Solar eclipse journal: The day the sun went away

It had been talked about, hyped about and prepared for by many — and ignored by some. Total Solar Eclipse Day arrived Monday with partly cloudy skies across the Lower Hudson Valley and the promise that those who get excited about things like this would have a story to tell.

The eclipse wasn't total in the Lower Hudson Valley, but rather approaching 90%, and the forecast called for the most sun coverage at 3:25 p.m.

Some who waited till Monday to pay attention were caught scrambling, popping on social media in search of last-minute eclipse glasses. Some boarded an Amtrak train headed north to the path-of-totality zone. Others took southbound trains to Grand Central, for a workday that promised to be interrupted by celestial movements.

The day was all about the certainty of those heavenly bodies in motion and the uncertainty of cloud cover. What would we be able to see? And how big would the crowds be? And are these the right glasses to look at the sun through? Someone on the social-media team at the state's Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services had a sense of humor, suggesting that, along with eclipse-verified glasses, New Yorkers "pack your patience."

Syracuse bound on eclipse day

Maeve Ryan, 18, a Syracuse University student from Yorktown, was up early and at Croton-Harmon train station. Fortified with a large Dunkin' iced coffee, she was about to take the 8:03 a.m. train back to campus after a weekend home. Her afternoon class had been canceled so students could watch the eclipse, no professor wanting to compete with such an attention hog as the moon.

"I didn't realize it was such a big deal, but everyone is excited, especially up there," Ryan said. "We're in the path of totality or whatever. There are some parties going on for it, which is kinda fun."

Jason Won, 25, of Mount Kisco, and Grace Pan, 23, of Mountain View, California, were on the platform at Croton-Harmon, too, headed to Syracuse, eclipse day-trippers.

Said Won: "I wasn't really interested, it really wasn't on my radar, and then I saw online, people are saying it's a life-changing event. I sort of didn't believe it, but the more people said it, the more I was like, 'Well, all these people are saying it, there's no way it's going to be true, but I gotta see it for myself.' So that's why I decided to go.'"Pan said they had chargers for all their devices. She packed a book, Wendell Berry's "The Unsettling of America" (about the state of agriculture in the U.S.), but also brought her crocheting along for the nearly 6 hour train ride. She's making a bucket hat.

Jason Won, 25, left, of Mount Kisco, New York and Grace Pan, 23, of Mountain View, California wait for the 8:03 a.m. train to Syracuse to view the total solar eclipse April 8, 2024 at the Croton-Harmon station in Croton-on-Hudson, New York. "I've seen partial eclipses before," Won said. "They were pretty cool. Nothing really, like, life-changing. So I'm really hoping for something big."

She had plenty of time to crochet or read. After the eclipse, they boarded a Greyhound bus to Manhattan and then were to take Metro-North back to Mount Kisco, as Amtrak had no eclipse-friendly round-trips scheduled. It made for a long day. Won said transportation alone would set them each back just over $100.

Won, reached on his bus ride home, called the eclipse "stunning."

"It was definitely not the best viewing conditions due to the clouds, but in the moments leading up, the sky got extraordinarily dark, and the eclipse itself was bright enough to see through the clouds. I'm not sure I would consider it life-changing, but I'm very glad I saw it, and I would be interested in seeing another were I to get the chance."

Part work day, part party

As Amtrak sent daytrippers and a college student north, commuters were Manhattan bound for a day where productivity lagged from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Henry Donahue, from Croton-on-Hudson, works in Times Square, but he and his co-workers were to take a break in the early afternoon to step out onto their balcony and look skyward during an eclipse party.

"We've got all the glasses lined up, everything," he said. "If you can have the chance to see something like this, only happens once in a lifetime, you gotta get out there and see it."

Charlie Guidarelli, of Cortlandt Manor, called the eclipse a "historical moment" as he waited for his train to Grand Central.

"A lot of people are going crazy trying to find these glasses," he said. "Our building is handing them out. It's going to be a great time. A lot of people are going to get blinded today, so do your best to stay safe."

Last-minute panic in Carmel

There was some last-minute panic in Carmel, where school officials sent an email to parents Sunday, warning that PTO-provided eclipse glasses at the Kent Primary and Elementary schools were not safe for viewing the eclipse.

