of view.
At Chabot Space and Science Center in the Oakland hills, hundreds of people waited in line on a sunny morning to get into the observatory to see the eclipse. Tickets sold out before the eclipse started.
Mojgan Saberi, 62, saved her money and sat outside in the sun with eclipse viewing glasses, staring into the sky and waiting for the moon to impede the view.
“I always watch it in nature,” she said, adding she opted to stay home while friends from Marin County traveled to Dallas to chase the totality at a viewing party at a stadium, only to encounter a cloudy sky and a chance of thunderstorms.
“I feel bad for them,” Saberi said as she basked in sunshine as the eclipse started above her and the moon inched across the lower edge of the sun.
At Sankofa United Elementary School in Oakland, students had special eclipse glasses and the pinhole viewers to take a peek at the
phenomenon, said Lisa Lubin, office attendance clerk.
“It’s an educational moment for them,” she said. “That’s our plan, get them excited about the world around them, to learn about the world around them.”
Total solar eclipses allow researchers to study the sun’s corona, offering breakthroughs into the theory of relativity as well as the impact of the solar wind.
Science will also tell the students and everyone else that a solar eclipse is just part of the other side of the moon, which happens to be passing between the Bay Area and the world’s basic heating source, the one thing that keeps our planet alive.
So, while they are caused by a simple shadow, solar eclipses — across millennia and into the modern era of rocket ships, satellites and moon landings — can trigger a primal sense of doom, awe or at least a slight shudder.
“It’s an amazing phenomena,” Lubin said, reflecting on how eerie an eclipse really is. “For an instant, you realize what it would be like without the sun.”
Stefan Salazar, 29, was hoping the eclipse would bring him good luck, or karma or some kind of metaphysical good mojo. He had the day off from his job at a thrift store in San Francisco, and his mom, who lives in Texas, where she should be able to see the full eclipse, urged him to go outside to see the partial one.
Salazar said he isn’t a spiritual person, but thought the eclipse might offer a respite from what he said was a professional crisis.
“I’m hoping the eclipse will give me some good vibes, some financial fortitude,” he said, adding he didn’t have special viewing glasses so wouldn’t be seeing the eclipse. “I’m just going to have to feel it.”
Albert Watson, 75, throwing a tennis ball for his dog, Khaza, in San Francisco’s Dolores Park on Monday morning, wasn’t making special plans to view the partial eclipse.
“How can you miss it? All you have to do is be outside,” he said. “They make a big deal out of the eclipses these days.”
Excitement mounted among the clusters of eclipse watchers gathered in Robin Williams Meadow in Golden Gate Park as the shadow progressed close to 11 a.m.
Vince Semonsen, 69, who was visiting a friend in San Francisco, pulled out a pair of eclipse glasses he had gotten from a public library in Santa Barbara, where he lives.
“I wish it was a full eclipse,” he said, noting that he had traveled to see the total eclipse in 2017, which spanned Oregon to South Carolina. “That was magical. Things changed. The birds quit singing.”
Back at the Chabot Space and Science Center, Pearl Kolling and Dana Eng sat outside, stretched out in lawn chairs in the sun. The pair, both in their 70s, said they felt like it was their last chance to catch an eclipse.
The next solar eclipse in California will be on Aug. 12, 2045, and it will be a total eclipse, although a total lunar eclipse will happen next year on March 13.
“We won’t be around for the next one,” said Kolling, who hadn’t seen an eclipse before. “This was our last chance. It’s spectacular, just like every natural phenomenon.”