It wasn’t the full-blown extravaganza that some parts of the United States saw. But it was still pretty cool.
All across the Bay Area Monday morning in back yards, office buildings and observatories people paused to watch a rare astronomical spectacle: a partial solar eclipse.
In some parts of the United States where a total eclipse unfolded, including Texas, Oklahoma and upstate New York, cloudy skies and rain blocked much of the show, disappointing people who had traveled long distances for the once-in-a-lifetime event. In other areas like Indianapolis and Cleveland where the skies were clearer, huge crowds cheered as the skies went dark.
Thankfully, the Bay Area was largely cloud-free all morning.
Clear skies across Northern California allowed people a perfect view as the moon obscured 34% of the sun in San Francisco and Oakland, and 36% in San Jose. The event began at 10:14 a.m., peaked at 11:13 a.m. and was scheduled to end at 12:16 p.m.
A partial eclipse is seen in one of the telescopes at the Foothill College Observatory as Mehrnoush Shahhosseini of Palo Alto, right, and her friend, Mehraneh Khadjevand of Redwood City, center, wait their turn at the telescope in Los Altos Hills, Calif., on Monday, April 8, 2024. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
Despite the panoramic view from the deck at the Chabot Space & Science Center in the Oakland Hills, most of the 400 visitors who turned up for a sold-out eclipse-viewing party spent the morning facing southeast, with their chins tilted 45° looking up at the unfolding display.
Onlookers peered through pairs of flimsy eclipse glasses, personal cameras or the variety of telescopes — big and small — available on Chabot’s viewing deck.
Some residents lined up two hours early for a prime spot to see the slow-moving, interstellar action.
Tracey Silva of Oakley was there to celebrate her 58th birthday with her daughter, Indigo Silva, 30, of Oakley, and her mother, Linda Adams, 76, of Brentwood.
“These are the moments that, when you’re making memories, can top any gift of monetary value,” she said.
#Eclipse viewing with the Astronomy 101 class at @SJSU. pic.twitter.com/4eqKYx7E5b
— Ian Cull (@NBCian) April 8, 2024
Roughly 200 people also visited the Foothill College Observatory in Los Altos Hills to see the show.
Saranya Seela, an 8-year-old girl from West San Jose, came with her mom.
“I was really curious how it would look,” she said. “I was thinking how the path of totality would look too. It was kind of cool. I still didn’t understand how it was only a little away from being complete. It looked kind of red and kind of furry, and I liked that.”
Seela she wants to be an astronomer or astrophysicist one day. Her favorite part of viewing the eclipse, she said, was that seeing the sun while wearing solar eclipse glasses. She said her favorite telescope to view it was the one with the hydrogen alpha filter.
The Mehta family from Mountain View also stopped by.
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Unable to find eclipse glasses to buy because of the sudden demand, they looked online and learned how to make a viewer from a cereal box. Staring directly into the sun during an eclipse can cause eye damage, and with the excitement over the event nationally, eclipse glasses have been in short supply.
“It was cool to see the sun not in a circle but in a different shape,” said Mayra Mehta, 10. “We didn’t have any special glasses, so we still wanted to see the solar eclipse but we wanted to make a fast and convenient version.”
In the Bay Area, total solar eclipses — where day turns to night, stars come out, temperatures drop and birds stop singing — are extremely rare. The last one visible over San Francisco occurred 600 years ago, on June 26, 1424, according to NASA.
And the next one won’t happen until 228 years from now, on Dec. 31, 2252.
The @SCCgov Sheriff’s Office Command Staff ventured to the roof to catch the partial #solareclipse in #SanJose! #Eclipse2024 pic.twitter.com/FxqcLdWnhD
— SantaClaraCoSheriff (@SCCoSheriff) April 8, 2024
Partial solar eclipses are more common. In recent years, several other partial eclipses have captured the Bay Area’s imagination. One occurred in 2012 when the moon obscured 84% of the sun. Another unfolded in 2017, when 76% of the sun was covered.
Last October, a different type of solar eclipse, called a “ring of fire” or annular eclipse, where the moon obscures part of the sun but leaves a ring around it, was visible in the Bay Area. But only just briefly, as fog and clouds disappointed millions of people who looked up.
Some people really planned for Monday’s event.
Alvaro Caso’s love of all things space turned the IT professional into an astrophotography hobbyist in the past decade.
Monday’s partial eclipse was the perfect reason to break out his Vaonis Hestia, a device that uses an internal electric telescope to capture screenshots on a cell phone. He bought it a few years ago to have an easier, travel-sized way to view interstellar events, rather than wrestling with expensive filters that are necessary to use traditional telescope lenses during solar events.
In order to keep the partial eclipse in frame, Caso, 45 of Oakland, had to delicately move the Hestia a few millimeters every few seconds.
“To see that we are so small, and to see something that is happening millions of kilometers away, is just breathtaking,” Caso said. “Unfortunately we are just 30% (at Chabot Space and Science Center) but that is still freaking amazing.”
Max partial eclipse of 34% over Half Moon Bay, with several bonus sunspots. pic.twitter.com/ESY1MhRvdT
— Jan Null (@ggweather) April 8, 2024