Families were told not to let their children use them, as they were not on a list of approved glasses. Carmel schools were shut Monday, as a makeup for unused emergency closure/snow days. To be safe for viewing, glasses needed to be ISO rated 12312-2, filter for direct observation of the sun.

At the parking lot of Mount Kisco Target, it was business as usual on eclipse day. Shoppers loaded groceries into their cars and returned shopping carts.

Andrew B. was on his regular 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. shift, corralling shopping carts. He didn’t know when the eclipse would start, but said he would probably “take a peek.” Then he looked directly at the sun through his sunglasses.

Your honor, may we be excused?

Outside the Westchester County Courthouse in White Plains, a juror heading in at 1:30 p.m., Monday, said her jury planned to step outside after 3 p.m. to see the eclipse — with a judge’s permission, of course.

“We asked the judge. I’m really excited that we have some sun and will be able to see it,” said the juror, who did not think she should identify herself because, well, she’s on a jury.

But Kim Kirklin, a courthouse clerk, said she was likely to miss the eclipse. She’d be working, and her office has no windows.

The people who later streamed outside the courthouse and the Michaelian County Office Building were mostly grateful for the rare opportunity.

“This is a really an honor and gift,” said George Mateo of Yonkers, who was passing by the courthouse and stopped to watch the eclipse — without special glasses. “I forgot about it, but now I’m so glad I stopped. I’m mean, look at it. I’ll have plenty of vision left.”

Outside the Michaelian, Aimee Morabito, a Westchester County employee, put it simply: “The sky is a pretty amazing thing.”

Another county employee, Valerie Clark, couldn’t stop smiling. “I’m so excited,” she said. “I can feel the positive energy, I really can.”

Her colleague, Joyce Altamuro, took things a step further. “I think it can change your life," she said. "I mean, why not?”

Close to 100 people gathered outside the courthouse, passing glasses back and forth and weighing whether they could notice it getting darker or cooler. Many looked quite comfortable sitting in the sun at mid-afternoon and not especially eager to get back to work.

But Isaac Duwright of Mount Vernon, who was passing by, took little heed. He wasn’t into the big event.

“I’m just not that interested,” he said. “It doesn’t faze me. The world is going to do what it’s going to do. The world is going to go on whether we stop to watch or not.”

Stripers and the eclipse

Some were taking the day in stride.

Dylan Lebo from Pleasantville and Alex Goldsmith from Cold Spring decided to make a day of it as they fished the Hudson River for striped bass while waiting for the eclipse in Tarrytown's Pierson Park.

"We just came out here to hopefully catch a couple of stripers — we caught one already — and see the eclipse," Lebo said midmorning.

Goldsmith said he thought the Hudson waterfront park would be more crowded hours before the eclipse. He said they'd likely have to take a lunch break, and wasn't sure if they'd still be out there with their rods by the time the moon did its thing. And he thought the spot made for perfect viewing.

Lebo's glasses — he brought two pairs — were still in the car, but he said he was a bit dubious about them. "My mom got them online," he said.

In Yonkers, a peaceful view, a memory captured

The pigeons had Esplanade Park in Yonkers to themselves just hours before the big event. The riverside sidewalks with commanding views of the Palisades and the George Washington Bridge were nearly empty.

People walked by sporadically, stopping to take in the view. The sun blazed, warming the concrete as wispy clouds passed overhead: perfect eclipse-viewing weather. It was quiet at the waterfront, peaceful even.

Norman Derin sat alone with his Sony camera, ready to take photos of the disappearing sun. The retired truck driver, 68, said "photography is my passion.”

Derin had witnessed eclipses in the past, when he was much younger, in the '60s.

Over the years, Derin got into photography for himself, in part so that he could record his memories — including special moments like this one. He’s not sure if he’ll have the opportunity to experience another eclipse, so it was especially important for him to photograph this one.

A boy with a favorite planet has a day

Excitement began to build at the Yonkers waterfront around 2:15 p.m., as giddy toddlers to teens filled the area, 9-year-old Mason Segarra among them.

