And Then The Sky Turned Dark!

 The solar eclipse of 2024, “The Great American Eclipse” was something that I had been looking forward to for years, if not decades. Seeing that it would pass so close to my home, I knew I had to see it.

    As the years passed by, it wasn’t constantly on my mind but yet, it never was far from it, especially in the past couple years. Astronomy magazines were writing stories about it and as the event came closer, the news stations started picking up on it. Local city governments started warning about the possible influx of people and motels and hotels started raising their rates. Eclipse mania was rising.

(Locations of various AAAP members during the eclipse)

    Ann Marie's brother and sister-in-law have a farm in Indiana, only a few miles away from the centerline of the eclipse. The decision was made to observe from there, they were gracious enough to welcome us to their home. Our "reservations" were made well over a year before.

    I tried my best not to worry about the weather because that was the biggest deal-breaker. If the clouds moved in or it was raining, there was nothing we could do but except it. While we were driving west across Ohio, we drove through rain and the skies were cloudy. Occasional patches of sunlight raised my hopes. We drove over on a Friday, four days before the big event.

    There was a definite police presence on the highways. Signs warned about the upcoming event and suggested staying late after the eclipse to avoid traffic jams. Entering Indiana, we saw t-shirt stands with eclipse shirts for sale along with ads for various eclipse events. 

    Saturday was beautiful, clear skies and warm temperatures. I caught the thin moon rising in the morning. A couple geocaching trips were made during the day. That evening I set up my telescope and we had an impromptu star party. Jupiter and its moons hung on the edge of the western horizon with Orion close behind. The Beehive Cluster was easily seen by eye. 

    It was a late night, the dark skies overhead had plenty of things to visit!

    Sunday morning, the day before the eclipse, I attempted to see the thin crescent moon, but was unsuccessful. The brightness of the morning and the thinness of the moon thwarted me. The next day the moon would be new, and nearly touching the sun as they rose, I’d have to wait until the afternoon to see the moon, during the eclipse!

    The weather was less than desirable. We went hunting for morels and saw a double rainbow in the afternoon. The rainbows were a foretelling of what was to come!

    Monday morning was clear with only a small bit of fog, off in the distance, over top of the river. I still didn’t want to get my hopes up. Some friends of the family flew in (using their own planes) to view the eclipse with us. We ended up with eleven of us at the farm, sitting outside the house, patiently waiting as the moon slowly drifted in front of the sun.

    We did an experiment with a colander, allowing the sunlight to shine onto a paper plate held below it. All the bright spots reflected the image of the partially eclipsed sun, even the rectangular spots!

    The temperature dropped enough for us to notice it and the sky took on a darker appearance as the moon worked its way across the suns disc. A couple people said how it looked as if a storm was coming and how they felt a bit disorientated. The colors of the patio furniture got more intense, and the shadow of my pen seemed sharper as I scribbled notes. We could see the moon's shadow before it hit us, it moved towards us at a tremendous speed. 

    And then the sky turned dark! Real dark, night-time dark. Looking up, the first thing I noticed was Jupiter and Venus sitting on either side of the pair. The area surrounding the sun was brilliant white with spikes. Using binoculars, I could see a bright pink dot on the lower portion of the moon. It was a prominence, a flare coming off of the sun. The pink color was caused by the hydrogen that was burning in it. Others around me saw it also, confirming my skeptic observation.

Totality, taken by Sarah Balzer

I felt emotions rushing through me. I seriously felt as if I might cry. I didn’t know whether to jump up and down or to laugh, yell or scream. I think I might have done a bit of all of them.

We had just over 4 minutes of totality and it proved to me that time is not constant. It was over before we realized it; time had sped up during this experience, no doubt about it!

    While the moon slowly continued past the sun we all started talking and comparing our experiences. Phones were used to check pictures and to contact others to see what they thought about the eclipse. In the yard, the bees were returning to their hives.

    It was nice sharing the experience with others! We all became a community together, people from all over coming together to experience this show that our universe was putting on for us! The word camraderie popped into my head.

    Later that evening, after the sun (and moon) had set, I set up the telescope again and we had another nice dark evening of star gazing. We packed our gear the next morning and after another wonderful meal, Ann Marie and I returned back to the Pittsburgh area. Coming back we heard more eclipse tales on the radio. We had no problems with traffic but we did see a lot of policemen, same as when we were coming out.

    We made it home a bit before sunset and I didn’t even check to see what the sky was like, I had a bed waiting for me! The trip was a life event, something I doubt if I’ll ever see again. I waited a long time to see this and believe me, I wasn’t disappointed!