Just minutes before the eclipse reached its height in Chicago, clouds covered the sun above the Adler Planetarium.
“It’s going, it’s going, it’s gone,” one volunteer announced Monday, while onlookers groaned.
Under heavy cloud cover, the eclipse was not visible. But as the minutes ticked away, visitors remained hopeful.
Then at 1:19 p.m. when the sun peeked in and out of the clouds, the crowd cheered as the moon obscured 87 percent of the sun — the closest Chicago would get to a total eclipse.
“It looks like someone took a bite out of a cookie,” 7-year-old Clara Baker said.
“It looks like the moon,” Gregory Primus, 10, said. “But if you look at it closely it looks like the moon is blocking the sun.”
Despite dark skies, more than 30,000 people donned protective glasses and peered through pinholes at the Adler Planetarium’s Eclipse Fest to view the closest total solar eclipse to the city in 92 years.
Gallery“It’s one of those times where space really gets down to earth,” said Andrew Johnston, Vice President of Astronomy & Collections at Adler Planetarium.
Johnston said a total eclipse last crossed the U.S. in the 1920s. “There’s an eclipse roughly every year and a half roughly, somewhere in the world,” he said. “What’s unusual is that for so many people, here in America, they don’t have to do much traveling at all. It’s in their backyards. That’s what makes it special.”
Johnston said it’s not necessarily more dangerous to look at the sun during an eclipse. “Our brains are usually pretty good — we look at the sun and it hurts, so we look away,” he said. With the sun obscured, it’s no longer painful to look, but it can still cause permanent damage.
Although the 30,000 glasses ran out within hours, thousands of visitors peeked through the planetarium’s DIY projectors, toured the exhibits inside, and made sun dials and solar ovens at activity booths.
Shannon Gedey and her son Graham, 6, were among that crowd, viewing the eclipse through homemade pinhole projectors, which they built from diaper and cereal boxes. “This is a low budget hack,” Gedy said.
With the sun behind him, Graham peered through the cardboard to monitor the tiny crescent of light.
For some, the events on earth were just as exciting as the one in space. Marlena Bergeron was visiting from Georgia, where she would have been in the path of totality, but said she still enjoyed the Chicago fest.
“We’re just happy to be in a place where it’s total fun,” she said. “It’s definitely a party.”
Chicago residents Sarah Yale and Alex Weiner had even more to celebrate. The couple became engaged at the planetarium last year and celebrated their one-year anniversary this summer.
“We didn’t plan this, though,” Yale said of the timing. “It’s neat to share this experience, to be a part of something that’s bigger than you.”
If you didn’t “get outside and soak it in,” as Johnston advised Chicago area residents — no worries. You can catch the next one in 2024.
