We got to see a solar eclipse on Monday. Weather forecasts leading up to the big day did not look good, but the day dawned bright and clear. And, while some wispy clouds moved in as the hours went by, they didn’t obscure the sun.
Southeastern Michigan wasn’t in the path of totality, but 98.5 percent of the sun being covered by the moon was still a lot of fun. My husband called me outside when the moon started over the sun, and we hurried over to join the neighbors who’d set up viewing chairs in their driveway. Some were occupied. Various folks milled about admiring the odd shadows filtering down through the trees. One of the host neighbors whipped into his house and came back with a bowl of apple slices to share. Honey Crisps seemed just right for the occasion.
Now, eclipse glasses are so dark that, unless you’re looking at the sun, you can’t see anything at all. So people kept looking away to see what was going on here on earth. While the day was darkest, Anne called our attention to an unprecedented sight right here in our court: turkeys. Michigan has wild turkeys, of course. Anyone who drives much on Huron Parkway has certainly seen them around. But we have never seen them on the court and, later, in our yards.
The turkeys who strut their stuff on the parkway know that they rule. Traffic stops for them, and stays stopped until such time as the big birds jolly well decide that it may proceed. These turkeys, operating by the weird, dim blue-grey light of the eclipse, looked out of their element. Confused. Unsure of what they ought to do next, and where they should do it. One even hopped up on the neighbors’ porch for a while, before the two birds disappeared behind the houses.
Our second daughter traveled with friends to Muncie, Indiana, and enjoyed optimal viewing of totality. She does that. She and her buds went to Frankfort, Kentucky, for the 2017 eclipse. This time, they managed to rent an Airbnb so located that they could see the celestial happenings without leaving the yard. They set up lawn chairs out back, donned eclipse glasses, and sat there for two hours, watching the show.
As totality approached, D#2 says, “We counted down. Five, four, three, two, one, poof! The ring was white, after you took off your glasses,” she said. “It’s beautiful.” And yes, she says, she did see the diamond-ring effect as the moon’s shadow moved off the sun. “There’s one brilliant spot, like the twinkle of a diamond. That’s my favorite part of the whole eclipse.”
“That,” she adds, and “people are very, very friendly. They’re all there to see something awesome. They’re sharing glasses and just being nice to each other.”
Kathy, her husband, and an assortment of kids and grandkids drove to Findlay, Ohio to watch the eclipse. They hadn’t planned on Findlay, in particular, but the expressway had been clogged with eclipsers for some hours, and they were concerned about clouds further south. So they hied themselves to a park in Findlay, where they spread blankets for a picnic and enjoyed a prime viewing spot.
Findlay had anticipated such visitors, limited the vehicules in the park to the number of parking places, and provided water and viewing glasses. Kathy took pictures, and the contrast between the darkness of totality to the daylight of one minute earlier is startling. She, too, saw the diamond-ring effect and agreed that everyone was in a good mood. Furthermore, she ended up recounting the experience in French class, so we heard about it in French.
Ann Arbor’s schoolchildren got to watch the eclipse, too. Online footage shows them outdoors, wearing their glasses and variously delighted and enrapt. My favorite images are of busdrivers with their glasses on and windows open, sitting in their drivers’ seats as they wait to collect their charges.
We still had our eclipse glasses from the eclipse in 2017, and my husband put them back in the drawer. Lee got hers from her public library. Isn’t it wonderful the things libraries do these days? After the eclipse, Janice mailed her off to Eclipse Glasses USA, which will pass them on for children in South America, where an eclipse will be visible this October. As for Daughter Number Two, she’d like to keep using her glasses.
Iceland will be in the path of totality for an eclipse in 2026 and, while she has not heretofore hankered to visit Iceland, she’s entertaining the possibility and talking to her friends about going, too. Eclipses are such fun.
12 April 2024