The Great Eclipse of 2017

After much hype, the moon passed in front of the earth on August 21 at 2:45 PM in Lawrenceville, NJ.

The hype was insane! People were in a panic because they did not have the official eclipse glasses -- and at the last minute there was no place to get them!! People made pinhole viewers that looked like something out of the 1950s -- and later said in a surprised tone they really worked. Eclipse stamps were sold at the post office. People had parties. Friends traveled around the country to get to the best spot to see it.

I asked my friends, which means I made a Facebook post, about why the hype. Reasons ranged from for this everyone in the 48 states will have a chance to see it to it takes place in the summer when a lot of people are off from work and can enjoy it. My favorite was in these crazy times, it is something we can all talk about without fighting. The friend went on to compare it to Woodstock happening in the midst of the Vietnam War (about a month before my birth). For whatever the reason, people were happy to get together.

My friend Nancy actually planned ahead and bought the right glasses at least a month in advance in preparation for their family vacation to the shore, before the price spikes. She lovingly gave me two pairs. Leading up to the event, I still wasn't getting into it.

Lawrenceville, NJ was slated for 73% totality, which sounded good enough to me. Having heard from friends who traveled to 100% totality zone, I'll admit that sounds pretty awesome. On April 8, 2024 the United States is slated for another total eclipse of the sun. Maybe I should start making my plans for that? If I wanted to be really cool I'd start making plans for July 2, 2019 or December 14, 2020 when Argentina and Chile will be in the line. As much as I would like to get to that part of the globe, I don't really see it happening in line with an eclipse.

Ashley and I used Nancy's nifty glasses and walked to Village Park, about a half mile walk from home. We kept peeking at the sun with and without the glasses. The glasses made it look really fake -- as if there was a microchip inside the glasses projecting the textbook image for us. It did not match up AT ALL with what we saw in person during those quick peeks. 

At the park we only encountered a few people. There was a family of three looking through pinhole viewers, and a family with small kids mostly playing. No one paid any attention to us. That was actually kind of disappointing. While I didn't want to be around masses of people, I did want to be part of a communal event. 

As time got closer to the actual eclipse I tried to pay attention to our surroundings. I did not notice it getting discernibly darker or cooler -- which at 73% darkness I did expect. I still heard birds chirping (I was told they get quiet during an eclipse because they think it is nighttime, I only heard one or two birds). However, I did hear an increase in cicadas -- a sound I equate with nighttime. If we hadn't heard there was an eclipse happening, we would not have noticed it.

Cool picture of us taken on the absolutely wrong setting.

Saw lots of clouds

Taken at peak -- I just don't see it

Ashley trying to take pictures with her phone

The view through the nifty glasses

Even though it was his first day back from Canada, Don popped outside for a look. Unfortunately he did not have glasses, nor did anyone with him. Had we known, we could have driven over to share the experience with him.

My parents went to a viewing party over at my niece's elementary school. We should have coordinated better. Princeton Public Library had a viewing event where they announced they would have 400 pairs of glasses available for free. Remember the hype I started this post with? 5,000 people showed up to claim PPL's 400 glasses.

The other problem was the clouds kept playing peek-a-boo with the eclipse. Just when you could see something really cool, the clouds would hide it. All the more reason I was grateful to Nancy for the two pairs (though we would have made out fine with one).

In the end, Ashley was not impressed.