The highly successful total eclipse of the Sun, better known as “The Great American Eclipse” was over. I was enjoying a celebration dinner with my mother at a Cracker Barrel in Santee, South Carolina on that muggy evening of August 21, 2017, already thinking of the next one. We suffered from Eclipse Fever inflicted by the full exposure of the lunar shadow and solar corona for which there is no known cure. The only treatment is to see another and luckily the next one was not too far in the future and close to home. I knew it would occur on April 8, 2024 and that totality would pass through Upstate New York within an easy day’s drive. That date would be circled on my calendar for years to come.

Eclipse Fever started to show symptoms in early 2023. Excitement for “The Great North American Eclipse” began with the Mohawk Valley Astronomical Society’s (MVAS) presentation during the April 2023 meeting on where to view it, the weather prospects, and how to observe it. The Sun would be 99.4% eclipsed over Utica, but watching a razor-thin crescent Sun pivot over me as totality passed nearby was not an option. I needed proper treatment and that meant full darkness bathed by coronal sunlight and a 360º twilight glow. I had to book a room somewhere fast as reservations were opening. The path of totality was about 120 miles wide running from Texas to Maine lasting no more the 4 minutes 27 seconds in Texas and averaging 3 minutes 40 seconds along the centerline in New York. There were a few options I considered for accommodations, but three stood out: Brockport (near Rochester), Oswego, and Plattsburgh. After taking into consideration the weather prospects in April for those regions, Oswego won out for its close proximity to Lake Ontario. The cold lake during spring often suppresses cloudiness, provided there are no storms nearby.

I researched online for accommodations in Oswego and found a Holiday Inn. As soon as booking opened in early May I tried to book but no rooms were available for the nights of the eclipse and it was still over eleven months away! I had no luck until I came across Knights Inn, which had rooms available and the price was surprisingly reasonable, so I reserved a room for the nights of April 7 and 8. Now I only had to worry about the weather as the odds were 50/50, but Lake Ontario could increase the odds in my favor by as much as 10%. My mother was excited to be going on a trip to see another total solar eclipse, and to experience night during day, her favorite part of the Santee experience. She even said that witnessing a total solar eclipse was better than Disney World!

When the ball dropped at Times Square to ring in 2024, I suddenly felt it. The year of the total solar eclipse was really here and excitement was intense! I participated in an eclipse t-shirt design contest for MVAS, wrote several articles about eclipses, drew charts and diagrams, and made several PowerPoint presentations for MVAS with one of them presented at the Waterville Public Library only weeks before the eclipse. The winter was mild with an exceptionally sunny and dry February and first half of March giving hope to better odds of good weather for the eclipse, but a major snowstorm ushered in spring followed by a series of strong storms, snow, rain, and wind. Eclipse Mania was hitting the region with an electronic billboard along the North-South Arterial in Utica counting down the days until the eclipse. Electronic message signs along highways warned motorists of potential heavy traffic and delays on the day of the solar eclipse. Easter was early, falling on March 31, and the forecasts for good skies to see the eclipse came out that day and trended positive! We were one of the favored areas along the path of totality and the forecast remained encouraging with one forecaster posting a smiling emoji every day the entire week leading up to the eclipse, and then came Friday evening - the emoji turned sad. A severe storm that week would clear out nicely by Sunday in time for nice weather on Eclipse Day, but there is a saying about Upstate New York weather that there is always “a fly in the ointment”. A pesky dying warm front was racing out of Ohio faster than expected and would not have enough time to die out enough to leave only high clouds. Almost too swiftly New York went from one of the best places to observe the eclipse to potentially the worst. Head to the Adirondacks and New England was the mantra, but was there still hope? We departed from home shortly after 1 P.M. on Sunday, April 7 under sunny, cloudless skies. The drive to Oswego was busy, especially I-81, but we arrived at Knights Inn in Oswego at 2:45 P.M. and the weather was perfect. The check-in went smoothly and Karen Evert from MVAS arrived with her mother about an hour later. We all settled in for the adventure with dinner nearby at Ruby Tuesday. It was fun talking about the anticipation of the upcoming total solar eclipse tomorrow, but the forecast was not encouraging with the warm front and potentially lower clouds now arriving sooner. I was anxious, excited, and very tired from months of suffering from “Total Eclipse of the Brain” and needed sleep, but it was a fitful night.

We finally got up at 7:30 A.M. and the Sun was shining among high clouds. The sky was deceiving and the eclipse weather emoji was not smiling. I walked to Dunkin’ for breakfast which was literally built on the parking lot outside our door, and we stayed in our room for the morning. I scouted the area around the motel later as clouds thickened and a few people were setting up equipment hoping for a break. I headed outside at 1 P.M. with Karen to set up my equipment conveniently outside our rooms with views good enough to catch the shadow coming and going and the horizon glow. There were no trees or signs anywhere near to block the sun - the clouds were taking care of that. Karen, her mother, my mother and I were all together watching the eclipse with our approved solar glasses. There was not much activity nearby and traffic was normal. It was a mild 63º as I carefully watched the Sun with my 100 mm Orion SkyView Pro refractor equipped with a Thousand Oaks solar filter waiting for the first bite to be taken out of the Sun. It came on time at 2:09 P.M. between a break in the clouds and I was able to sketch the progression of the eclipse as best as I could whenever there were breaks. The daylight dimmed noticeably by 3 P.M. and the air was still. Birds flocked to the trees and geese were calling while a dog barked nervously. A thin crescent Sun peeked between the clouds as it grew chilly. Traffic died and the Dunkin’ drive-thru next to us fell silent. It was 3:21 P.M. when I looked to the west to see a dark gray wall low on the horizon and rising fast. It was 120 miles wide and coming at us at 2500 miles per hour! It was the moon’s shadow, and it rippled through the clouds like a tidal wave! Daylight briefly glowed an eerie orange among us; streetlights and building lights turned on as we were thrust into darkness! The scenery was almost as dark as night, enhanced by the clouds, with a twilight glow in every direction, especially to the southeast. Suddenly, like magic, rays appeared in the thinning clouds and Karen yelled, “Look! There it is!”. The Sun appeared, but instead it looked like a black-eyed Susan with delicate radiating white petals. In place of the Sun was a “black hole”, the darkest spot in the sky, and it clearly stood out surrounded by pearly white streamers! The thin clouds and thicker clouds around the eclipsed Sun made for a beautiful visual effect of a heavenly flower radiating between the clouds! Fireworks went off in the distance and the Dunkin’ employees cheered among us. It all ended too quickly as the clouds brightened to the west and suddenly daylight returned with the shadow rapidly retreating east into the Adirondacks. Totality lasted 3 minutes 30 seconds, always too short, but this was by far the darkest of my three total solar eclipse experiences. The temperature dropped 10º as predicted and quite chilly at 53º. We had a few more peeks of the crescent Sun among the clouds, now looking like a smile. Clouds hampered the rest of the eclipse, although I caught a glimpse of the Sun around 4:15 with just a bite taken out of it. The entire eclipse was over by 4:35 P.M.

We celebrated with dinner at Ruby Tuesday. It was strangely quiet and we were quickly seated. The traffic outside on route 104 was light while we talked about what a special day this was and how lucky to see the corona and awed by the speed of the shadow and the darkness. The drive home the next morning was busy, and I enjoyed a celebration breakfast of steak, scrambled eggs, home fries, greens, and toast at Breakfast at Tiffany’s near home. We were safely home by 11:30 A.M. with a bright warm Sun ending our journey to see “The Great North American Eclipse”. This was my third total solar eclipse and the second one for my mother, which qualifies it as a huge success!