Peninsula residents gather to share glasses, gawk in awe at partial solar eclipse

PORT ANGELES — Onlookers decades apart in age witnessed the event of a lifetime Monday as the first total solar eclipse to cross both coasts in 99 years swept its stellar shadow across the North Olympic Peninsula.

The Port Angeles Library became eclipse-watch central for about 200 people who clustered inside and outside the Peabody Street building, filling the Raymond Carver Room to watch NASA’s livestream megacast or standing outside decked out in pitch-dark safety glasses to see the moon pss before the sun.

Mae Gregory, “only 90,” she said, called the eclipse a miracle as she sat in the Raymond Carver Room and watched NASA’s livestream broadcast.

“It’s a moment in history,” said the retired computer program technician, a Port Angeles resident.“It’s a phenomenon, a miracle, and I wanted to see it.

“Only God could perform it. Certainly a man couldn’t put it in front of the sun.”

John Magee, 76, of Sequim, stood outside the library about 15 minutes before the 9:08 a.m. start-time for the eclipse.

“I’ve never seen one one before, so I don’t know what to expect,” Magee said.

“I’ve been looking forward to it for a couple of week.”

Local stores were sold out of special eclipse glasses, so Magee was thankful the library had some left.

Assistant Library Director Noah Glaude said library staff set aside about 70 of the glasses for eclipse day from the 1,000 they received through science grants from private foundations and NASA.

More than 2 million eclpse glasses were distributed throught the U.S. as part of the program.

Magee showed up at at the Port Angeles Library at 8 a.m. Monday.

By then, a line of about 150 people stretched more than 100 feet out the front door in anticipation of the event, Glaude said.

One woman took it upon herself to pass out sticky notes with numbers to maintain a sense of order among those awaiting glasses.

“We asked people to share their glasses when we were handing them out,” Glaude said.

The Port Townsend Public Library and the Jefferson County Library in Port Hadlock also hosted solar eclipse viewing parties Monday, drawing a total of more than 550 people.

In both counties, people poured from businesses and homes to watch the celestial phenomenon.

At the Port Angeles Library — and throughout town — eclipse watchers also wielded boxy pinhole “cameras” to safely project the eclipse’s shadowy curves shard to the naked eye.

Or, with their backs to the sun, they held up pieces of paper to shoot the crescent shadow to pieces of paper a few feet away.

“I kept telling my husband I learned how to do this in grade school,” Barbara Price, 66, of Arlington, Texas, said, her back to the sun.

“This is the old-fashioned way,” she said, as Margaret Ritchie, 66, of Port Angeles, projected a perfect crescent on a small rock next to Price’s piece of paper.

Even a flowering pear tree’s torrent of leaves played their part as the moon-blocked star shot light through gaps in the foliage, casting fingernail-sliver sunscapes onto otherwise plain pavement.

This day that gray surface good only for feet had its gawkers, too.

Count among them generous Nancy Davenport of Port Angeles, who was sharing her eclipse glasses with all takers.

“The sun is filtering through the leaves,” Davenport, 74, exclaimed a few minutes after eclipse’s 10:19 a.m. peak, when about 90 percent of the sun was covered by the moon’s orb and the temperature had noticeably dropped.

“It’s making like a natural pinhole camera,” Davenport said.

Davenport had family who travelled to Madras, Ore., one of the country’s prime eclipse-viewing sites.

Madras, just 371 miles south of Port Angeles, was in the eclipse’s path of totality

“I think we are always fascinated by the sun and the moon and the stars,” she said.

On the other side of the Carver Room sat Port Angeles School District paraeducator and part-time landscaper Mike Miller, 41.

Next to him were his sons Matthew, 9, and Jacob, 12.

Miller said he’s been talking to them over the last several days about the eclipse and how it all works.

“We’ve been talking about what it does, how the moon is actually blocking the sun out,” Miller said.

His boys had an all-encompassing take on what was about to happen.

On the screen set up in front of the room, the moon’s arc inched across the sun’s face.

“We’re probably only gonna see it once,” Matthew said.

“At the moment, I would say it’s a little bit boring,” Jacob said.

________

Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.