Everyone's eclipse: America comes together in the moon's shadow
| Salem, Ore., and Hopkinsville, Ky.
After all the hype and all the media attention and the lyrical first-hand accounts about the power of a total eclipse, there is just this: a dark circle in the sky where the sun should be. A luminescent ring that shimmers in strange ways. Stars and planets emerging in a twilight sky at聽10:19聽in the morning. And thousands of people in a hushed awe, giving a collective gasp, as together they watch a sky that seems completely unworldly.
For a few hours on Monday, millions of Americans across the country set aside the political rancor and social tension that have dominated public discourse in past months and weeks to witness the Great American Eclipse 鈥� together.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 what makes it so special,鈥� says Mike Kentrianakis, solar eclipse project manager for the American Astronomical Society, who has seen 10 total solar eclipses. 鈥淚t鈥檚 an astronomical phenomenon that鈥檚 a shared human experience.鈥�
The shadow of the moon doesn鈥檛 discriminate. During a solar eclipse, everything 鈥� cities and mountainsides; humans, animals, and plants; Republicans and Democrats; Red Sox and Yankees fans 鈥� in the path of totality goes dark, and anyone can look up and see the deep black sphere, ringed in light, where the sun used to be.
A total solar eclipse is 鈥渁 deeply human experience that makes you feel connected to other people alive today, part of a continuum of humanity 鈥� connected to the past and to the future,鈥� says eclipse chaser聽David Baron. 鈥淎 total eclipse reminds you of your insignificance. It鈥檚 this sense of being humbled. Frankly, I think we all could use that.鈥�
Indeed, as the moon began to slide in front of the sun, a quiet fell over the crowd gathered on聽Orchardale Farm in Hopkinsville, Ky.聽As totality began, at 1:24 local time, there were cheers. Hoots. Hollers. And then an electric hush fell over the crowd. As the sun reemerged, people turned to new friends they had just met that day, exchanged goodbyes, and vowed to find a way to catch the next eclipse.
A rare celestial treat
The Earth, moon, and sun haven鈥檛 aligned for a total solar eclipse on the mainland United States since 1979. For such a rare event to occur, the moon鈥檚 orbit must cross the Earth鈥檚 orbital plane at a close enough distance that it completely obscures the sun, while the planet is tilted in just the right way for the US to be aligned with the sun and moon as well.聽A solar eclipse can be seen somewhere on Earth about every 18 months, on average. But the moon鈥檚 shadow last slid from coast-to-coast in the United States in 1918.聽
鈥淭he geometry is almost ideal for being accessible to many millions of Americans,鈥� says Michael Zeiler, a cartographer who created the Great American Eclipse website. 鈥淥ver half of the nation can reach the path within a day鈥檚 drive.鈥�
And drive they did,聽though fears of hours-long traffic jams on highways leading toward the path of totality this morning proved largely unfounded.
Mary Ludwig of聽La Crescent, Minn., drove 15 hours聽to Kentucky with her husband and three of her children, whom she homeschools.聽Mrs. Ludwig planned the trip as both an educational and spiritual experience for her children.聽The family spent Sunday night watching shooting stars from sleeping bags聽atop the family van, which was scrawled with eclipse-related vocabulary. She hopes they see the聽eclipse as an opportunity to step away from short-term, negative human experiences and to ponder 鈥渢he bigger picture of life鈥� and to 鈥渃ome together聽in a positive community.鈥�
A woman who describes her self as the 鈥淰oodoo Bone Lady鈥� traveled from New Orleans to Kentucky with a聽Mandarin rat snake聽named Damballah聽to conduct a ritual "for peace and for unity.鈥�
鈥淥ver the past few months, it has saddened me the way this country is going, with all the racism, the hatred, the bigotry,鈥澛爏he says.
In Salem, Ore., Rick D鈥橝lli traveled all the way from Gainesville, Fla., to Oregon to view the eclipse with his friend Jon Fink, with whom he used to work in the NASA labs in the early 1980s.
For him, the experience is amplified by its collective nature. 鈥淚t鈥檚 about seeing so many people with kids of all ages, ethnicities of all ages, brought together to experience, together, a miracle of nature that so trivializes the political theater,鈥� Mr. D鈥橝lli says.
A political reprieve
This isn鈥檛 the first eclipse to bring a polarized nation together, says Mr. Baron, a journalist聽and author of 鈥淎merican Eclipse.鈥澛營n researching the 1878 eclipse, which passed over the American West, he says he was struck by many parallels to present-day America.
In 1878, he notes, America was still fighting over the last presidential election, in which Republican Rutherford B. Hayes had won the electoral vote but lost the popular vote, and there were charges of a fraudulent presidency.
鈥淭he nation was bitterly divided, but here was a shared event that was completely nonpolitical that the whole country got behind,鈥� Baron says. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 claim that it had some long-lasting effect on politics, but it certainly provided a welcome distraction and a chance for Americans to unite around a shared moment of joy and excitement.鈥�
With Monday鈥檚 eclipse, Baron and others have highlighted the proximity and mixing of 鈥渢ribes鈥� that is, by necessity, happening 鈥� especially as sold-out hotel rooms force travelers to book Airbnbs, camp on people鈥檚 land, and stay in their spare rooms. New Yorkers traveled to Hopkinsville, Ky; liberals from Boulder and Denver drove up to rural Wyoming.
Ahead of the eclipse, Baron told the Monitor, 鈥淚t鈥檚 going to force that contact around something that will be shared, and it鈥檚 hard to believe it鈥檚 controversial in any way.鈥�
Some people organized gatherings specifically with that sort of mixing in mind. Ross Matteson, a sculptor from Washington who owns a small piece of land in central Idaho, has been planning an event for more than a year to bring artists, academics, and scientists to mix with his rural ranching and farming neighbors in Idaho.
鈥淓verybody can learn from everybody,鈥� says Mr. Matteson.
United in awe of the universe
Eclipse chasers, also called 鈥渦mbraphiles,鈥� struggle to find the words for the power this event can hold.
鈥淚t鈥檚 almost as if you鈥檙e lifted off the surface of the Earth,鈥� says Mr. Zeiler, who has seen eight total eclipses in his life, from the equatorial rainforests of Gabon to the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, Norway. 鈥淵our spirit is elevated by the incredible beauty of the sight, and you feel a stronger connection to the universe, and a lot of the problems we have on Earth seem petty once you鈥檝e had that experience.鈥�
A solar eclipse is so much more than a spectacular sight, says Mike Simmons, founder and president of Astronomers Without Borders, who has seen seven total solar eclipses. 鈥淎 total eclipse is not so much something that you see, it鈥檚 something that happens to you.鈥�
鈥淲hether it鈥檚 the shadow sweeping in and leaping over you, or the eeriness of the strange light that precedes the eclipse before things go dark and the stars come out, or the incredibly black-looking hole where the sun used to be with this pearlescent sort of corona around it that no camera can capture, or the animals that think it鈥檚 nighttime and start making noise and coming out, or the yells and whoops of the people around, it鈥檚 an experience which cannot be simulated or understood,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 like traveling to another planet in a Star Wars movie, suddenly.鈥�
Solar eclipses aren鈥檛 the only celestial sights that capture universal attention. Astronomy overall transcends divides, says Mr. Simmons. And that鈥檚 the premise behind his organization, Astronomers Without Borders, which connects skygazers from nations as disparate as the United States, Iran, Ghana, Bulgaria, Brazil, and the Philippines.
Around the world, anyone can look up and see the same sky, the same moon, and the same sun, just from a different vantage point, Simmons says. And that can lend a unifying perspective.
鈥淲e're getting a different view of the same thing. This shows us that we're on a sphere, a little speck amidst everything, but we are really in the same place,鈥澛爃e says. 鈥淓arth seems like a big place to us, but it's not really such a big place after all.鈥�
That's the impression that the moment left on Gretchen Millard after totality passed the state fairgrounds in Salem, Ore.
鈥淚t was so much more amazing than I expected,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t was so surreal.鈥� The experience, she says, made her realize that 鈥渢his world is bigger than us. And this world is going to keep going. It鈥檚 bigger than our petty stuff. Bigger than us.鈥�
