Portal to the Cosmos
Total solar eclipse brings the universe to the Smokies
Once in a lifetime. That’s the motto for millions of Americans who will journey to the path of totality when the Great American Eclipse sweeps over the Smoky Mountains on August 21.
“The thing we are chasing is that two-and-a-half minutes of totality. That is where the magic is going to happen,” explains Dominic Lesnar, president of the Asheville Astronomy Club.
Witnessing a solar eclipse lasts forever. You remember where you were, who you were with, how you got there, what it felt like.
Despite the crowds that will press into the path of totality on the big day, there’s nowhere in the universe Lesnar would rather be.
“It is going to be a logistical nightmare, but it’s hard to have totality come so tantalizingly close and not go to it,” Lesnar says.
Just ask Bernard Arghiere, an astronomer in Asheville, North Carolina.
Ten years ago, he flew halfway around the world to see a total eclipse from a chartered boat in the Mediterranean Sea.
“There are people who are rather nuts about it, who will travel thousands of miles to odd continents,” says Enrique Gomez, an astronomy professor at Western Carolina University.
Gomez saw his first total eclipse from a rooftop while visiting Mexico City as a teenager.
“I got to see planets and stars in the middle of the day,” Gomez recalls. “And the chickens came into the coop very dutifully a few minutes before totality.”
It’s impossible to fly at the speed of an eclipse—the moon’s shadow moves across the earth at more than 1,500 miles an hour. But chartered eclipse planes will chase it as long as they can.
“Just to spend a few more seconds under the shadow of the moon,” Gomez says.
An eclipse is rare, but not as rare as people think. One happens somewhere on earth every 18 months and change.
The last one was in Indonesia. The next one will be in Chile.
But they can just as easily touch down in rural Mongolia, the middle of the Pacific Ocean or Antarctica.
The chance of a total eclipse coming to your corner of the globe in your lifetime?
“That’s the rare part. What’s rare is that they come near to you,” says Arghiere.
The last eclipse to grace the Smokies was 1506. The next one is 2153.
The Great American Eclipse got its name for good reason. The path of totality will traverse the country from coast to coast—passing over 12 states from Oregon to South Carolina. That hasn’t happened since 1918.
The last total solar eclipse to touch U.S. soil skirted through Oregon in 1979. Arghiere was there, camping out in the desert.
The last one before that slid along the Gulf Coast in 1970. And yes, Arghiere was there, too, barely out of college but an astronomy buff already.
Today, the internet makes it infinitely easier to develop your eclipse game plan. Interactive maps tell you exactly when the eclipse will start, peak and end at any given GPS coordinate on earth.
But back then, Arghiere just pointed his car toward the eclipse path and stopped along the side of the highway as the moon’s shadow bore down.
Everyone in America will witness a partial eclipse on August 21. But a word to the wise: don’t settle.
“People may think ‘I’ll be where it’s 99 percent and that’s good enough, but that’s not good enough,” says Knox Warde, an astronomer who lives in Nantahala, North Carolina.
The swath of totality will be 70 miles wide. The outside edges will experience totality for just 90 seconds or less, while the center of the swath will get about two-and-a-half minutes.
For Arghiere, astronomy is more than a hobby.
“It is a way for me to stop the everyday world and try to connect with who I am, where I am and why I’m here. It helps me figure out my place on this earth and in this universe,” Arghiere said. “Do I find all the answers? No, but I get a better sense of how I fit into this picture.”
During his first life in San Francisco, Arghiere had to cart his telescope out of the city to get his night sky fix. After moving to Western North Carolina, he has his own personal observatory just out his back door.
Arghiere is a walking arsenal of profound astronomy trivia. To him, earth is a space ship, hurtling along at 66,000 miles per hour.
“We end up with a 580 million mile journey around the sun every year and it’s free,” Arghiere said.
While the eclipse happens by day, it is still astronomy.
“You are looking at the closest star to us,” Warde says.
It’s easy to forget that the sun is in fact a star.
