Things nearly perfect Monday afternoon for South Bend area solar eclipse watchers

SOUTH BEND — Monday afternoon was nearly perfect in many ways.

Those who donned solar sunglasses and looked up in the South Bend area were treated to a rare celestial show: As clouds cleared, temperatures surpassed 70 and the moon blocked nearly 97% of the sun in the solar eclipse of 2024.

Young and old alike went outside, some at their homes and some at places like the University of Notre Dame and Indiana University South Bend.

Shortly after 3 p.m., sunny skies cooperated in the first solar eclipse this close to Indiana since August 2017.

Hundreds of people became more than 1,000 on the Irish Green field near the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center as the eclipse took place. Not traveling the few hours south or east to see totality — the total blockage of the sun by the moon — did not seem to mind the people who joined the many watch parties in the South Bend area.

JoLynn Brown and Cindy Hunter reunited on the Notre Dame campus to see Monday's event after seeing the 2017 solar eclipse.

"It's great to be among all these science people," Hunter said.

"All the science that the children are learning today, and for the last week or so," Brown said.

Meanwhile, a group of family members who recently moved here from Wittier, Calif., said the eight people were enjoying the event.

"I saw a partial eclipse in 2002 in California," Richard Velasquez said.

"In my 57 years, I've never seen one," Robert Guerrero said.

Having the watch party was important for science officials from Notre Dame to provide a safe and fun event for families who did not travel to see totality. Keith Davis, director of the digital visualization theater in the College of Science at Notre Dame, said he stayed home rather than traveling to an area in the totality.

"We wanted to take advantage of the fact that the public is always really interested in astronomy when natural events occur," Davis said. "We wanted to be the resource to the community in that way."

IUSB watchers rock the eclipse

On-theme melodies featuring The Animals’ “House of the Rising Sun,” Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun” and The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” filled the lawn outside the Student Activity Center and Northside Hall for an eclipse-themed party at Indiana University South Bend on Monday afternoon.

Residents and students gathered to watch the event unfold.

Retired residents Mike Kruk, Lisa Cunningham and Lee Gloster attended the party to bask in the remainder of the eclipse.

For Cunningham, this was her first eclipse. She was always working during previous eclipses, but now in retirement, she was able to see her first one, calling it “cool.”

Gloster, however, has seen several before.

“I enjoy it as a social occasion,” he said. He compared Monday’s eclipse to past viewing he’s seen. “It never really gets darker than early dusk. That was the same. These glasses are so dark, I can’t see anything but the sun.”

“Be thankful you have them,” Kruk said.

“I like them,” Gloster said. “I’m glad we came.”

IUSB students witnessed their first eclipse as classes were canceled for the day. For students Nikkie Blume and Emerie Commisso, it wasn’t what they thought it’d be.

“It actually lasted longer than I thought it would,” Blume said, saying she would check on the eclipse through her glasses periodically to check the status.

“Even though it was 97%,” Commisso said, “we were actually quite shocked by how light it was still out. It shows you how powerful the sun is.”

They enjoyed the minimal brightness, joking it’d be fun to go to class like that and not have to be squinting.

Students Jessica Warren, Jill Mann, Christina Camp, Spencer Lawson, and M Evans lamented the only negative part about the party as they were leaving: running out of Sunchips.

They were blown away by the theming and noticed the changes in sunlight and shadow as the eclipse took place.

“I was surprised by how it got a little dimmer,” Evans said.

Warren agreed, saying that watching how the rest of the area looked as it happened was definitely the most surprising part.

“I didn’t notice it get darker,” Evans said, “but I did notice it get brighter.”

“It got darker, but the shadows were still very well pronounced,” Camp said.

“Still very defined,” Warren added.

While some said the eclipse was everything they thought it would be, the eclipse gave Mann the impression of a banana.

“It looks like a banana. That’s cool,” she said.

Warren laughed. “She described it as the cutest banana she ever saw,” she said.

The eclipse in the South Bend area began about 1:52 p.m. with the moon beginning to pass over the sun's presence. At 3:09 p.m., the maximum 96.6% blockage took place, with the final moon's blockage of the sun ending at 4:23 p.m.

Zoo animals react to dark

Potawatomi Zoo was especially busy for a spring Monday as residents of all ages, including young and school aged kids, flocked to the zoo’s grounds to witness how the animals would react to a solar eclipse.

Zoo staff and attendees had their own assertions on what would happen, but no one could say for sure.

Beth Schrader, a giraffe keeper, predicted monkeys going crazy, giraffes heading into their barn and that something might happen with the painted dogs, as she passed out leaves of lettuce for attendees to feed the giraffes.

Zoo staff Mike Haney, who stood at the front of the line of the giraffe exhibit, guessed the giraffes would run around, turtles would mate, flamingos would gather and birds would get quiet.

"This is new for all of us,” Josh Sisk, the executive director at Potawatomi Zoo, said. “We’re letting them do what they normally do and see how they react. There’s rumors on whether they’ll react or not, but we don’t know.”

He noted the dip in the temperature looking at the giraffes. “They do seem like they want to go in now,” he said.

Sisk said in the last eclipse he could remember, he was a kid.

There weren’t any observations taken previously, Haney said.

“It’s hard to say,” Sisk said, “They like their barn, so they do that regardless of an eclipse.” The giraffe barn was closed, but Sisk said if the giraffes started running he would open their barn for safety reasons.

Jansen Christian said she chose to watch the eclipse at the zoo because the kids wanted to come. Her daughter was excited about seeing the bison, painted dogs and fish swimming circles. “We’re all pretty excited about the giraffes,” she said.

Just before 3 p.m., crowds of attendees and staff gathered at the top of the giraffe exhibit to observe how any animal behaviors would play out. They kept a close eye on the six adult giraffes while regularly checking the status of the sun through eclipse glasses.

Zoo attendees Sharon Brinkler and Helen and Terri Chinske raised their glasses to the sky as the eclipse started. They started to see and feel the changes.

“It’s getting cooler,” Terri Chinske said.

“It’s getting darker,” Brinkler said.

Brinkler had read multiple articles prior about what to expect. “I want to see the giraffes because the New York Times said the giraffes would start running around like crazy. I expect the flamingos to be flocking back to their building.”

The mid-day, 3 p.m. solar eclipse tricked the giraffes into thinking it was dusk, just as zoo employee Jamie Holland, who works with the giraffes, predicted.

Giraffes stopped eating and gathered by their barn door. When it didn’t open, they started pacing in a single file line near it.

“That’s exactly what they’d do around 5 p.m.,” Holland said. “There’s not a lot of research and data on total eclipses. We don’t have that. In the zoo, the two animals that we have that would react would be the flamingos and the giraffes. This is exactly what we hoped they would do.”

Email Tribune staff writer Greg Swiercz at gswiercz@sbtinfo.com. Email Tribune staff writer Camille Sarabia at csarabia@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: People look up to spot the solar eclipse in South Bend area