Crowds, all across Chicago and nationwide, peered skyward to watch the moon march its way across the sun during Monday’s solar eclipse. Some traveled hundreds of miles, others merely stepped outside for the event — a spectacle that won’t be seen in the U.S. again until 2044.
Plenty of eclipse fanatics made the trek out of the city, toward southern Illinois and other parts of the country where the eclipse reached totality. Though the Chicago area wasn’t in the path for a total eclipse, it experienced a partial eclipse starting around 12:50 p.m. CT, peaking around 2:07 p.m. with the moon covering about 94% of the sun.
“I think we’re very fortunate here,” Daina Stinson, a city employee, said of the sunny day at Daley Plaza in Chicago. She remembers her trip to Carbondale for the 2017 eclipse being spoiled for a few moments by clouds. “And I’m excited that people are coming out and they’re looking.”
After a rainy Sunday in the city, Chicagoans were spared from the storms and cloud cover expected over many of the other states within the eclipse’s path. Instead, clear skies provided an unobstructed view of the event. Temperatures reached a high of 71 degrees.
A buzz filled the air
Terri Higginbothal, 58, was also at Daley Plaza, where hundreds, many of them downtown employees ducking out of work for a few minutes to glimpse the eclipse, were gathered to take in the moment. A steady buzz filled the air, with a few whistles and cheers as the eclipse reached the peak.
Higginbothal said Monday felt like a holiday.
“I came into work, and I forgot what to do today,” she said.
Higginbothal, an administrative assistant from the Washington Heights neighborhood, printed out some pictures of a solar eclipse, stuck them to a couple pieces of poster board and made a sign that read, “I’m here for the solar eclipse.”
“Last time I missed it. I’m a part of it this time,” Higginbothal said.
Excitement for the eclipse seemed to wash over the city. The Jazz Institute of Chicago created its own playlist.
| Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times
Thousands of spectators turned up at the Adler Planetarium to watch the moon nearly block out the sun. The lawn outside the planetarium was buzzing, with kids playing volleyball, ice cream vendors pushing their carts through the crowd, couples and families lounging on picnic blankets, and dogs everywhere. Around peak coverage, crowds celebrated with cheers.
The moment also carried some emotion for some, including Faith Documento of Chicago. She arrived at the planetarium early to secure the perfect spot to admire the partial eclipse of the sun. She said she’s lucky to be here; in 2018 she was the recipient of a new heart.
“I’ve been blessed to live another five years,” said Documento.
At the peak, Documento stared straight into the sky. She said the sun was still peeking through, looking like an eyelash. Laughing with her friends, she said today was a perfect day “to live and be able to experience this. I’m really grateful.”
The eclipse was also a learning experience for some young Chicagoans.
About 800 students at Marquette Elementary School gathered outside to watch the eclipse. Many leaned against a fence as they looked up at the sky with their glasses on, chatting energetically with one another as the eclipse neared the peak.
Principal Michael Marzano, a former science teacher, said the viewing was an opportunity for students to “marvel” at the natural world, sparking scientific curiosity.
“The most important thing is not just seeing it, but then having a chance to process it,” Marzano said.
Fifth grader Angel Hernandez, 11, said he was excited for the “one-time experience.” He watched a video of the eclipse to prepare beforehand, he said.
“I’m excited to see it, but you also gotta be careful with blindness,” he said, holding his solar eclipse glasses.
When the sky darkened, students started asking more questions, putting their glasses back on, Marzano said.
“A lot were expecting to see it totally covered,” Marzano said. “There were some questions of what does it mean to have a full or total solar eclipse versus a partial solar eclipse?”
Fifth-grade teacher Joshua Pittman noticed students got “more serious and quiet,” as the eclipse reached its peak.
When his students returned to the classroom, they asked plenty of questions, from the orbit and the next solar eclipse.
“I could see the questions formulating in their heads,” he said. “I was just excited to help further answer those questions.”
‘Then it got darker and darker, colder and colder.’