“You can go out on a starry night and see a couple hundred stars, but we’ve got one really close up,” says Lesnar.
By a cosmic stroke of luck, America will witness another great eclipse in 2024—once again making a trajectory across the country, this time from Texas to New York.
The best part about the coming eclipse? It’s reminded people that outer space exists.
It’s what Gomez calls the “cosmic perspective.”
“I want people to get a sense of what it means to be on a planet rotating on its axis and revolving around a star,” Gomez says.
Our own sun is just a spec, one of 200 billion stars in the Milky Way alone, out of 100 billion galaxies in the universe.
“That’s how vast the universe is,” Gomez says. “From this little corner in the middle of nowhere, we’ve been able to figure it out by making observations. We’ve been able to piece together a picture of the universe.”
READ MORE:
Inside Totality: Eyewitness to the Eclipse
Die-hard eclipse chasers circle the globe to relive the rare phenomenon of totality. Some are lucky enough to have an eclipse come to them. But most will never see one.
The whole eclipse takes a few hours, but totality lasts only 90 to 150 seconds depending on where you are in the umbra’s path, so know what to expect and be ready to enjoy the show.
Prof. Enrique Gomez, Western Carolina University
“You are going to see the world in a way that you have never experienced it before. The shadows are going to be all wrong and the landscape will look very unique.
You will get the feeling there is something big coming your way. If you are on one of the balds you will see the shadow of the moon sweeping toward you. The wind will start picking up, the temperature will drop quite noticeably, the animals will start acting like it is nighttime.
On the ground, pinhole shadows will produce tiny images of partially occulted suns. Just set your phone aside or you are going to miss a lot. There is nothing you can record that will do justice to the experience.”
John Innes, Partners of the Cherokee National Forest
“It’s a primordial experience. It happens in way that tells your whole brain and wiring and emotions and everything else that something amazing is happening. You knew this was going to happen but you get this building realization that this is finally here. Then totality descends and day turns into night and all of sudden the blue sky is now black and you see stars. The birds will land and stop singing and nest like its nighttime.
There’s a stillness and wonder. It is pleasantly surreal.
It is all going to happen fairly quickly. Just as you think ‘what is going on,’ the sun starts to come back and inevitably people will start applauding as if you are watching the world being created all over again.”
Bernard Arghiere, Asheville Astronomy Club
“The first one is all surprise, seeing the constellations and a few planets in the middle of the day, and seeing the sun’s corona splashed all around it.
This is an event you don’t need to be an astrophysicist to appreciate. I will be mixing up binoculars and the naked eye, because much of it is a whole-sky experience.
There is a lot of conservation while you’re waiting, but then as totality comes, people don’t say much because it is so awe inspiring. Let everyone take it in. It is going to seem like a few seconds and as it lifts you think ‘Wow it can’t be over. It just started.’ You don’t want it to be over yet.”
Eclipse terms
- First contact: first moment the moon’s shadow touches the edge of the sun.
- Partial stages: the diminishing crescent phases of the sun as the moon slides over it.
- Totality: the brief period when the moon completely covers the sun, visible only along a 70-mile swath within the moon’s umbra.
- Baily’s Beads: right before totality, the sun’s last light creates brilliant shafts around the moon’s edge.
- Corona: Spanish for “crown” and visible only during totality, the sun’s outer atmosphere appears like a streaming halo
- Inside totality: basking in the shadow of the moon
Eclipse gear check list
- Eclipse glasses for everyone in your party, even if an event you’re going to says they’ll have them. They must be worn when looking at the sun, except during totality.
- A plan for where you’re going, how you’ll get there, where you’ll park and a back-up plan.
- Full tank of gas, plenty of water and food.
- Fully-charged phone, on airplane mode to preserve battery in spotty coverage areas.
- Piece of paper with tiny holes punched in it, to project pinhole images of the eclipse.
- Toilet paper, sunscreen, rain gear, lawn chair.
- Copy of Smoky Mountain Living to read while you wait.