He came with his father, Fabian Segarra, toting his homemade eclipse viewer and his eclipse glasses.

“He loves the solar system,” Segarra said of his son, who lists Jupiter as his favorite part.

Not far from the Segarras, the organizations Feeding Westchester and Yonkers Partners in Education set up their "Sun-sational" Solar Eclipse Watch Party with sun-themed snacks – think Capri Suns and Sun Chips – as YPIE’s students made their way to the waterfront.

“We really wanted to show our students that this opportunity comes once every so often,” said Marisa Swift, senior director of operations for YPIE.

Organizers had a rock-solid gauge of success.

“You look around. There’s no one on TikTok,” said Sam Wallis, executive director for YPIE. “Everyone's out here — this place is packed. And they're all here to see something that's a naturally occurring scientific phenomenon. It's amazing.”

Meanwhile, much farther north

In the Adirondacks along route 30 North in Franklin County early Monday, folks were beginning to grab parking spots along the side of the road, sitting around picnic tables on a bright, crisp, spring day — next to snow-covered embankments.

Traffic was light along the road's two lanes but bathrooms were crowded at gas stations. Parking was scarce in towns along Long Lake.

The Wild Center in Tupper Lake is expecting some 4,500 visitors, its largest crowd ever, for the total solar eclipse. Tupper Lake is in the path of totality and the Wild Center has had a weekend full of events to mark the occasion. Today's events are sold out, with sun gazers lining the lake in the Adirondacks, about 40 minutes west of Lake Placid.
The Wild Center in Tupper Lake is expecting some 4,500 visitors, its largest crowd ever, for the total solar eclipse. Tupper Lake is in the path of totality and the Wild Center has had a weekend full of events to mark the occasion. Today's events are sold out, with sun gazers lining the lake in the Adirondacks, about 40 minutes west of Lake Placid.

At Tupper Lake, about 40 minutes west of Lake Placid, a line of cars waited to get into the 115-acre Wild Center, where a "Total Solar Eclipse Festival" led up to a sold-out viewing of Monday's eclipse. The eclipse was big business along the path of totality, with Adirondack locales hoping to cash in on a crush of sun gazers.

The Wild Center's weekend included commemorative eclipse tattoos, live music and make-your-own-pinhole-viewer workshops.

The center expected more than 4,500 visitors, the largest daily attendance in its history. On Sunday, 2,000 visitors passed through the gates. By noon, visitors were scoping out prime viewing spots along a small lake outside the museum.

Rhonda, Valerie and Regina ride the wave

Part of that wave of eclipse tourists to the Wild Center? Rhonda Griffin, Valerie Temple and Regina DiLella, friends who took a tour bus from Albany.

"Valerie invited me for a very special birthday today because of the eclipse," Griffin said.

They'd staked out a spot on a bridge that crosses the lake before heading off to take in the eclipse-related exhibits. Griffin was sporting a bright blue-and-yellow track suit for her 63rd birthday, bright enough so her friends wouldn't lose her.

"I've got a very loud suit on so don't leave me behind," she joked.

People wait for the eclipse outside the Olympic Skating Center in Lake Placid, NY, on Monday, April 8, 2024.
People wait for the eclipse outside the Olympic Skating Center in Lake Placid, NY, on Monday, April 8, 2024.

An Olympic viewing party

About 40 minutes to the east, in downtown Lake Placid, by noon Monday hundreds of sky watchers had descended on the Olympic skating oval in front of Lake Placid High School, a stone's throw from the arena where the 1980 "Miracle on Ice" occurred.

The track had been cleared of last week's snow, making it a perfect eclipse-viewing spot. The mood was celebratory, with people setting up chairs and their dogs getting to know each other. Food trucks arrived and music blared from the PA, including, of course: Bonnie Tyler's 1983 hit, "Total Eclipse of the Heart."

One observer noted a lack of the merchandise that would typically attend such an event. Lake Placid's eclipse pilgrims would have to settle for Olympics swag. As the day wore on, people found the sun on the snow irresistible. A game of Frisbee broke out in the middle of the ice oval.

"It’s like Woodstock, but in the snow," one observer said.

