Moments of totality: How Ars experienced the eclipse

“And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. And God saw the light, and it was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. And God called the light day. , called the darkness night; the evening and the morning were the first day.”

The constant rhythm of progressing from night to day and from darkness to light is a phenomenon taken for granted in ancient scriptures. When that is interrupted, people take notice. In the days leading up to the eclipse, excitement grew within Ars orbital headquarters, and plans were made to experience the last total solar eclipse in the continental United States until 2045. This is what we saw across the country.

Kevin Purdy (watching from Buffalo, New York)

Buffalo, New York is a city where excess often happens. number of super bowl winsshift from the Great Lakes delivery and made in the usa steelthe second largest city in the state that includes New York City: This city doesn’t have many holidays.

So, as Buffalo is in the eclipse’s main path, I, a former resident and booster, wanted to be there.That’s why I did it Probably 1 million people, the population of the wider region doubles. With zero hotels, negative Airbnb, and no flights below my trust fund, I arrived early, stayed late, and slept on couches and air mattresses.I wanted to see if this moment of global attention for Buffalo would work out. last time.

The day started out cloudy, typical for early April here.We had a chat when there was only an hour left. donald blank. He was filming a time-lapse of the eclipse as part of a large documentary about Buffalo. Buffalo’s amazing history, dire poverty, heroes, mistakes, and more. The shot he wanted was First Presbyterian Church,the Great steeple and Tiffany window, inside the frame. The 200-year-old stone church adds some context to a solar event that many of us will never see again.

The sky became dark. At 3:15 p.m., the porch lights automatically turned on, then the street lights, and more importantly, the car lights for those heading to important destinations. People on the front lawn cheered, clapped, and stood in quiet disbelief. After I finished, I heard my neighbor say that he had left his phone inside. Blank walked up to her and offered to email her a photo of him. In Buffalo, that was normal, if strange.

Benji Edwards (Raleigh, North Carolina)

I’m in Raleigh, North Carolina and luckily it’s sunny today. The eclipse peaked around 3:15pm (unfortunately it wasn’t a total eclipse). Prior to that time, as I looked out the window of my home office, the sun slowly began to dim. Around 3 p.m., I stepped outside on the back deck and began constructing a makeshift pinhole lens using cardboard and a steel awl to project the shape of the eclipse’s crescent moon indirectly onto a dark surface. I cut a hole so that I and my children could see.

My wife had also bought some solar eclipse glasses at a local toy store, so I squinted and tried just a few. The eclipse looked good, but my eyes were still a little blurry. I didn’t trust it enough to let my kids use it. For the 2017 solar eclipse, I bought very dark colored welding lenses and have since lost them. Still, I think I did some damage to my eyes at that time. I developed floaters in my left eye, which still bothers me. I will never learn this lesson, and the next time the eclipse comes, I will only become more and more blind. But what fun it is to watch the sun eclipse.

Beth Mohr (Raleigh, North Carolina)

It was a perfect day to view the solar eclipse in North Carolina. The skies were clear blue and the high temperature was 75 degrees. The peak was at 3:15 p.m., with solar coverage of 78.6 percent. The first signs of the moon passing appeared just before 2 p.m. The whole family was out in the backyard (along with many of our neighbors!) and we had pinhole viewers, two NASA-approved cereal box viewers, and solar eclipse glasses. We all watched as the moon gradually slipped in and stole the spotlight. Once coverage was at its peak, it got pretty dark and surprisingly cool and quiet. It wasn’t as dramatic on its journey to perfection, but it was still really neat and fun. My 5-year-old son had so much fun watching the sun go from the circle to nibbling cookies and eating bananas and back again.