Solar eclipse 2024 stirs excitement up and down Delaware
After much anticipation, solar eclipse day 2024 is in our rearview.
The astronomical phenomenon, which occurs when the moon passes between the sun and the Earth, totally or partially obscuring the sun, was the first since 2017. While it has dominated news coverage for weeks, it's for good reason: There won't be another solar eclipse in the U.S. for 20 years.
Journalists with Delaware Online/The News Journal were out and about throughout the day, reporting from communities, schools and museums.
Here's everything you need to know about the event.
Eclipse glasses: Where to get solar eclipse glasses, eclipse safety and how to make your own solar viewers
What time does the solar eclipse start in Delaware?
Though Delawareans won't be able to see a full eclipse of the sun, the partial eclipse began at 2:07 p.m. and will end at 4:34 p.m. local time.
The maximum eclipse begins at 3:23 p.m.
For the 0.55% of the population, or 43.8 million people who will be able to see the total eclipse, it will be visible at 4:41 p.m. The duration of totality will last four minutes and 28 seconds, nearly double that of the total solar eclipse seen in the United States in 2017, according to Great American Eclipse.
About 8.19% of the population, or 652 million people, will be able to see the partial eclipse. No matter the time of day it is, the sky will darken as if it were dawn or dusk.
No, you're not imagining a temperature drop
As the moon begins to obscure more and more of the sun, you may have noticed it's already getting darker out. With that decrease in light also comes a drop in temperature.
NASA says most people can expect the temperature to decrease about 10 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius) depending on the humidity and cloud cover. It'll get warmer again once the moon moves past the sun.
Eclipse viewing at Auburn Heights Preserve in Yorklyn
More than 100 people parked cars around 2:30 p.m. and began making a short trek to a Yorklyn hillside to watch the eclipse.
The Auburn Heights Preserve, directly across from the historic 19th century Marshall mansion in Auburn Valley State Park, is normally only used for parking, a state park employee said on Monday.
But on Eclipse Day, a crowd hiked up the steep, grassy hill, spread out blankets, and set up camping chairs.
A park employee said the site is considered one of the highest spots in Delaware.
Some families with children blew soap bubbles to pass the time, others chased dogs through the grass, and still others donned glasses and eagerly looked toward the slightly overcast sky.
"Let's hope the clouds move," said another park official as she handed out eclipse glasses. "It's playing hard to get."
The atmosphere felt like an outdoor music festival but with no music or stage.
"We might have a slight chance to see something," said a man who sat with a group of women. "Oh, here we come!" he said as the sun peeked out of the clouds and brightened the sky.
The crowd began cheering at about 3:10 p.m. and many started clapping.
"It's so slight, but I can see it!" said a woman, who also joined in on the clapping.
— Patricia Talorico
At University of Delaware, students watch eclipse
Cheers and claps carried across the University of Delaware’s campus as the maximum partial eclipse set in.
“Woohoo! Yeah!” a student could be heard shouting at 3:23 p.m., eventually joined by a chorus of peers.
Morris Library staff took over the area outside of the building as they took a quick break to enjoy the event. Students looking for a last-minute spot to watch stopped in their tracks or quickly huddled with others to see the action.
Although some students packed up and left once 3:30 p.m. hit and the maximum partial eclipse passed, plenty of observers remained camped out for the long haul, phones and eclipse glasses still pointed toward the sky. A student on the South Green climbed a tree to set up a hammock.
The once-crowded Green saw a lot less action once the partial eclipse approached its last leg in Newark.
People could still be seen enjoying the sunshine and spring weather, but most photographers and eclipse-watchers parted ways with the astronomical event and went on with their days. Backpacks were slung over shoulders and folded blankets were thrown over arms as students headed to their next destinations.
As the partial eclipse wound down around 4:30 p.m., eclipse glasses were unfolded for a final time.
— Krys'tal Griffin
Clear skies, perfect viewing in Rehoboth Beach
It was a downright gorgeous day in downtown Rehoboth Beach. Clouds did not block views of the sun as the moon passed in front of it, much to the delight of people gathered on the beach and boardwalk to watch. The mood was merry as strangers chatted with each other about where they were from and shared past eclipse experiences.
Devar Burbage, of Potomac, Maryland, walked down the boardwalk offering views of the crescent shadows through backwards binoculars.
JJ Catts, of Rehoboth Beach, sat with family and friends on the steps of the bandstand, looking at the sky through protective glasses. He was in Rehoboth in the 1970s for a total solar eclipse, he said.
Nina Helwig and three female family members, from Maryland and New Jersey, had just arrived and checked into their hotel before making their way to the boardwalk to watch the eclipse.