On Haverstraw Bay, glasses at the ready awaiting a crowd

Rockland County park rangers expected a big crowd at Haverstraw Bay Park on the Hudson — and they got one. There was a long line to get one of the 500 pairs of free eclipse glasses rangers handed out.

Al and Cheryl Rodriguez of New City got to the park around 11 a.m. and were prepared to stay for the duration, with a picnic lunch. Cheryl Rodriguez brought her latest crochet project — a baby blanket for a family friend — to keep busy during the wait for the big show.

Every one of the park's 300 parking spots was taken by 2:30 p.m., and rangers were down to their last box of 25 glasses as the moon's shadow began to nibble at the sun's lower right quadrant by 2:10 p.m.

A dad's priorities in Nyack

In Nyack, Chris Yord pushed his toddler, Mateo, along Main Street in the late morning, with a definite plan for the afternoon's celestial event.

"We're probably going to stay inside and sleep," the dad said. "It's his nap time. ... His nap time is our nap time."

Little Mateo can afford to sleep through this eclipse. He'll be in his mid-twenties when the next total solar eclipse spans most of the U.S., on August 12, 2045.

Capturing the moment

The eclipse brought out its share of photographers, professional and amateur, their cameras outfitted with special lens filters as they trained their focus on the center of the solar system.

At the Philipse Manor Riverwalk in Sleepy Hollow, Tom Goff, a retired computer consultant and photo enthusiast, aimed his camera up through the banks of whispy clouds to freeze the moment, one exposure at a time.

Tom Goff of Sleepy Hollow taking photos of the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024, at Philipse Manor Riverwalk in Sleepy Hollow.
Tom Goff of Sleepy Hollow taking photos of the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024, at Philipse Manor Riverwalk in Sleepy Hollow.

All the preparation — train and bus tickets, travel routes and picnic lunches, lens filters and eclipse glasses — couldn't plan away one random and inescapable variable. Cloud cover varied across the region. The sky was clear in some places, banked with clouds in others. But that nibbling moon could still be seen through all but the heaviest cloud cover.

And Goff went home with the goods, several shots of the sun in varying levels of cover.

Observations as the sun went away

In Chestnut Ridge, May Herbert Neils donned her eclipse glasses and looked skyward.

"Already feel the air get a bit cooler," she said as the eclipse began. "The quality of the light around me has become more grey."

An hour into the eclipse, it was noticeably cooler. And darker.

The moon, which we're accustomed to seeing regularly as a crescent, had rendered the sun one.

As it neared totality in the Adirondacks — and as close as it would get in the Lower Hudson Valley — people noticed how quiet it became. Birds seemed to go still. There was a hush.

At Haverstraw Bay, friends Alexa Ramirez, 13, Kaitlyn Fasano, 11, and Lia Fasano watched the eclipse along a freshwater pond. The girls attend Felix Festa Middle School in Clarkstown, which didn't let out school early. But they and many other students got their parents' permission to leave early.

Just as the girls were absorbed in watching the moon move over the sun, they heard a splash. A fish breached the pond's surface, then disappeared, leaving ripples in its wake.

“This is really cool,” Alexa said. “It’s our first time being able to experience it and remember.”

Cheers went up at around 3:24 p.m. at Haverstraw Bay Park as the sun slipped behind the moon and clouds. A child could be heard exclaiming, “It’s so pretty!” Not two minutes later the same childlike voice called out, “can we go to the playground?”

By 3:45 p.m., the crowds began to thin. The event was largely over.

The moon continued on its path; the sun on its path.

And folks from Lake Placid to Yonkers moved on, too.

But the experience left Brewster's Chris Jamison Matthews moved.

"It got darker and cooler and the birds stopped singing," she said. "This really made me realize we only have one earth, one home, one sun and one moon. And we have no control over our own universe. Awe and wonder are not words we use all the time, but this experience I felt both."

Tania Savayan, Gary Stern, Nancy Cutler, Tom Zambito, Seth Harrison, Peter Carr, Frank Becerra Jr., Helu Wang, Mark Vergari and Samantha Antrum contributed to this report. Reach Peter D. Kramer at pkramer@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Westchester, Rockland, Hudson Valley NY experience solar eclipse 2024