Chicago-area residents who trekked downstate to see the eclipse in totality said it was an “exhilarating” four minutes when the moon completely covered the sun. They also felt lucky to have clear weather despite scares of cloudy skies in preceding days.
Maureen Joy, 66, of Batavia, was with two friends at a small campground in Pomona, near the Shawnee National Forest, where about a dozen other people were staying.
“All of a sudden you hear someone hooting, ‘It’s starting!’ when partial started. And then it got darker and darker, and colder and colder, and when totality hit it was not like pitch black but like later dusk,” Joy said, noting they could hear frogs begin to croak and birds quiet down.
“We were all amazed, just enjoying the natural phenomenon,” said Joy, who hadn’t seen a total solar eclipse before Monday. “It was really cool. We really enjoyed it.”
The moment was also special for Jill O’Brien Mueller, who with her husband, Patrick, took their two daughters, ages 7 and 9, to Rend Lake in Whittington, Illinois. There they reunited and camped with friends they graduated with from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. They were joined at the campground by roughly hundreds of others.
O’Brien Mueller, of Naperville, said she was grateful to spend the day with her two daughters and to “impress upon them the significance of why it was worth the drive down, and how beautiful and special it was.”
She said photographs of a total solar eclipse “just don’t do it justice.”
“It was odd because it was sunny, but it wasn’t normally sunny, and the sky was a different shade of blue, and the trees and the grass were a different shade of green,” O’Brien Muller, 47, said. “It’s so hard to put into words. It’s so special.”
Southern Illinois also dodged threats of cloudy skies during the eclipse, which had O’Brien Mueller and her family worried up to Monday morning when the forecast predicted some cloud coverage.
“We felt very, very fortunate that we got to experience sunny skies because we didn’t think that would happen,” O’Brien Mueller said.
Totality of this year’s eclipse in southern Illinois lasted about four minutes, which is on the long end of typical solar eclipses and longer than the one downstate in 2017.
‘I’m still trying to think of words to describe it.’
“It seemed to be more intense than last time,” said Greg King, of Tinley Park, who took in the eclipse from a secluded hilltop in Eldorado, Illinois. He also saw the 2017 eclipse from downstate.
King was reminded of the appearance of shadows during totality.
“A shadow during an eclipse is super crisp — very well-defined edges on everything,” King said. “During normal sunlight it’s kind of a hazy outline, but during the eclipse it is so sharp.”
King was at a loss for words to describe the historical experience.
“I don’t know how to describe it other than just the word ‘wow,’” King said. “... The moment that it happens, it’s like wow, this is something unique. The four minutes passed by so doggone quickly.”
Chris Chong, 30, drove from Buffalo Grove to a campground in New Castle, Indiana, to experience totality for the first time.
“I’m still trying to think of words to describe it,” he said. “I guess my mind was racing but also calm at the same time.”
Chong’s hope leading up to the day was to leave wanting to do more new things. In addition to his first eclipse, Monday was his first time road tripping and camping alone. For the eclipse, however, he wasn’t alone as he was joined by 100 other people enjoying the sight in all its splendor.
“[The eclipse] definitely motivated me to try new things, enjoy even the smallest moments more, and then just remind myself and other people that there’s only so much time to enjoy things like this,” Chong said.
After viewing the spectacle in Southern Illinois, some travelers were met with a less incredible sight — bumper-to-bumper traffic.
The Illinois Department of Transportation estimated crowds of 100,000 to 200,000 would descend on prime viewing areas downstate ahead of the event, and told those making the trek to expect congestion.
That didn’t sour the experience for those who made the trip.
Tom Purdy, 42, headed from his home in Janesville, Wisconsin to Mount Vernon in southern Illinois to view the total solar eclipse.
He said the worst traffic heading home was south of Effingham, Illinois, but overall he expected the traffic to only tack on an additional half hour to the typically five-hour drive.
“It was 100% worth the trip,” Purdy said.