Ed and Beth Redfield, of Wilmington, were in town for Beth's birthday. They were laid out on the sunny beach with their dog, Kona, and protective glasses.
Dwight Johnson and Michelle Terry, of D&S Equestrian Center of Dover, had a unique eclipse experience. They rode their horses, Romeo and Rain, down the beach from Lewes to Rehoboth as the moon moved in front of the sun. They wanted to see how the horses behaved, Terry said.
"They were very anxious," Johnson said. "I was waiting for (Rain) to get her breath, but she didn't want to stop, she just kept going."
They horses calmed once they got into some shade on Rehoboth Avenue, Johnson said, where people were stopping to pose for photos with them.
— Shannon Marvel McNaught
Watching the solar eclipse from Eclipse Bistro
It should come as no surprise that a place named Eclipse Bistro had a busier-than-normal lunch business during Monday’s solar eclipse.
The Wilmington restaurant lured diners with half-price wine bottles, day-long happy hour specials and $8 espresso martinis with manager Nick Taggart giving them free eclipse glasses when they left.
Among the crowd was Brandywine Festival of the Arts organizer Barry Schlecker, brought there by his wife Weiss to celebrate his 84th birthday over crab cakes and French fries.
“I asked him where he wanted to go to lunch. He was hemming and hawing so I said, ‘Let’s go to Eclipse.’ It seemed appropriate,” she said.
About a half hour before the maximum eclipse, two tables filled on the restaurant’s patios with diners alternating between munching beef skewers and looking skyward at the solar anomaly.
Kerri Klingensmith and her husband M.J. drove from Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, for the event, armed with their own plastic eclipse glasses.
“Being at Eclipse for the eclipse is going to make it memorable,” she said. “We’ll always remember it.”
The next table over, Wilmington’s Sheri Stump and Bill Irvin, owner of city restaurants Snuff Mill Restaurant, Butchery & Wine Bar and The Brandywine, couldn’t pass up the uniqueness of it all.
“How could we not come to a place called Eclipse?” Irvin asked.
But shortly after the two tables got settled, several large clouds moved in overhead, blocking the big moment.
The sky darkened, the temperature dropped and there was suddenly no need for sunglasses.
“This sucks,” Kerri Klingensmith lamented. Responded her husband: “Nobody’s going blind today.”
— Ryan Cormier
Just before peak eclipse: A family reunion finds itself by the side of I-95
A family reunion in New Jersey found itself on the side of a Delaware highway during the eclipse.
On the sidewalk out front of the Delaware Welcome Center outside Newark, also known as the Biden Welcome Center, sisters Barbara Miller and Mary Finch, and niece Kira Mauro, set up shop with their eclipse glasses next to barren trees adorned by stray strips of tissue caught in the breeze.
They hadn't intended to be along the side of a Delaware highway for this eclipse: But they got a late start this morning, said Kira.
None live in Delaware, nor New Jersey for that matter. Barbara lives in Fort Howard, Maryland, while Mary lives in Illinois. Kira, at the rest stop with her young daughter, had flown in from Florida.
But the family had traveled from all over the country Sunday night to support an art show by Kira's father, Paul Miller, showing his mosaic art at the April show for the Ocean County Artists Guild in Island Heights, New Jersey.
And on their way back to Maryland, they all found themselves here, just outside Newark, when they realized the eclipse had caught up with them.
As clouds passed over the sun again and again, we wondered if they were disappointed at the overcast weather.
“Not at all,” said Kira. “It’s easier to take pictures with my phone.”
Then she stopped, observing a bird picking up a strand of apparent toilet paper caught in the trees outside the Welcome Center.
“Oh look!” she said. “It’s building a nest.”
— Matthew Korfhage
Sen. Cory Booker watches the eclipse from a Delaware rest stop
You never know whom you’ll run into during an eclipse.
Around the eclipse’s peak at 3:23, New Jersey U.S. Sen. Cory Booker strolled onto the parking lot of the Delaware Welcome Center with eclipse glasses in hand. He was greeted warmly by other onlookers.
“It wasn’t intentional,” Booker told us a little later about his eclipse viewing along the side of I-95 in Delaware.
Booker was on his way to the capital from his home state, he said, when he and his team witnessed a terrible car accident on the New Jersey Turnpike. “Literally right in front of us,” he said.
They pulled over to the site of the accident, he said. (The 511NJ Twitter account shows a crash, with a truck fire, at around 2 p.m. near the Delaware Memorial Bridge.)
“We got out of the car to try to help render aid to the first responders out there,” Booker said. “And so we ended up trapped there just trying to help out. The car burst into flames.”
By the time he got back on the road, there was no hope of getting to Washington, D.C. before the eclipse. And so as the eclipse neared its peak, the former Newark, New Jersey, mayor pulled off the highway near Newark, Delaware, to get a look.
