Interest in eclipse overtakes Pulaski community on Monday afternoon

Apr. 8—Around 3 p.m. Monday, downtown Somerset denizens started popping out of office buildings and storefronts, looking up at the sky with the aid of cardboard spectacles and trick pieces of paper.

It was time to see the eclipse.

Called "The Great North American Eclipse" of 2024 by some, the unique astronomical event had been making news long in advance leading up to Monday. A "path of totality" wherein one could see the sun fully eclipsed by the moon as it passed between the earth and the hub of our solar system cut through part of western Kentucky but didn't quite reach as far east as Somerset.

Still, locals were able to see the sun about 94 percent covered, and that was enough to stoke plenty of curiosity — those who had their special glasses allowing one to safely look up at the sun could see the orange ball reduced to a mere crescent sliver shortly after 3 p.m., with a black sphere covering most of it.

At the Pulaski County Judicial Center plaza, lawyers, security officers and others gathered outside to take in the eclipse.

"It's pretty cool!" declared Nikki New, as she peered upwards while holding her special glasses to her face. "It's pretty neat, watching it change from being bigger to being smaller."

For New, a court designated worker, this was her third eclipse to witness — her first was back in grade school.

"For me, it's more exciting (as an adult) because before, you had to make your own little boxes to be able to look at it," she said. "Now, being able to actually understand it more, it's more fascinating."

Others tried the more antiquated methods to which New alluded, which involved cutting a hole in one piece of paper that allows an image of the eclipse to be seen on another piece of paper held in front of it. Pulaski County Attorney Martin Hatfield was trying this approach in front of his office downtown, with several members of the legal community gathered around, and so was Jeff Todd, stepping out of his barber shop on East Mt. Vernon Street as the eclipse reached its zenith.

"That's the old-fashioned way," said Todd. He recalled that the last eclipse visible in Pulaski County — which was back in 2017 — got dark enough that "the street lights came on."

Things didn't get quite dark enough to need the street lamps, but it was clear there was something unusual about the light outside at the peak of the eclipse, taking on an eerie dimness with a slight chill in the air.

For retired District Judge Scott Lawless, the 2024 eclipse was "maybe a little bit more exciting maybe than the last time." He observed the crowd of people outside Hatfield's office, having a good time and trying to take pictures of the solar event.

Other people went on the road to get in the path of totality and make the most of the 2024 eclipse viewing experience. Debra House, an astronomy professor at Somerset Community College, went along with students to her parents' farm in Marion, Ohio, just off the center line of the key path.

"We had about four minutes of total eclipse," she said. "I've been looking forward to this trip since 2017. Me and my family went and saw the (eclipse) in Tennessee in 2017."

House didn't have a telescope available then, but she did for this eclipse, making it a much more astronomically fascinating experience.

"We were able to see some solar flares during totality, when all you could see was the corona," she said. "That was pretty cool for me, and from an astronomer's point of view, that's about the only chance you have to study the coronas, those four minutes you get in totality, or five minutes when you get the rare event to see an eclipses."

While eclipses are thought of as rare events, that's not necessarily the case in the big picture, noted House — it just depends on where you are.

"There are about two solar eclipses every year; what makes it rare is that it's rare for a particular spot to see it," she said. "This spot that we were (viewing from) in Ohio hasn't seen one since the early 1800s. ... It had been a couple hundred years since one had passed over this area.

"But because the sun is so far away, and the moon is so small, the shadow that it casts is really tiny," added House, "so there's not a whole lot of wiggle room in terms of being in that shadow of the eclipse."

She also noted that during totality this time, her group was able to see two planets — Jupiter and Venus.

"We tried to find Mercury and Mars, but it is a little cloudy here, so I think those were obscured by what clouds we did have," she said, "but we were able to see the eclipse very clearly."

About a dozen students made the trip with House; other SCC students took part in an eclipse watch party out on the lawn between buildings at Somerset Community College.

Another SCC instructor, Johnna Atkinson Bigelow, took the opportunity to go Bargersville, Ind., which was in the path of totality. The 2017 eclipse had changed her mind on how incredible the experience could be when seen in the sweet spot, and she wanted to make sure that she and her family could make the trip this time.

"Along the way, we saw a ton of people set up at the first visitors center across the Indiana state line! That was our first sign that we were in the totality range," she said. "As we drove through the backroads, we'd (see a) spattering of family gatherings with lawn chairs and glasses peering toward the sun. It was so Americana!"

Of course, the strangeness of an eclipse lends itself to lots of legends and superstitions — as Kyle Kadel, owner of Somerset's International Paranormal Museum and Research Center, knows well. Kadel was in Florida at the time and didn't get quite the same view that people did here in Kentucky, but still found it a "neat" experience.

"The history of eclipses goes back in folklore as long as there have been stories," he said. "Probably the most famous ... is in Chinese culture, they depict it as a giant dragon eating and devouring the sun. What they did when eclipses would happen, they would get together in groups with drums and rattles and make a whole bunch of noise to scare the dragons away. Thankfully, they've always been victorious at that."

Different cultures through history have added a lot of spiritual meaning to eclipses, noted Kadel, and it was often tied to natural cycles and ideas of renewal and refreshment.

Then there were those people who thought of it like the sun was sick, noted Kadel, and underwent a Phoenix-like process of dying and rising from the ashes.

"There have been sacrifices during (eclipses), there have been mass panics during eclipses," he said, noting how bizarre it must have been to see a total eclipse before its physical causes were widely understood. "... An eclipse like (Monday's), if you weren't in the path of totality and you only saw like 30 percent, you would just notice the sun was getting dim, and that itself would cause a panic in ancient days."