by
Madeleine Kando
We left Boston early Sunday morning, the day before the 2024 Solar Eclipse. We have friends who live close to the Canadian border, who invited us to watch it from their house. The path of the eclipse crosses their property, as it travels from Mexico to Maine, so we did not hesitate to accept their invitation.
After countless visits to ‘Bear Rock’, the place where our friends live, we have developed a routine. The small town of Plymouth, New Hampshire has become our pit stop on this five-hour journey. We stop for coffee and muffins before we enter the White Mountains. In the hazy distance, we see the mighty snow-covered Mount Washington, branded as one of the deadliest mountains in the world. It is not particularly tall at 6,000 feet, but has some of the most extreme weather, with the highest surface wind speed ever observed by man – 231 miles per hour.
We drive through Franconia Notch, a major mountain pass, which was home to the Old Man of the Mountain, a rock formation in the shape of a face. But in 2003 the Old Man first lost his nose and then completely collapsed. Still, the notch is impressive with or without it.
Our friends are a breed apart. Almost half a century ago, they bought a piece of land for a smitten in this forgotten nook of New Hampshire. They are city transplants, and living in an area where everyone has known each other since they were born, they will always be the couple from ‘somewhere else’. They live a solitary life, with their two horses on 300 acres. But they love it.
As we drive up to their house, we see Marc on the porch looking up at the sky, testing his eclipse glasses. He fiddles with the glasses, looks up, and fiddles some more. He doesn’t see us. I call him, but he is hard of hearing and doesn’t hear me. Finally, he comes over in his slippers through the snow. We hug and go inside where we find Helen in front of the stove, preparing one of her delicious meals.
We drink some prosecco and talk mostly about tomorrow’s event. ‘Why don’t we have a solar eclipse every month, when the moon is between the earth and the sun?’ I ask to no one in particular. But there is no interest.
So I look it up. It has to do with the tilt of the orbit of the moon, whose shadow misses the earth during most of its orbit. It is only when the moon lines up exactly between the sun and the earth that there is a solar eclipse, but 95% of the time, the path of an eclipse travels over the oceans.
Martha, a neighbor, has Adirondack deck chairs. Those must have sold like hotcakes for this particular event since they allow you to lean back at watch the sky without getting a sore neck.
Had Marc not become a psychiatrist, he could have had a successful career as a standup comedian. With his bushy, greying hair that makes him look like Einstein and intelligent eyes that are determined to make fun of everything in the world, he is a born entertainer.
The dinner is simple: salad, baked potatoes, and a delicious dessert. Helen announces around 8 that she is going to bed. Hans and I drive up to the pool house that has a small apartment upstairs. I take one of my numerous trips to the bathroom and don’t bother to turn on the light. A mouse appears in the doorway, probably thinking it’s safe and dark. It almost crashes into my legs before it realizes that there is a human in her territory. It does a hurried about-face, its back legs slipping on the linoleum. The next morning I see that it stole some cotton balls on the counter and left a little turd in return.
The next day is a gorgeous, sunny day. Already we hear cars in the distance. People have come from all over the country to this remote location, because it is on the path of ‘totality’ of the eclipse.
It’s time to bring out the big guns: Adirondack chairs, eclipse glasses, and beer. Like spectators at a football game, we all line up on the porch. It is so peaceful with no sign that fifteen minutes later, this enormous ball of fire will start its disappearance act, all because of a measly little moon, 400 times smaller.
We all compete to see who will notice the moon’s first bite. You cannot see the main actor in this play. It is a ‘new moon, which is invisible. The only time you can ‘see’ a new moon is during a solar eclipse.
It is slowly getting colder now. We started out in t-shirts, but now the jackets come out, the socks, and finally the blankets. The shadows on the ground get longer as the moon gobbles up more and more of the sun. Even when what is left of the sun is a small sliver, it doesn’t seem to affect how much light there is.
But then, abruptly, day turns into night. It is the most incredible thing I have ever seen. In a matter of 15 seconds, we are bathed in darkness. We take our glasses off and look into the sun, which is now completely covered by the moon, a black circle, surrounded by the sun’s corona, almost white in color. This is the only time you can see the corona with the naked eye since the sun’s brightness usually makes it impossible. A black disk surrounded by a pure white halo.
A 360-degree sunrise has appeared. How can there be a sunrise when the sun is high in the sky? Later we figure out that what we see is the sunlight outside of the small band of ‘totality’, in which we are standing. It is like a spotlight on a stage, except in reverse. Helen is overwhelmed with emotions. She has never seen her beloved Bear Rock in this light.
The total eclipse only lasts a few minutes, but it is one of those rare minutes that seem to last a lifetime. Then, as abruptly as day turned into night, daylight comes back.
It takes a while before the temperature goes back to normal. The moon takes its sweet time to give us back our star.
Solar eclipses are not that rare. There is one every 18 months or so, somewhere on earth. You could become an ‘umbraphile’, a person that chases eclipses. Instead of waiting 400 years for the next total eclipse to hit you in the comfort of your own home, you could experience one every 18 months. If you have enough time and money.
But the narrow band that the eclipse traces over the surface of the earth is only about 100 miles wide. Two-thirds of eclipses are only visible in the oceans since most of the surface of the earth is water. Only whales and dolphins need eclipse glasses to witness that event.
Nothing Lasts Forever
You might think that cosmic events like solar eclipses are here to stay. It’s just a matter of being in the right place at the right time. But they will not be around forever. The moon is very slowly moving away from Earth at a rate of about 1.5 inches per year. Eventually, the moon will not be large enough to completely cover the sun, and total eclipses will no longer be visible. The surface of the Earth will experience its final total eclipse of the sun in about a billion years from now.
So, when you stand in the lunar shadow watching the moon pass between Earth and the sun, revel in the knowledge that you are witnessing one of the most unusual and spectacular events in the cosmos. leave comment here