“I’m happy to be here at Joe Biden’s rest stop!” he said, smiling as a young man approached with his hand outstretched.
“Senator Booker,” said the young man. “I just wanted to shake your hand.”
— Matthew Korfhage
UD groups gathered ahead of eclipse
In Newark, University of Delaware students trickled to and from classes as the partial eclipse in Delaware began a little after 2 p.m.
Small groups of students were spaced out on the Green, a grassy area running through the main campus, enjoying the sun and waiting for the maximum eclipse to begin. With just over an hour until the main show, eclipse glasses eagerly popped out of bags and back pockets as students checked for changes in the sky.
Aside from students, locals could also be seen camping out and periodically looking up at the sun, along with a few lucky tour groups that passed through campus once in a while.
On the eastern portion of campus, the Harrington Turf was filled with students on blankets and towels minutes before the maximum eclipse began. Where you’ll usually find undergraduates playing volleyball in the sand or kickball on the turf, today’s crowd was filled with shared snacks and upturned heads."
While the University of Delaware did not officially cancel classes for the event, some professors took the liberty of canceling class duties to let students enjoy the occasion. One student walking from an academic building could be heard saying that their professor canceled their exam to make sure everyone would be available to watch the eclipse.
Students who had been parked on the grass since the onset of the partial eclipse could be seen playing soccer to pass the time. Or taking a nap, as one student chose to do.
A baby, who may be the youngest eclipse-goer on campus, toddled on a blanket under the shade of a tree. Despite the shining sun, cloud cover over Newark made for chilly spells as wind blows through town.
As the countdown to the maximum partial eclipse continued, more students congregate in green spaces and walkways to solidify their viewing plans. Some professors head outside with their classes for group eclipse viewing. Even a few runners had pairs of eclipse glasses in their hands while jogging around the area.
— Krys'tal Griffin
Eclipse begins in Wilmington, but some nap instead
In Rodney Square and all around the Market Street area, pockets of office workers cheered at little glimpses of the eclipse that appeared through the clouds. They squinted at their cell phones, trying to capture a social-media worthy image and passed around glasses so everyone could try to get a view.
And as the clouds over Wilmington began to dissipate and the sky brightened as the moon and sun’s positions began to diverge, people started slowly trickling back into their offices.
“Back to work,” one man in a suit said as he took his eyes off the sky.
As the moon began to pass between the Earth and Sun above Market Street in Wilmington, delivery workers continued their routes, lawyers trudged toward Wilmington's courthouse and business continued as normal.
"We are going to try to get out," said one local coffee shop barista when asked if she was going to sneak outside to see the event.
In Rodney Square, one group was set up with a blanket on the ground and glasses over their eyes feet away from another person taking a mid-afternoon nap on the grass.
As the eclipse neared its peak, pockets of office workers stood on street corners downtown looking up.
When a thick patch of clouds obscured the sun, a delivery driver stood in the middle of Shipley Street, hands to the sky and yelling "boooooo."
"Welcome to the East Coast I guess," he said with a laugh after.
— Xerxes Wilson
Delaware beachgoers begin watching the sky
Debbie McGill of Laurel, Maryland, had scored a prime boardwalk bench at the top of Rehoboth Avenue in Rehoboth Beach around 2 p.m.
"When I was a kid my dad took us to one and he loved astronomy, so it's kind of a memory of him," she said.
The eclipse is a spiritual experience for McGill, too.
"You think about tribes a thousand years ago... What they thought when this happened. It's really bigger than us. It's a big deal, I think."
— Shannon Marvel McNaught
Why you should play 'Total Eclipse of the Heart' during your viewing
Have the lyrics to the 1983 single "Total Eclipse of the Heart" been running through your mind in recent weeks?
Well, it's an appropriate ballad for Monday's eclipse.
Running for 4 minutes and 27 seconds, the song perfectly matches up with the eclipse's longest duration of totality, which NASA said will be 4 minutes and 28 seconds near Torreón, Mexico. The path of totality is where observers will see the moon completely cover the sun.
Most residents situated along the path of totality will see a totality duration between 3.5 and 4 minutes.
Watch the solar eclipse from NASA telescopes
If you can't − or don't want to − head outside, you can watch the eclipse on YouTube, through NASA's telescope feed.
Watch USA Today's solar eclipse livestream
Want to see the eclipse from multiple perspectives? USA Today's live broadcast has you covered. Watch here:
What happens if you look at the solar eclipse without glasses?
Just because our former president did it doesn't mean you should, too.
Yes, we mean that you shouldn't stare directly at the sun during a solar eclipse − or any other time, for that matter.
