A total eclipse that crossed the sky from Oregon to South

Carolina broughtout throngs of spectators, who exulted in

seeing the midday sky go briefly dark.
nytimes.com /2017/08/21/science/total-solar-eclipse-day.html

By HENRY 8/21/2017
FOUNTAIN

CHARLESTON, S.C. The United States basked in the glory of a total eclipse on Monday, as the moons shadow
swept from the rocky beaches of Oregon to the marshes of South Carolina.

Over an hour and a half, along a 70-mile-wide ribbon of land, in tiny towns like Glendo, Wyo., and metropolises like
Nashville, on dirt roads and superhighways, in modest yards and grand national parks, coastal lowlands and high
mountains, the world appeared to hush for a few minutes as the moon stood up to the sun, perfectly blocking its
fierce light except for the corona, the halo of hot gas that surrounds it.

This was totality, an event that had not happened in the continental United States since 1979 and had not traversed
such a broad swath of the country in nearly a century.

Darkness descended, the summer air caught a quick chill, Venus and some stars appeared in the near-night sky
and, in Depoe Bay, Ore., one of the first places to fall under the shadow, a flock of confused sea gulls began to call
out.

Even humans who knew what was going on were left to hunt for words to describe the spectacle.

Im in awe, whispered Ibeth Arriaga, who had traveled from Los Angeles to Depoe Bay, where, despite some fog,
the moons slip across the sun was just visible.

Science By NATALIE RENEAU 1:41

Perspectives on the Eclipse

Perspectives on the Eclipse

The 2017 solar eclipse seen from up above and down below.

By NATALIE RENEAU on August 21, 2017. Photo by Bill Ingalls/NASA, via Associated Press... Watch
in Times Video

embed

The weather cooperated along much of the eclipses path, which included parts of 14 states. Scientists in Salem,
Ore., who had gambled that skies would be clear, were not disappointed. They shouted and hugged each other as
totality ended, knowing that their cameras and other instruments many of them meant to gain a better
understanding of the mysterious corona captured the eclipse under ideal conditions.

This was absolutely fabulous, said Jay Pasachoff, an astronomer at Williams College and one of the leading
eclipse watchers in the world, who led the scientific team in Salem. As perfect as possible. There would be plenty
of data to keep his graduate students occupied, he added with a grin.

But clouds affected viewing in some places, easing up briefly to offer a glimpse of totality in Beatrice, Neb., and
Kansas City, Mo., and obscuring it completely in Charleston.
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Nowhere was the weather more of a tease than in Carbondale, Ill., a hotbed of activity for scientists from NASA and
other places, where 14,000 people gathered to watch in the football stadium of Southern Illinois University.

After a morning of brilliant sunshine, a line of enormous clouds began to appear in the hour before totality. At 10
minutes to zero-hour, all seemed lost despite chants from the crowd, pleading with the clouds to move.

With five minutes to go, the clouds opened up to huge cheers only to close again. Then another brief break
allowed a view of the first moments of totality before this window, too, closed.

But being in Carbondale, where totality lasted a generous 2 minutes 38 seconds, paid off. Another gap in the clouds
opened up, and the eclipsed sun was visible for a few more moments as totality ended.

That one little second was beautiful, said Masumi Iriye, from Urbana, Ill.

Over the weekend and into Monday, people had flocked to places where they could see the full eclipse, clogging
roads, filling hotel rooms and taxing local facilities in some places.

Some paid nothing to see the spectacle; others paid a lot. For both, the experience proved overwhelming.

A couple from Portland got out of their minivan along a guard rail on Interstate 5 in Oregon against advice from
the state police, who worried that eclipse watchers might become highway hazards. Michael and Nancy Worstell, 71
and 73 years old, clutched each other, beamed and laughed as totality began. Trucks barreled past them, oblivious
to the show in the sky.

Mr. Worstell, who like his wife is deaf, explained by writing on a pad that he had always regretted that the last
total eclipse in Portland, in 1979, took place under cloudy skies.

