Hundreds turn out for eclipse-watching event at Rancho Sierra Vista park in Newbury Park

"Totally awesome. Once in a lifetime. Super killer. Loved it."

That's how Demian Lecuyer, 42, a software engineer from Thousand Oaks, described the peak of Monday's solar eclipse right after he watched it about 10:20 a.m. through special solar glasses to protect his eyes.

Lecuyer was one of about 800 to 1,000 people who viewed the eclipse near the Satwiwa Native American Indian Culture Center in Rancho Sierra Vista national park in Newbury Park. The event was hosted by the National Park Service.

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The eclipse was the first one visible in the continental United States in 38 years. 

"Oh my gosh," said Vilma Gonzalez, of Westlake Village, looking at the eclipse with her two grandchildren. "It's the most amazing thing. I'm just like in awe. This hardly ever happens. I wanted my grandchildren to experience this wonderful event today."

A solar eclipse occurs when the sun, the moon and the earth form a straight line. For people watching it on earth, that results in the sun being obscured by the moon.

In Ventura County, as in most of California, the eclipse, which started about 9 a.m., was only a partial one. Experts estimated that about 62 percent of the sun was covered at the peak.

The eclipse was a total one in other states, including Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Kentucky and South Carolina.

Adrian Bailey, 32, and his girlfriend, Dorothy Murphy, drove from Las Vegas to watch it at Rancho Sierra Vista.

"We drove here basically for the visibility," he said. "We pretty much Googled a bunch of spots where you could see a bit more of the eclipse, so that's what brought us here."

After the eclipse began in earnest but before the peak, Bailey said he was glad he and Murphy had made the trip.

"I wasn't expecting so much" of the sun to be covered, he said. "It is something to see and this location makes it all the more worthwhile." 

Peering at the eclipse through his solar glasses, Kerry Perkins, of Simi Valley, said, "it looks like a crescent moon up there."

Perkins, a photographer for the National Park Service, added that "it's great to see so many people come out here today."

David Szymanski, the superintendent of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, said there was a bigger turnout for the event than the park service had anticipated.

"We thought 550 pairs of solar glasses we had would be enough, but it was not," he said.

He estimated the crowd at 800-1000. The park service hosted similar events in Calabasas and Los Angeles.

Sophie St. Amand, 11, and her twin brother, Jack, of Newbury Park, watched the eclipse with their mother.

"It was really cool," Sophie said. "The sun looked like the moon at night."

Her brother concurred.

"I thought it was cool too because it was like you actually got to look at the sun," he said. 

The coolness factor wasn't limited to children.

"It is so cool," said Judy Garcia, 71, a retired travel agent from Newbury Park, looking at the eclipse's peak. "I've been walking from a long way because the parking lots were full by the time I got here.

"So I kept putting these (solar glasses) on and look at the eclipse for a minute and then walking some more and then stopping and putting them on again," she said.

The event also featured Chumash Indians telling sky stories and children's junior ranger activities tied to the eclipse

The crowd began to break up and head back to their cars soon after the eclipse peaked. Even as they did, latecomers were still straggling in. 

More information on the eclipse can be found at https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov.