A total solar eclipse is coming to Northeast Ohio on April 8, and there have already been stories about the event in the news. Many more will be coming, I’m sure. It’s a pretty big deal. My family and I traveled to Western Kentucky to witness a total solar eclipse in 2017. It was definitely worth the trip. I would like to share that memorable experience with you in hopes that you will be prepared for what might be coming our way in the spring. . .
Heading into the unknown
My wife and I, and our two young sons, rose from our sleep in a hotel room in downtown Louisville on Aug. 21, 2017. I was excited, and somewhat uncertain that morning. Our goal was to see a total solar eclipse, but we still needed to travel some two hours into rural Western Kentucky to find a spot to witness it. I had never been to this part of Kentucky before, and was not exactly sure where we were headed.
Fortunately, it was a bright sunny day — just perfect for a solar eclipse. We had traveled to this area in Kentucky because it was one of the closest places to Bedford where we would have the opportunity to see a solar eclipse in its “totality.” That is, we would be able to see the moon completely cover the sun. Many places in the United States that day could see a partial eclipse, (if the observers wore their special eclipse sunglasses) — including where we came from in Bedford. The partial eclipse is when the moon moves over the sun, but only covers a portion of it. (In some cases the sun ends up kind of looking like a Pac Man.)
A partial solar eclipse casts a slight shadow — to varying degrees — over a large part of the earth. The sun still shines, but since some of it is covered up by the moon, the sky may dim slightly. This faint shadow is called the penumbra.
What’s the Big Deal?
What makes the eclipse we traveled to see in 2017, and the one coming this year to the Cleveland area, so special is that there won’t be a dim shadow over the area; the sun as we know it basically goes out. As the moon completely covers the sun, it will cast a pinpoint shadow, called the umbra, that will move across parts of Ohio like a black laser beam. The track of the shadow is called the “Path of Total Solar Eclipse” and those of us in Northeast Ohio won’t need to travel to get into this path. The path will be traveling right over Cleveland. According to www.eclipseovercleveland.com, part of the 124-mile-wide umbra will pass right over Public Square, and the totality there will last close to three minutes and 20 seconds . Since we are in the middle of the action, we can expect other travelers from different parts of the county to flock here from other places to see “our” eclipse.
Flocking to a special place in Kentucky
On that morning in 2017, there were many options where we could have stopped to look at the totality since the umbra shadow was miles across. If anyone was in that range they could see a total eclipse for at least a few seconds to up to two-and-a-half minutes. In looking at the map, we decided on an area near the cities of Russelville and Hopkinsville. The drive that morning seemed normal, not crowded at all on the highway. The exact spot where we saw the eclipse that day eludes me, but it was a beautiful park with rolling hills and a few trees. We arrived some time before noon, and the temperature was close to 90 degrees.
At the park, more and more people continued to arrive. In the meantime, we used our solar glasses every few minutes to view the progress of the moon as it “ate away” at the sun’s golden disc in the sky. First, the moon covered just a little piece of the sun. Soon, the sun looked more and more like Pac Man as the moon went over more of it. When we weren’t checking on the progress of the moon over the sun, we just waited and played games or read books. We took some pictures of the surroundings, including the shapes the sun made as it shone through the trees onto the ground. You could actually see little partial eclipses on the ground as the sun shone through the leaves. (See photos.)
Interestingly enough, the time it takes the moon to pass over the sun during an eclipse can be about 2-and-a-half hours from beginning to end. It is the time right in the middle, though — the totality — that is really the exciting part.
During most of the eclipse there was really no indication the sun was being covered up as far as the amount of light being given off. It wasn’t until a few minutes before the 1:26 p.m. totality time that the sky began to become strangely dimmer. It felt as if the time had gone from afternoon to dusk in the span of only a few minutes. All hands were at the eclipse glasses now, as we witnessed the moon coming closer and closer to covering the sun. The nighttime lights began to come on around the area, the birds began their before-bed chatter and it felt like it was time to turn in for the night.
And then there it was. We were in totality.
The Total Eclipse
And for roughly two minutes we were able to take our glasses off and witness an amazing, otherworldly sight. We could see the pitch-black disk of the moon covering all of the sun except for slivers of light shining out from the edges. But it wasn’t brilliant sunlight (or else we wouldn’t have been able to look); it was a beautiful milky whitish trail of light glowing around the shape of the moon.
I tried to soak in as much of the sight as I could, knowing that in a few short minutes we would have to put our glasses back on. I actually waited a little too long and saw the small blinding disk of the sun peaking over the edge of the moon. It was a brilliant , blinding white, like a sparkling diamond, but I think it may ultimately may have hurt my eyes. (Be very careful not to look at the sun directly!)
As the sunlight began to emerge once again, the people present began to start packing up. While there was still a partial eclipse going on the that would last a while until the moon passed the sun completely, everybody had seen what they had come to see. While there were a number of people with us at the park, it was not at all crowded. We waited for most of the them to leave, and just spent time enjoying the day before we left. I thought there might be some traffic, so to let everyone clear out of the area, we decided to stop at Subway to get something to eat. We had fun taking bites out of our cookies and making them look like they were being “eclipsed.”
Our goal for returning home was to make the trip back to Bedford the same day. When we left Subway and headed northeast, there was still a slow line of cars going the same way. Since it was taking us a long time to get out of that part of Kentucky, we decided to stop at Mammoth Cave to explore a little and wait for the traffic flow to lighten. I was very naive. When we finally got back on the highway, the traffic was almost at a standstill. We tried a backroad and it was lined up as well and moving slowly. I had never seen traffic like this before. Later, I read news articles that said those traveling to see the eclipse may have caused the largest migration in the United States for a natural event. See story here.
We did not make it back home that night. Instead, we stayed in a hotel in Indiana. One of the reasons for writing this article is to encourage everyone to try to see the eclipse coming to the Cleveland area on April 8. The second reason is to warn people of the possible traffic gridlock visitors could bring from outside the area as they are visiting to see the best view of the totality.
For even more information, there will also be an in-person presentation at the Bedford Public Library called Eclipse Over Cleveland for adults, on Saturday, February 24, at 11:00 a.m.
The following article is a great one to read in preparing for the 2024 Eclipse. Click here.
According to the site, the total eclipse is set to pass through Northeast Ohio after 3:00 p.m. This means the eclipse is set to occur around the time most schools will be letting out. Here is the current list of Northeast Ohio Schools that will be closed on April 8.
Many of the scientific facts used for this article are taken from the publication “The Great American Eclipse Summer 2017” Magazine