He had no regrets this time. He lifted his two hands to his eyes and raised his index fingers to form a smile at the
corners of his eyes. Then as totality ended and the sky brightened, the Worstells got back in the minivan and
continued their drive north.

The Daily 360 By KAITLYN MULLIN, NATHAN GRIFFITHS and GUGLIELMO MATTIOLI 1:59
Experience Eclipse Totality
Click and drag your mouse to explore.

Experience Eclipse Totality

Squeeze in among the crowds and witness the first total solar eclipse to cross the entire continental
United States since 1918. An exclusive video by The New York Times in partnership with NOVA/PBS.

By KAITLYN MULLIN, NATHAN GRIFFITHS and GUGLIELMO MATTIOLI on August 21, 2017. Photo
by Jay Pasachoff for PBS/NOVA Eclipse Over America. Technology by Samsung.. Watch in Times
Video

embed

Less than 20 minutes later, people who had paid $595 for a private viewing party on Snow King Mountain near
Jackson, Wyo., stopped sipping their mimosas as totality arrived. A string trio that had been entertaining them put
down their instruments.

The crags of the Tetons blushed scarlet as if in the last robes of dusk, and a cheer raced through the crowd. People
laughed uncontrollably and stammered as they stared dumbfounded at the midday darkness. Strangers hugged
each other. For a brief moment everyones attention was as aligned as the moon and the sun.

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Magical, said Jennifer Ross, a violinist who had been playing for the crowd minutes before totality. She was
trembling. Honestly I was ready to not be that impressed, but it was spiritual.

Ten minutes later in the ranch town of Glendo, population 204, some of the thousands of visitors watched from a
beach on a reservoir as totality set in.

One couple thanked God that they had skipped work. Others tore off their eclipse glasses, screamed and danced.

Outside the path of totality, where the sun and moon offered only a partial eclipse, reactions were generally more
muted.

Interactive Feature

Your Photos of A Solar Eclipses Journey Across America

Photos from the path of totality across the United States.

OPEN Interactive Feature

But ignoring the spectacle entirely was difficult, since

none of the 50 states was untouched. Even in
Anchorage, nearly half the sun was blocked by the
moon at the height of the eclipse, about 9:15 a.m. local
time.

In New York, where about 70 percent of the sun was

eventually blocked, office workers left their desks and
crowded the streets for a view.

At the White House, President Trump, his wife and

their son Barron walked onto the Truman Balcony shortly before the eclipse reached its maximum of 81 percent.

Mr. Trump at first glanced up at the sun without wearing protective glasses, ignoring the shouts of an aide below.
Later he and the rest of the family donned the glasses and watched the partial eclipse for about a minute and a half
before going inside.

In St. Louis, the largest metropolitan area along the eclipse path, the northern boundary of totality sliced diagonally
through the city just two miles south of downtown.

An estimated 10,000 people gathered in Jefferson Barracks Park, on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River, well
inside the totality zone. Shortly before the total eclipse, locusts began chirping in the trees, only to be drowned out by
roars from the crowd.

Terry McGarrigle of White Plains, N.Y., traveled to St. Louis to experience totality firsthand. You can read about it,
but I am a witness to something powerful in the universe, she said.

In downtown St. Louis, people jammed rooftops to witness a near-total eclipse. The sudden dusk caused street and
bridge lights to turn on.

Here in Charleston, the final city on the eclipse route, the clouds wreaked havoc with totality. But with classes
starting Tuesday, hundreds of College of Charleston students gathered for a campus viewing of the eclipse
celebrated anyway.

They hooted and hollered as the moon slowly worked its way across the sun a sight that, with glasses, was
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visible through the clouds. And they screamed again after totality, when a crescent sun again made an appearance.

Then the eclipse headed past Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, across slivers of coastal wetlands and out over the
Atlantic Ocean, where it ended for good at sunset near Africa.

The nation wont have to wait decades for the next one a total eclipse will sweep from Texas to Maine on April 8,
2024.

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