2017 Eclipse: From students to vacationers, everyone was looking up in the sky

Laura Ruane
The News-Press
The solar eclipse as seen from the Pink Shell Resort at Fort Myers Beach on Monday, August 21, 2017.

Awe-inspiring. A living science lesson.

Cherished time relaxing with friends or family.

That’s a few slices of the Southwest Florida experience watching the first solar eclipse in 99 years to sweep from sea to shining sea in the USA.

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The 70-mile-wide shadow path of the eclipse, known as the “path of totality,” rolled across the country diagonally, appearing first in Oregon and exiting some 2,500 miles east and 90 minutes later off the coast of South Carolina.

Lee County was more than 1,000 miles from that path, which meant the eclipse wouldn’t be complete.

Still, many of us hungered for a piece of the eclipse pie.

That translated into such experiences as varied as viewing the eclipse from a solar telescope in front of Fort Myers’ Calusa Nature Center & Planetarium to slurping-up free yogurt at Yogurt Mountain in Estero.

The U.S. Postal Service held a noontime dedication ceremony for the Total Eclipse of the Sun Forever stamp at the Calusa nature center.

This first-of-its-kind U.S. stamp transforms into an image of the moon from the heat of a person’s finger. Once cooled, the image reverts back to the eclipse.

The Northwest Regional Library in Cape Coral threw a solar eclipse party for teens.

The solar eclipse as seen from the Northwest Regional Library in Cape Coral. Southwest Florida saw 78 percent of the sun covered as moon crossed its path at 2:53 p.m. on Monday.  Zoe Sedorchuk and Emma McWilliam watched from the library.

 

From Missouri and the path of totality, Caloosa Middle School science teacher Aaron Rys fielded questions from students from Cape Coral and other corners of Lee County.

Verity Everitt and her husband Craig of Sheffield, England, relax while watching the eclipse at the Pink Shell Resort on Fort Myers Beach on Monday, August 21, 2017.

But for some, the motto was: “It’s better on the beach.”

With that in mind, the Pink Shell Beach Resort & Marina on Fort Myers Beach had eclipse sunglasses for its guests and staff.

Vacationers inclined to watch the sky did so from the shallow Gulf waters, from the busy swimming pool or from chaise lounges. A cornhole game between a father and son went on uninterrupted.

For six 60-something women visiting the resort from Alexandria, Kentucky, the eclipse was a side treat, but not the main event.

This was their 26th annual vacation together since becoming friends at a church retreat. As they relaxed near the Gulf shoreline, they cheerfully agreed the better view of the eclipse probably was from their hometown in northern Kentucky.

They had no regrets about their chosen getaway. “It was awesome. Being here together, and doing this on the beach probably added to the thrill,” said Linda Herms, the group’s designated eclipse expert.

The solar eclipse as seen from the Northwest Regional Library in Cape Coral. Southwest Florida saw 78 percent of the sun covered as moon crossed its path at 2:53 p.m. on Monday.  From bottom to top are Emmy Perez, Lizz Delgado, Shaliana Class Victor Marquez and Antwon Hill.

Roughly 1,000 miles away — in a parking lot near Jefferson City, Missouri — Rys, the science teacher from Caloosa Middle School, sweat out some technical difficulties.

Rys was thrilled when Principal Ann Cole championed  his “crazy idea” to stream photos of the eclipse from his telescope and field questions live from schoolchildren in Lee County.

When the feed from the telescope didn’t work out, school district IT staff jumped in, pulling up photos from NASA and other sources. Rys narrated; he and district employee-and-former-science-instructor Lee Hughes juggled the mostly emailed questions — more than 400 of them. Rys even got a question from his brother, who’s stationed in Greece with the Navy.

Rys was still pumped-up more than an hour after totality had left Missouri. “I hope it inspired kids and got them excited about science,” Rys said.

Thanks to today’s technology, he noted, “they had an experience … nobody had before.”