i had been telling people about this upcoming totality for a while – months, years. astronomy has fascinated me my whole life and experiencing a solar eclipse – partial or total- represented a goal of mine for most of that time. the references to eclipses throughout literature and film embedded the idea deeper in my psyche. in 1994, I witnessed an annular solar eclipse and even took photos through my neighbor’s welding glasses. I told people the shadows “got weird” but no one really listened to or believed me. the Internet hegemony had not yet happened so knowledge of such things had no easy outlet nor did they receive a lot of coverage in the media – people just did not seem to care as much about such events. as wondrous as i found the annular eclipse, reading about the strangeness of a total solar eclipse drew me like nothing else. anything that disrupts the illusion of human civilization to remind us of our smallness in this vast universe gives me deep satisfaction and relief.
in 2017, my wife and two of my children drove 6.5 hours to experience our first total solar eclipse. that amount of travel time stacks up as insignificant next to some umbraphiles out there who fly all over the world chasing totality. something, I think, my wife and I have become because we have begun planning trips based on when and where total solar eclipses will happen. but then we have suddenly packed up the family on a weekend and headed 7 hours north on the off-chance we see the aurora when the Kp spikes to 7+, so maybe becoming umbraphiles did not mean we had to make a leap after all. the 2017 eclipse changed us forever. the reality of the world changing so radically and swiftly with a constant like our sun blocked for even a few minutes jars you to your core, transmogrifying the foundations of your sense of the world, and connecting you with a deep sense of wonder. we will not miss that experience again if we can help it.
at that time, we discovered that we would have a total solar eclipse with totality lasting almost 4 minutes right here in Muncie in 2024. we felt ecstatic! i mean, in just 7 years, we could STAND IN OUR BACKYARD and, once again, feel the awe of the shadow of the moon blot our our nearest star for a few minutes. words fail.
so, we planned and learned and kept reminding the kids and, as time got closer, made more concrete plans. we looked at maps to scope out locations to travel to if the forecast called for obscuring cloud cover. i kept saying we needed “to be agile” on that day. i warned my new boss at work last fall that i would not come to work that day. that day represented a deeply meaningful experience to me and i would not miss it. when 2 weeks of vacation months apart received approval but 08 april did not, i began preparing myself for formal reprimand or even dismissal from work. i had decided to take a stand because of the arbitrary nature of human institutions and they should only encroach into our lives so far before we set hard boundaries, letting them no further. i set a hard boundary for this event.
thankfully, my boss ok-ed my day off and all was well. i would have all of my kids with me that day with a few extras: a significant other, a best friend, and a sister (my wife’s). we gathered together, a couple of us driving 6 hours. i had bought a spotting scope (i had meant to buy a proper telescope but i did not make that happen), solar filter film to put over the lens of the spotting scope and our binoculars, special eclipse glasses for us as stocking stuffers at yule, and several free ones from the libraries just in case. i made a big breakfast feast for my wife, 2 of my kids, and 1 of the extras. we then drove around town to see what we could see. to find out if the expected crowds had descended upon muncie like the city planners anticipated. they did not. nevertheless, things were happening and there were a bit more people than usual, especially for a monday. it felt more like a saturday afternoon or evening.
the weather proved beautiful. we stayed outside sitting on blankets or chairs under our popup sunshade. some of us took photos and i got some video and photos through my new spotting scope. unfortunately, the tripod did not work so i had to switch out with an old one that was broken and needed to be held by hand which meant my photos and videos were not crisp. heavy sigh. neither did i have a tracking motor to make the images rock solid. my daughter did get some awesome shots though just with her camera on her phone. amazing the tech we have now. in ‘94, i had an SLR loaded with actual film that i then developed and printed in my bathroom darkroom. it took hours for me to find out if my photos were any good. now, it’s instantaneous.
only 4 of us – my youngest daughter, my son, me, and my wife- had experienced totality before. the rest had not. as time approached and the moon bit further and further into the sun, we all commented on the light and strangeness. my wife and i taught everyone how to make pinhole cameras/projectors with their fingers or a colander or holes poked in paper. tree frogs sang a bit at the same time before and after totality, bees and other insects landed, dandelions and tulips closed up a bit, the 360 degree sunset surrounded us, and pulled remarks out of our mouths. when the moon tripped over into totality and the full shadow hit us, we all made noises. we wondered and gasped and soaked it in. my wife pulled off the filter on my spotting scope so i could get better images but she pulled my makeshift filter apart – no matter, because it had done its job.
for those 3 minutes and 40 seconds, we stood as simple hominids, humble before the majesty and power of our cosmos. later that week, someone would walk into my work and say that this event was the first to truly pull people together and out of the malaise we’ve all labored under since the pandemic. i had not thought about it in those terms before but that concept clicked for me, it really DID help and DID represent a coming-together of humans in a very positive and uplifting way. we all shared this transcendent experience, changing even those initially disdainful – most of them, anyway. the profound sadness and bewilderment i feel for people that reject this kind of thing overwhelms me sometimes.
after totality, we watched the moon move on and the partial eclipse wane. soon, those gathered at my house would all leave. i had prepared and hoped for an after fellowship of games, chatting, grilling out, and just basking in what we had seen. that was not to be. the burdens of human civilization and society kicked back in too quickly for me. i wanted it to last and last and last.