Thomas County students experience wonder of solar eclipse

Apr. 9—THOMASVILLE- Garrison-Pilcher students were filled with excitement on Monday afternoon as they witnessed the solar eclipse and the gender reveal for one of their expectant teachers.

First-grade teachers Danielle Carter and Kasey McKenzie had been prepping their young students on the big happenings of the day by having them attend the traveling planetarium, which was recently housed at Garrison-Pilcher, before sharing with them an animated video about the solar eclipse.

"The kids were so pumped, they kept asking if it was time yet," Carter said.

McKenzie agreed, sharing that one of her students brought her own glasses for the event, despite glasses being provided by the school for all students participating.

To add to the excitement of the day, teachers gathered around and shot off colored powder, revealing the gender of Carter's baby.

"Before spring break, all the kids wore either pink or blue and all the classes took a vote," McKenzie said.

The teachers decided to reveal the big surprise on a day when all the students were gathered together, sharing in Carter's big moment. Following a countdown, the teachers shot off blue poppers, indicating Carter would be having a baby boy, much to the joy of the students.

After the hugs and cheers, the kids settled down once again to lean back and watch the solar eclipse with their glasses.

Second graders Magnolia Sitton and Aubreigh Wharton were two of the hundreds of children participating in the big day's events.

Wharton said they had learned in class that the moon can cover the sun, which is what they would be witnessing outside that afternoon.

Sitton said they knew they would not be able to see the entire sun covered in the Thomasville area, but they were still excited to watch. She noted her mom had even created a cardboard box with holes to see the eclipse through.

The partial eclipse began at 1:44 p.m. and ended at 4:18 p.m. with the moon obscuring approximately 69.4% of the sun at its peak.

Eclipse mania gripped all of Mexico, the U.S., and Canada, as the moon swept in front of the sun, blotting out daylight. Almost everyone in North America was guaranteed at least a partial eclipse, weather permitting, according to an Associated Press report.

It was the continent's biggest eclipse audience ever, with a couple hundred million people living in or near the shadow's path, plus scores of out-of-towners flocking in.

Clouds blanketed most of Texas as the total solar eclipse began its diagonal dash across land, starting along Mexico's mostly clear Pacific coast and aiming for Texas and 14 other U.S. states, before exiting into the North Atlantic near Newfoundland.

Just east of Dallas, the hundreds gathered at Mesquite's downtown area cheered and whistled as the clouds parted in the final minutes before totality. As the sun finally became cloaked, the crowd grew louder, whipping off their eclipse glasses to soak in the unforgettable view of the sun's corona, or spiky outer atmosphere, and Venus shining brilliantly off to the right.

City officials reminded everyone that the last total solar eclipse in these parts was in the 1870s, making this one all the more special. Eclipse-themed music was turned off as the big moment approached.

"Oh God, it's so dark," marveled Aiyana Brown, 14, who watched alongside her grandfather, Mesquite Mayor Daniel Aleman Jr. "I'm a huge science nerd, and this is amazing."

Arkansas and northeast New England were the best bets in the U.S., going into Monday's spectacle. New Brunswick and Newfoundland in Canada also looked promising.

The show got underway in the Pacific before noon EDT. As the darkness of totality reached the Mexican resort city of Mazatlán, the faces of spectators were illuminated only by the screens of their cell phones.

The cliff-hanging uncertainty added to the drama. But the overcast skies in Mesquite near Dallas didn't rattle Erin Froneberger, who was in town for business and brought along her eclipse glasses.

"We are always just rushing, rushing, rushing," she said. "But this is an event that we can just take a moment, a few seconds that it's going to happen and embrace it."

Sara Laneau, of Westfield, Vermont, woke up at 4 a.m. Monday to take her 16-year-old niece to nearby Jay Peak ski resort to catch the eclipse after a morning on the slopes.

"This will be a first from me and an experience of a lifetime," said Laneau, who was dressed in a purple metallic ski suit with a solar eclipse T-shirt underneath.

At Niagara Falls State Park, tourists streamed in under cloudy skies with wagons, strollers, coolers, and lawn chairs. Park officials expected a large crowd at the popular site overlooking the falls.

During Monday's full eclipse, the moon slipped right in front of the sun, entirely blocking it. The resulting twilight, with only the sun's outer atmosphere or corona visible, would be long enough for birds and other animals to fall silent, and for planets, stars, and maybe even a comet to pop out.

The out-of-sync darkness lasted up to 4 minutes and 28 seconds. That's almost twice as long as it was during the U.S. coast-to-coast eclipse seven years ago because the moon is closer to Earth. It will be another 21 years before the U.S. sees another total solar eclipse on this scale.

It took just 1 hour, and 40 minutes for the moon's shadow to race more than 4,000 miles (6,500 kilometers) across the continent.

Eye protection is needed with proper eclipse glasses and filters to look at the sun, except when it ducks completely out of sight during an eclipse.

The path of totality — approximately 115 miles (185 kilometers) wide — encompassed several major cities this time, including Dallas; Indianapolis; Cleveland; Buffalo, New York; and Montreal.

An estimated 44 million people live within the track, with a couple hundred million more within 200 miles (320 kilometers).

"This may be the most viewed astronomical event in history," said National Air and Space Museum curator Teasel Muir-Harmony, standing outside the museum in Washington, awaiting a partial eclipse.