Eclipse

April 08, 2024

I have got to jump on the hype for the eclipse that passed through Arkansas this afternoon.  Areas in totality have been preparing for this event for a year, and hype ramped up over the last weeks as several million people are predicted to visit the state over the weekend.  I beat the rush in preparing for today’s eclipse.  We were part of the partial eclipse in Kansas during 2017.  I purchased a pair of eclipse glasses for that event and saved them as a memento.  I kept these on my office desks as a memento.  Several weeks before today’s event I bought another pair of glasses (US$1) so Melissa and I could watch the eclipse together.  We purchased sandwiches and were ready to sit on the back patio and watch the sun go away.  Melissa called me outside about an hour before the scheduled time and I reached for my glasses.  They were not there.  My desk is always filled with piles of paper, so I thought they were just covered.  I moved everything on my desk and searched the surroundings several times.  They were not there.  I reluctantly went outside to watch without my pair of glasses.  Luckily, I had bought Melissa another pair.  They were the only ones we had.   

When I looked online, I found today’s total solar eclipse will be visible to 32 million people in its path of totality.  A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun and obscures the image of the Sun on Earth.  A total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon’s apparent diameter is larger than the Sun’s, blocking all direct sunlight and essentially turning the day into darkness.  Totality only occurs in a narrow path across Earth’s surface, while the partial solar eclipse is visible over thousands of miles (km).  Today’s eclipse occurs one day after the Moon’s nearest point (perigee) of orbit around the Earth (April 7, 2024), making the Moon’s diameter appear 5.5% larger than average.  The magnitude of an eclipse is a fraction of the angular diameter of a celestial body being eclipsed and applies to all celestial eclipses.  The magnitude of a total solar eclipse is always greater than or equal to 1.0 and has a theoretical maximum value of around 1.12.  With a magnitude of 1.0566, today’s eclipse’s longest duration of totality will be of 4 minutes and 28.13 seconds about 4 miles (6 km) north of Nazas, Durango, Mexico.  It will take 1 hour and 8 minutes for the Moon’s shadow to traverse the US from Texas to Maine, crossing parts of 15 states.

A lot of the hype surrounding the eclipse focused on what effect this would have on animals.  My birder sites suggested I observe bird behavior and report back.  The main effect seemed to be confusion about the time of day.  As the eclipse began swarms of European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) took to the air and as totality approached roosted in the nearby trees.  A pair of Eurasian collared doves (Streptopelia decaocto) roosted in a nearby tree and proceeded to mate.  The Eastern bluebirds (Sialia sialis) returned to their birdhouse nest on our deck.  The other passerine birds that had been at the feeders earlier had vanished, presumably roosting as well.  The only apparent effect on Zena and Loki was from the sandwiches that sparked their interest.  This seemed to be a bigger event for humans (and Melissa and me) than for any of the fauna we observed. 

THOUGHTS:  Tok Thompson, professor of anthropology at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, says the impulse to treat the eclipse as a special occasion goes beyond its rarity and is grounded in the profound meaning humans ascribe to the sun and the moon.  The 2017 eclipse in the US was the first in 99 years and for some a herald of declining American power after 99 years of ascendancy.  The April 8 eclipse inspired civic predictions, conspiracy theories, and prophetic forecasts.  Thompson believes drawing meaning from an eclipse stem from our human desire to understand our place in the cosmos.  While this is a valid question, the eclipse’s answers may be closer to Zena wanting part of my sandwich.  Act for all.  Change is coming and it starts with you.