Beaver Hills | Culture & Community | Solar eclipse
Harvey Gregory, a pastor at Faith Temple Revival Center on Dixwell Avenue. Lucy Gellman Photo.
Anthony Heredia ran down his driveway, an iPad secured in one hand as the other glided through the air. Just yards away, neighbors Carmen Rodriguez and Yahaira Diaz greeted him with huge smiles, their faces turned toward the dimming sky. Across the street, Pastor Harvey Gregory ducked inside to check on his granddaughter Kendall, spotted the trio, and waved hello.
Monday afternoon, the four were among thousands of New Haven neighbors—and millions of people across the globe—who gathered to watch the total solar eclipse as it moved from Greenland to the Great Plains, reaching the Elm City just after 2 p.m. As the sun thinned to a fingernail-like, glowing orange crescent over Ella T. Grasso Boulevard, 10-year-old Anthony declared it history in the making.
“The most exciting part of the eclipse is when the moon went over the sun, because that was when it got darker,” Anthony said matter-of-factly as he pulled up a video for Rodriguez and Diaz that he had just made. “ It's when the moon gets between the earth and the sun. It's like when you're watching t.v., and someone pops up in front of you. It felt like a historic moment."
And it was. For the trio, neighbors who live next door to each other, it made both astronomical and personal history. Rodriguez, who came to Connecticut from Puerto Rico in 1978, said she had never seen a solar eclipse before Monday’s, including the most recent one in August 2017. She hadn’t planned to do anything until Anthony saw her without protective eyewear, and offered to share his glasses.
“The kids, they surprised me,” she said as something caught in her throat, and she smiled. “It was incredible. I’ve never seen something like that.”
Yahaira Diaz, Anthony Heredia and Carmen Rodriguez. Lucy Gellman Photo.
Sharing was a natural thing to do, Anthony said. For weeks, the 10-year-old has been hearing all about the eclipse in his science class at Celentano Biotech, Health and Medical Magnet School. For just over an hour, he learned, the moon would travel across the sun’s path, turning it from a fiery, burning ball of light to a half-circle, sizzling crescent, and a haloed black ball.
After realizing that he would be 30 before another eclipse, predicted for August 2045, he knew what to do. First, he got out his glasses. Then he pulled out his iPad, and started to document it in real time. He had heeded his teacher’s warning not to look directly into the sun: “I did protect my eyes,” he said emphatically.
When he had finished, he ran over to Rodriguez and Diaz, eager to relive the moment even as the sky continued to change above them. Trees rustled; a coolness fell over the street for just minutes, and then lifted again. The birds, agitated moments earlier, resumed their afternoon chirping.
As he pulled up the screen, an orange orb hovered brightly in a sea of black sky, so bright it appeared to be on fire. From afar, it could have been a basketball, hurtling through the air with the same precision that led UConn to victory hours after the celestial event. A closer look revealed something rarer, with an ember-like luminescence that showed up on screen.
"I'm gonna make sure to watch this every day. This was my first eclipse,” he announced to Rodriguez and Diaz as they watched, mouths agape, a smile tugging at their cheeks.
Diaz, who moved to New Haven from Caracas, Venezuela to pursue pediatric medicine, looked like she had swallowed a chunk of the sun. Tears welled somewhere behind her eyes.
“It’s very emotional!” she said. It’s the first time I've seen the eclipse directly.”
Down the street, Harvey Gregory offered a pair of eclipse glasses to his neighbors (who happen to be this reporter’s partner and infant son) with just minutes to go until totality. A pastor at Faith Temple Revival Center, he hadn’t originally planned to watch the eclipse, he said. He changed his mind after his kids brought home glasses that they’d picked up for the event.
Almost three decades into his retirement from SNET, not that much can surprise him, he said. But an event that reminds him of the bigness of the universe still can.
“I really haven’t paid much attention to the eclipse or anything like that before,” he said. “But this time, I decided to go ahead and watch it.”