The concentrated solar rays will burn through your eye lenses and corneas, reaching the macula, which is part of the retina, NASA says.
YES, IT REALLY IS DAMAGING: Can you really go blind from looking at a solar eclipse? Real life cautionary tales.
And according to the American Medical Association, even a few seconds of viewing the sun during an eclipse can temporarily or permanently burn the macula.
"Once retina tissue is destroyed, it cannot regenerate, resulting in permanent central vision loss," a March 8 research article says.
Can you drive during the solar eclipse?
Yes, it's safe to drive, but AAA reminds drivers that there could be more traffic on the road before, during and after the event, so people should use caution.
Additionally, Delaware State Police is reminding motorists not to wear their eclipse glasses while they drive.
ADDITONAL ECLIPSE DRIVING TIPS: Solar eclipse 2024: Is it safe to drive during the eclipse? How to stay safe
NASA launching rockets to study effects of eclipse
NASA is using spacecraft called sounding rockets that are equipped with scientific instruments to take measurements and perform experiments during Monday's eclipse, USA Today reported.
The three rockets will launch from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia and will reach an intended altitude of 260 miles, NASA said. That's high enough to study disturbances during a total solar eclipse in the ionosphere, a region of Earth’s atmosphere between 55 to 310 miles above the ground.
STORY: NASA is launching 3 sounding rockets into space during the total solar eclipse. Here's why
The mission team hope to collect data on how the sun's sudden disappearance during the eclipse creates disturbances that could interfere with communications on Earth.
Targeted launch times for the three rockets are 2:40 p.m., 3:20 p.m., and 4:05 p.m., NASA said, but that may change.
Weather permitting, Delawareans may be able to see the rockets 10-30 seconds after takeoff.
According to Delaware Surf Fishing, which had a rocket photo contest several years ago, some of the best places are at the beaches. For a complete list, visit their page.
The launches will also be streamed on YouTube beginning at 2:30 p.m.
Where can I buy eclipse glasses?
Did you wait until the last moment to buy your eclipse glasses and now it's too late to order them online?
Some locations of the following retail chains sell ISO-compliant eclipse glasses and/or handheld viewers made by companies verified by the American Astronomical Society:
Walmart
Wegmans
Cracker Barrel
Lowes
Staples
Additionally, some libraries and museums in the state are offering glasses.
The Delaware City library, for example, will give them out for free while supplies last. While the library doesn't officially open until noon, residents can knock on the door or call ahead and someone will bring them out.
READ: Still hunting for glasses? Here are stores selling them in Delaware
While chain stores and libraries will likely be offering glasses that meet American Astronomical Society standards, if you want to double-check, look at the arm of the glasses for the the "ISO 12312-2" label. The standard may also be written as "ISO 12312-2:2015."
Either of these means that the glasses will properly block light and radiation.
I can't find glasses. How do I make a pinhole projector?
Supplies you’ll need:
Two pieces of stiff white cardboard (two paper plates will work) or two sheets of plain white paper
A thumbtack, a sharp pin or a needle
Puncture a hole in one piece of cardboard or paper and hold it above your shoulder with your back to the sun. Have another person hold the second piece of cardboard or paper at a distance, and you'll see the shape of the sun projected onto the second piece of cardboard.
To see a more detailed explanation and visual of how to make a quick and easy pinhole projector for the eclipse, visit timeanddate.com.
2017 eclipse path
We know the last eclipse was in 2017. So where did it travel?
Check out this graphic from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Watch the moon's shadow move across the US in this geocolor loop from #GOES16! See more #SolarEclipse imagery @ https://t.co/1oNaGe1dLN pic.twitter.com/uJbEVQin6V
— NOAA Satellites (@NOAASatellites) August 21, 2017
Follow the eclipse's path
Want to follow the eclipse's path from the comfort of your office, home or other locale? The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) will be tracking the eclipse.
You can view it at https://rb.gy/j3fm73.
I know I shouldn't look directly at the sun. But what about my phone?
Many residents know not to look directly at the sun during an eclipse. But is pointing a phone or other camera OK?
Photography experts caution against doing so unless the optics are fitted with a certified solar filter. Cameras can magnify the intensity and brightness of sunlight, B & H Photo and Video says, which can damage equipment.
Experts also warn that pointing a phone at the sun could "fry" the device. They instead recommend shielding the lens with eclipse glasses or obtaining a solar lens ahead of time.
Solar eclipse time by zip code
Wondering when the eclipse will area in your area? Check this interactive map by entering your ZIP code.
Got a story tip or idea? Send to Isabel Hughes at ihughes@delawareonline.com. For all things breaking news, follow her on X at @izzihughes_
This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Solar eclipse 2024 draws Delawareans outside for celestial spectacle
