by Indianapolis, IN – For the past few weeks, 9-year-old Kaleb Boone has been on the horizon. He’s mapping, he’s measuring, he’s plotting, and he’s thinking hard about the weather. The reason is simple. That’s what any astrologer should do when anticipating a major cosmic event.
When the Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks boomerangs back towards us after many years walking on the outer solar system, scientists will be ready to capture it in action thanks to their careful careful calculation. When the giant star Betelgeuse it reaches the tipping point and explodes someday, although we don’t know when that day will be, there is a structure in place to prevent the loss of any of that supernova juicy data. Boone, however, has his eye on perhaps the most fascinating space muse of all: Our star, the sun.
He wants to know the best place from which he and his family can watch the 2024 in total eclipse the sun, when the moon will cross between our planet and the face of its golden yellow anchor, plunging the Earth’s lucky streak into a few minutes of night during the day. Fortunately, Boone is already in Indiana, a state that naturally falls within that streak. However, a key question remains: Is one part of Indiana’s entire trail better than another?
“I’ll be at the zoo,” Brandi Tracey told Space.com. She will be with her small children, hoping to see what people may not be thinking during the strange phenomenon.
Related: I’m going to Indiana to prove myself wrong about solar eclipses on April 8th
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I can’t shake the feeling that we are almost worshiping solar eclipses because of the existential reminder they provide us – that the entire Earth is a spaceship swinging everyone around the sun, and that a dusty gray orb has probably always been on this journey with us. As far as it seems, the moon is our planet’s closest and best friend. But would the otter care about all that? Not to mention an otter that lives in a zoo? Fish? A capybara? A turtle?
“The birds go in and the bats come out,” Jane Rigby, senior project scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope, said Space.com. Reflecting on her 2017 total solar eclipse experience, she described it as the greatest moment she has ever been a part of. The word she used was “otherworldly.”
“It’s a very intense emotional time,” she said. “People were shouting, people were crying, I noticed the young children looking at the adults.”
Related: April 8 solar eclipse: 6 zoos on the path of totality – and why animals react strangely
Rigby had seen the 2017 solar eclipse from a farm with about 60 other people. Suddenly, it was as if the air was frozen during the few precious minutes when the moon was completely blocking the sunlight from reaching her. “There was a part of my brain stem, the part that changed to escape saber-toothed cats, that was telling me in every capital letter ‘Oh my god, the sun getting eaten. Now run,’” she said with a laugh.
And, even though she’ll be staring up at the sky from Indiana this time to watch another spectacular space traffic strike, she’s decided that one thing remains the same. she said. “We felt like we needed to see it together.” It’s a theme that seems to resonate with many Indiana residents hoping for a glimpse of the whole.
Related: 10 rookie mistakes first-time eclipse seekers make (and how to avoid them)
Megan Philip will be babysitting, but that won’t let her take her 8-year-old step-grandson outside to silhouette the the moon, and Amy Bare will be on a houseboat with her family when our sun gets a short recharge of its social battery. Karena Lopez, who got to see the 2017 eclipse as a partial one, has a hazy memory of the event. All the more reason, however, to take this one seriously as it happens. She will probably be at home during totality, but she will “definitely” be going outside.
The list goes on. Some eclipse watchers will be clinking glasses at a winery discussing their mild doubts about how big this will really be, some will be chilling at a resort in the area preparing articles to post about their internal monologue and yet others will only. to exist wherever life happens without changing them. But I have yet to meet anyone who dreams of being alone, which honestly surprised me. An experience with as much weight as this one can be added, I think, if you are alone. I’ve heard the terms “me eclipse” and “we eclipse” before, and until now it felt like Indiana was a “we eclipse” state. It’s not the point of view that’s important here, it’s the energy.
It’s great that the “me versus us” debate reminds Rigby of how people view spirituality. Some have a very personal faith — but for others, it’s about the community. She asks if those who follow the religion would choose the corresponding eclipse experience.
Laura McPhee, who owns a very nice bookstore in Indiana called Pen and Pink, remembers the last time she saw a total solar eclipse. It was the 1999 eclipse that serendipitously washed over Paris while she was studying feminist literature there. “The moon completely eclipsed the sun in less than three minutes,” she said. “It was the last total eclipse of the 20th century, and also of the second millennium.”
Related: The best places in every US state to see the 2024 eclipse
Crowds and crowds had planted themselves on the parched steps of Sacré Coeur, and she vividly remembers how sharply the temperature dropped during the fullness, just as Rigby had said. But others seem to wait, at least from my interpretation of their story noticed the temperature drop, too. It was not a private feeling to feel the cold during those full minutes, and there were screams, cries of wonder and camera flashes to prove it. It’s not often that you can be sure of a connection with a stranger through your unspoken thoughts.
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Rigby is one of the eclipse chasers in limbo, not sure where she will be when totality happens (mainly because she accidentally booked a flight back to DC a few hours after that she is expected to start at all.) If she can’t rebook her flight, she thinks she might end up on the roof of the airport’s rental facility. As unglamorous as it may sound, however, she is not worried. Part of being an astrologer is uncertainty; you never know when clouds might interfere with your observations, or when the data changes what you thought was boring standard information.
And, after all, one of the best things about an eclipse is that everyone has a front row seat to the sky. So, the ideal vantage point as a whole may be wherever you are.
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