Shelli hopes to once again feel the presence of her deceased daughter, with whom they watched the 2017 total eclipse together. Jim is excited about these events and Grover studies them. This Monday, when the Moon passes between the Earth and the Sun, everyone will have a reason to look at the sky.
Driving up to 20 hours by road and even crossing the sea from another continent, dozens of people settle with tents and mobile homes at the junction of Johnson Creek and the Guadalupe River in Ingram, a city in the south central part of the huge state of Texas in the United States. Joined.
The river flows through Stonehenge II Park, which has a sculpture inspired by the enormous stone monuments built at the end of the Neolithic period in the United Kingdom. There are also replicas of moais, those enormous heads of Easter Island, which gives a certain mystique to the place.
In this part of the American south, the solar eclipse is expected to be total and day will turn into night for more than 4 minutes, at 1:32 p.m. local time.
Total eclipses occur when the Moon is located exactly between the Earth and the Sun, temporarily blocking the light of the great star, in broad daylight.
There are forecasts of cloudy skies, a storm warning and the Texas government prepares its emergency teams. But nothing discourages visitors, who pitch their tents and cross their fingers that the wind will blow in their favor. Some bring telescopes and cameras with long lenses.
“There is a saying in Texas: If you don’t like the weather, wait 5 minutes.”says Jennyth Peterson, event organizer for the Hill Country Arts Foundation, which manages the park, and who is confident in how changeable the weather forecasts tend to be in this region.
Shelli Ezell, 44, says they drove from the state of Alabama. An eclipse enthusiast, she wears sun-shaped earrings with a black center, just like the upcoming phenomenon, and has her nails painted with star motifs.
She is the mother of a 10-year-old son and a 15-year-old daughter. Before, her daughter Mary Elizabeth was also with them, who died of cancer at the age of 12.
In 2017, she says, they took “Marybeth” on their first “girls trip” to see a solar eclipse in Idaho. “It was a wonderful moment that I keep here in my heart,” she remembers.
“I’m going to enjoy the day, just be here and experience the whole [del eclipse], when you really get that feeling of how small you are compared to how big the universe is. And at that moment I think I will also feel closer to my daughter.”, he reflects.
His third eclipse
About 2,500 people are expected at Stonehenge II Park at the time of the eclipse, just a small portion of the millions of people who will witness the phenomenon in North America.
In the park, food businesses have also set up shop, including brisket sandwiches, a popular Texas barbecue made from beef brisket.
“It’s a great place. We will enjoy the eclipse together and have a good barbecue”says Amber Noah, owner of one of the businesses on site.
Jim Saltigerald, 62, his wife and two children wear T-shirts for the occasion that they prepared themselves. “Paint it black [Píntalo de negro]”says his.
Enjoy the feeling of how everything suddenly turns into night, people turn on the lights in their houses and the birds disappear.
He traveled to England, where his wife is from, to see a total eclipse in 1999. He was also in Idaho to observe the one in 2017 and now they are in Texas.
“It’s a great type of event, a family reunion. Once in a lifetime (…) well, three times in ours in that sense“, Explain.
For Professor Grover Swartzlander, in addition to “historical”, this event has professional significance.
“I’m a physicist at the Rochester Institute of Technology. I receive funding from NASA. One of our projects is to place a constellation of what are called solar sails around the sun. This way we can better understand the dynamics of the sun“, says.
“In the eclipse we will see the corona. That has a very strong signal of what the sun is doing (…) It really gives me a lot of inspiration to advance in my mission“, he adds, while taking a photo at the foot of the replica of a moai.
Source: Gestion
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