Great American Eclipse proves thrill of a lifetime for Wisconsin 'totality' sojourners
Meg JonesMETROPOLIS Ill. – To some, it seemed to last forever and to others, it flashed by so quickly.
As the shadow thrown off by the moon blotting out the sun raced across America on Monday, a group of Milwaukee Public Museum tour group members hooted and hollered, pumped their fists in the twilight or just stood silently and gaped.
“I’m amazed at sunlight to midnight to sunshine again. I didn’t think it’d be that dark for so long,” said Larry Fox of Shorewood. “I heard the crickets.”
Added his wife Meg Fox: “It was awe-inspiring to watch the light go from dim to dark. I didn’t know what to expect even though they explained it in advance.”
Like a herd of stampeding buffalo spooked by a change in weather, millions of humans gravitated toward a 70-mile-wide path that stretched from Oregon to South Carolina Monday to see what was dubbed the Great American Eclipse.
RELATED:Gray skies couldn't stop Milwaukeeans from enjoying partial eclipse
RELATED:'Coolest thing ever': Eclipse awes millions as it crosses USA
Among them was a group of 110 led by Milwaukee Public Museum planetarium director Bob Bonadurer. The group had reservations at four sites — three in Missouri and one in southern Illinois to hedge their bets against bad weather.
When forecasters predicted mostly cloudy skies in parts of Missouri, they chose Metropolis, Ill., and set up more than a dozen telescopes — some small enough to sit on picnic tables, others Civil War cannon-sized — and binoculars on tripods fitted with solar filters at Fort Massac State Park.
Large puffy clouds began rolling in around 30 minutes before the eclipse started at 11:58 a.m. Folks pulled on eclipse glasses at first contact when the sun looked like someone had nibbled the edge. As the moon slowly moved across the sun, the group took turns looking through telescopes and binoculars, occasionally waiting for clouds to clear.
As the sun began to show a crescent shape, they held up colanders and hand-made pinhole signs over large white cloths to look at tiny crescent-shaped shadows cast by the sunlight filtering through the small openings. The signs read “Science Rules,” “MPM Eclipse Trip,” “American Eclipse 2017” and “Original Sunscreen.”
Ken and Laura Smart of Eagle and their 7-year-old son, William, signed up for the trip after William saw an advertisement during a show at the museum’s Daniel M. Soref National Geographic Dome Theater & Planetarium and asked if he could go. None had seen a total solar eclipse before.
“We’re excited and really hoping the sky stays blue. Bob (Bonadurer) is four for four (in successful sightings of total solar eclipses) and we’re hoping his luck holds,” Laura Smart said before the eclipse began.
Bonadurer held up a white piece of cardboard next to the museum’s large telescope to show a projection of the eclipse as it moved toward totality. Every few minutes, he shouted out the countdown to totality and anxiously watched as a few clouds moved into view.
Then with just two minutes before totality, he excitedly yelled, “We’re going to have a clear sky!”
Bonadurer pointed to the shadow in the distance heading toward the group, which looked like a darkening thunderstorm front. Suddenly the outside lights at the Sonic Drive-In across the highway switched on. Venus glowed brightly in the twilight sky. Crickets began chirping loudly.
“Look up! Look up!” yelled Bonadurer as the moon closed the gap and what’s known as the “Diamond Ring” could be seen — the last glowing pinprick of light with the yellow corona circling around the sun.
Some folks took turns briefly peering through the telescopes but most simply gazed up in wonderment. In Metropolis, totality lasted just 2 minutes and 23 seconds. Then the second “Diamond Ring” was seen as the moon continued moving and Bonadurer told everyone to put their eclipse glasses back on.
Karyl Rosenberg, a retired Nicolet High School science teacher, had taught her students about total solar eclipses but had never seen one.
“I could explain what had to happen for a total solar eclipse and explained how they worked. I’ve seen half a dozen partial eclipses, which were nice, but I had to see this,” said Rosenberg, who was impressed with the appearance of Baily’s beads, a phenomenon caused by light hitting mountains on the moon.
Chris Rundblad of Milwaukee was full of superlatives minutes after totality ended.
“It was like – oh my God, a black sun. I didn’t expect a black sun,” Rundblad said. “It was just so gal-darn beautiful.”
Colin Johnson is a lifelong photography nut and astronomy fan who decided to combine his passions by bringing his telescope, binoculars and Canon camera with a 150-600 mm lens. He charted out what he wanted to do and then practiced so he’d be ready on the day and then laid awake the night before because of his excitement.
Yes, everyone told him that if it was his first total solar eclipse, he should just drink it in rather than fussing with a camera. But Johnson figured this might be his first and last total solar eclipse and he was going to take photos anyway.
He snapped pictures at 8½ minute intervals starting with first contact.
“But I cheated and took a lot more pictures than that,” Johnson said as his camera beeped to signal it was time to snap another photo.
He plans to put them together to show the different phases as the moon crossed the sun and make prints to hang in his home.
As Bonadurer packed up equipment at the end of the eclipse, he wiped sweat from his face in the muggy, 90-plus degree heat and smiled. After four previous successful total solar eclipse trips around the world, he had run his streak to five.
“They’re all so exquisitely beautiful. They’re so rare. Even when you’re with 100 people all screaming, you can still have your own moment,” said Bonadurer, who is considering arranging another solar eclipse tour for the museum, to South America in 2019 or 2020.
For umbraphiles, the fancy name for eclipse chasers, total solar eclipses are like potato chips — it’s hard to stop at one. Many first-timers on the Milwaukee Public Museum trip were already pondering another trip to see a few minutes of totality.
They could return to Metropolis, Ill. — the next total solar eclipse in America in April 2024 will pass right through this spot again.
