Space oddity: Astronomy nerds and more mingle in Davis for solar eclipse viewing party
Reya Pope, 4, stood outside the Explorit Science Center in Davis wearing small blue boots with rocket ships on the sides Monday morning as she peered at the sky through the film of an eclipse viewer.
“I see the bite,” she said to her mother, Rachel, who took the girl to the event co-hosted by the Davis Astronomy Club and explained the astronomical phenomenon earlier in the day.
Reya declined a request for an interview about the eclipse. But Rachel said she told Reya that the moon was casting a shadow that blocked the sun’s light and made it look like a cookie with a bite out of it. She had not explained the phenomenon to the baby she was holding — Remy, 8 months — who was wearing space-themed pants but who is also, as Rachel pointed out, “not verbal yet.”
Other than Remy, just about everyone at the eclipse viewing event could understand what was going on, said Emily Anderson, program director at the Explorit Science Center.
“I just think it’s great when science is accessible to people,” Anderson said. “This is something that can be explained in really basic terms. And everyone, from very littles to our experienced science observers, everybody can understand it. It’s just a nice way to get your toe in the water of science and not be intimidated.”
She held up two sheets of white paper, one of them with five tiny holes pricked across the center. She held the pierced sheet a few inches over the solid sheet, and little crescent shadows appeared.
“Sometimes people are very intimidated by science,” she said. But look at this pinhole viewer: “Very simple.”
A crowd of at least 100 people was abuzz as the peak approached. The organizers had not had enough eclipse viewing glasses to pass out a pair to everyone: They ran out of the 75 free pairs from NASA, they sold out about 800 over the previous few days and, in the end, Anderson was loaning out 30 rectangular solar viewers from Thousand Oaks Optical — “to share,” she kept telling people. Strangers were marveling at the shadow on the sun.
Pam Sparks, a retired high school counselor, busted out her dangling moon earrings for the day. She doesn’t wear them often — she plucked one from her left earlobe and handed it over, saying, “Feel how heavy they are” — but it’s not every day the moon has a moment like this one.
She smiled at the crowd that had gathered for the eclipse. “It brings people so together,” she said. “Look at all these people who are talking to people that they don’t know.”
More capital region residents gathered at the Museum of Science and Curiosity, also known as MOSAC, in Sacramento to take a look at the solar eclipse.
Viewed from Sacramento, the maximum coverage of the sun by the moon was 34%, far short of the totality experienced in eastern parts of the United States. But the Sacramento sky was clear, unlike some locations along the path of the full eclipse.
The peak moment occurred at 11:15 a.m.
Back in Davis, Terrence Nguyen, 23, hadn’t planned to do anything special for the eclipse.
“Honestly, I was just gonna go outside and see the shadow,” the UC Davis student said.
But Mileyna Soo, 20, was going to the Explorit Science Center and told Nguyen to tag along after Soo’s Japanese class that morning.
“With all the stress of school and everything, it’s kind of nice to actually go into nature,” Nguyen said as the breeze rustled through the trees. “Also, just meeting people in the community is pretty nice. I’ve talked to, like, five old people today.” The pair of students chuckled. They had just arrived about 15 minutes before the peak of the eclipse, and the buzz had gotten to them, too. Victoria Volkova, 22, sidled up, made a circle with her fingers, and cast a crescent shadow on the ground.
Everyone was delighted.
