Solar eclipse: USA enjoys event with popcorn and even goldens – 04/08/2024 – Science

The eclipse became an excuse for Americans to party this Monday (8). Free and paid events in several cities were organized to witness the phenomenon. Among the attractions, scientific experiments, free popcorn and even the chance to play with golden retrievers.

In Cambridge, Massachusetts, the city hosted an event called “Total Eclipse of the Park,” a play on the classic song “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” The name is not entirely correct, as the eclipse will be partial there — 93% coverage of the Sun —, but it still attracted hundreds of people at Kingsley Park.

The first people began to arrive around 1 pm local time (2 pm in Brasília) carrying blankets, picnic blankets and chairs. The event organizers promised to distribute free glasses suitable for watching the eclipse.

According to ranger Tim Puopolo, one of the party’s coordinators, a thousand glasses were ordered to be distributed starting at 2pm — but, an hour before that, he was already anxious about whether the quantity would be enough.

In addition to the afternoon’s main attraction, the city put together a program with a folk band, a telescope, scientific experiments about the universe for children, crafts and free popcorn.

The competition in the area was no joke: another event, at a golden retriever dog farm, offered the combo of seeing the eclipse and playing with the animals.

For the more blasé —Cambridge, after all, is home to Harvard and MIT—, parties were organized on hotel and restaurant terraces with drinks commemorating the eclipse.

Those who weren’t able to make any plans had the option of simply watching from the street — street vendors set up stalls selling glasses for US$5 (R$25).

Brazilians Maryana Dalmeida, 34, and Maria Clara Macena, 32, arrived excitedly at Kingsley Park in the early afternoon. Dentistry students at Boston University, they called the entire college room to watch the eclipse — luckily, they had an afternoon free from classes this Monday.

“I don’t know if I’m believing that everything is going to be so dark”, says Maria Clara.

“It’s a very American experience to see this from the park,” says Maryana.

Vinicius Ludovico, 42, took his daughter, Selma, 5, to the park. A project engineer, he has lived in Cambridge for eight years and managed to negotiate an afternoon free from work to watch the eclipse.

He says he thought about going to New Hampshire, a state close to Massachusetts where the solar eclipse could be seen in its entirety, but was discouraged imagining the traffic to get there.

It is the second eclipse he has seen in his life and Selma’s first.

Brazilians celebrated the sunny weather on Monday, after a cold and rainy weekend.

American Kay, however, contrasted with the party atmosphere. When approached by the reporter, she was initially hesitant: she didn’t want to say her last name, she said she was out of time. When she understood that the vehicle was Brazilian, not American, she opened up: the company she works for didn’t know she was in the park.

Kay couldn’t take time off, so she came to the park armed with a picnic blanket and a notebook. Other than the reporter, she was the only person nearby working during the eclipse.

Sofia, 44, took advantage of the fact that she only works part-time to organize with the mothers of other children from the school where her five-year-old daughter studies to have a party in the park. Each one agreed to take glasses, food and blankets.

“But my coworkers escaped to Vermont,” he says, sighing — there, the eclipse could be seen in its entirety — that is, with the Moon completely covering the Sun.

“Whatever the Universe offers, that’s what I’m going to see,” says Mary, a woman in her 70s — she didn’t want to say how old — sitting in a chair alone.

It was the second eclipse she had witnessed in her life, but the first was many decades ago, in New York, so she considers it as if she were going to experience the experience for the first time, all over again.

Maximum coverage occurred shortly before 3:30 pm local time (4:30 pm Brasília time). Only a first strip of Sun was visible on the left side of the Moon.

Two minutes before, the organizers warned everyone by microphone to stay alert and explained what they were about to see: something that will no longer happen in the region until 2079.