Visitors prepping for total solar eclipse visit regional observatory in Venango County

OIL CITY ― There were no traffic jams heading north Sunday afternoon in Venango County, no lines at the gas stations or other indicators of crowds expected to descend further north toward the path of totality.

But the solar eclipse's powerful draw still registered in the number and variety of stargazers who made their way along a narrow mountain road to the Oil Region Astronomical Society’s observatory grounds located off Route 322 southeast of Oil City.

Corinne Wyatt's eclipse quest began in the early morning hours Sunday when her family left Richmond, Virginia, to journey north. By 5:30 p.m., a reward for a long day's drive and hopefully, a precursor of greater events to come, was found in a remote Pennsylvania field ringed by white pine and oak. There, Corinne bent to peer into a telescope and catch a glimpse of a storm on the burnt orange sun.

Val Szwarc, 70, of Ridgway, Colorado, an advocate in the dark sky movement, was one of several experts who had set up the equipment at the astronomical society's learning center for seekers like Corinne to learn and explore as Monday's total eclipse of the sun neared.

The Oil Region Astronomical Society hosted a two-day eclipse event that began Sunday afternoon with an astronomical primer from board member Tim Spuck and included opportunities for members of the public to look through telescopes to witness dark sunspots or solar flares that appeared as dancing tendrils erupting from the sun's surface. More than 400 people had signed up for events on Sunday or Monday.

Some like Wyatt, and Szwarc, whose wife Laura McAlevy is an Oil City native, travelled hundreds of miles to visit the ORAS site on the eve of the eclipse.

Others were practically neighbors wanting to learn about the heavens. Barney Knorr, 75, lives on the edge of a nearby golf course that at night offers the kind of dazzling stargazing that centers the mind on time, the universe and our place in it. "When you imagine that the constellations have been that way for centuries. We are looking at the same thing that the Neanderthals saw," he said.

Mike Curran of Nickleville came to Sunday's event because his daughter had traveled back to Venango County from Pittsburgh for the eclipse. His plan for Monday, weather cooperating, was to lie in the backyard with his eyes shielded by a welding mask.

He heard all the reports about strange animal behavior during an eclipse.

"I want to see if the chickens go nuts," he said

Visitor Chris Penrod from Punxsutawney and an ORAS member Susan Bennett had witnessed the total eclipse in 2017, the power of which Penrod said media accounts generally fail to convey.

"What struck me was that last bit of light. It's called the diamond ring. It is unbelievable to see that and then it just winks out," said Bennett who viewed the 2017 eclipse in Nashville, Tennessee.

That once-in-a-lifetime experience is what Butler mother Christina Oniboni was hoping to share with her children. She brought them to the observatory Sunday evening to prepare for Monday's eclipse.

Oniboni's 9-year-old daughter, Gianna, raised tough questions for Spuck as he engaged the crowd in a give and take on the different kind of eclipses, safety measures, photography tips and more. What, Gianna wanted to know, would happen when the sun burns out? "Do you really want to have that conversation?" Spuck asked her, but then he proceeded to explain — even the bit about the sun expanding and incinerating the earth in several billion years.

The event embodied the community-supported observatory's mission educate, inspire and "promote the fundamentals of astronomy and space science."

It began decades ago, when Spuck, then an Oil City High School teacher, sought to ensure that even students in the relatively impoverished area of Oil City had an opportunity do astronomy, not just learn about it. The 25-acre facility, now in its second iteration and location, features classroom space and a hilltop observatory that features several telescopes, including a 30-inch f/3 Newtonian telescope that is the largest in western Pennsylvania that is available for the public to use.

Some ORAS members, including Spuck, planned to be on site on Monday for visitors who wanted to experience the 99.6 percent solar eclipse there. Others planned to travel north to Crawford County in hopes of glimpsing the totality.

Spuck, who has seen two total eclipses, including one in Chile, had words of advice. For those who had not seen one, it was worth the effort to travel to see a total eclipse. Even if it is cloudy, he said, you are in for something wondrous. The wind will pick up, the temperature will drop and animals will around you will react differently.

And for first timers? Don't try to take pictures. Just experience it, safely.

Opinion and Engagement Coordinator Lisa Thompson Sayers can be reached at lthompson@timesnews.com.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Oil Region Astronomical Society hosts total solar eclipse event