This story has been updated.
Millions of residents, visitors, scientists and spectators across the Lone Star State experienced the rarity of a total solar eclipse Monday afternoon — peering through heavy clouds to catch glimpses of the once-in-a-lifetime event.
The mood was hopeful at Garner State Park west of San Antonio as bits of sun shone through thick cloud cover.
Jacob Gonzalez, an interpretive ranger, led a guided hike to the top of Mount Baldy, the park’s second-highest point at 1,849 feet — an ascent of about 400 feet, which took about 45 minutes. The top of Baldy offered a 360-degree view.
In the path of totality, which bisected San Antonio roughly along the diagonal path of Interstate 35, viewers were able to remove their eclipse glasses as they experienced the moment the moon passes in front of the sun, blocking it out completely.
While the eclipse itself started around noon, the phenomenon of totality began locally at around 1:30 p.m. and lasted more than four minutes in some areas. About 4,500 people had planned to watch the eclipse from somewhere in Garner State Park, said park superintendent Kelby Bridwell.
At 1:15 p.m., a collective “oh!” rose from the crowd of roughly 200 watchers atop Mount Baldy as the thick clouds parted for a moment, showing the last sliver of sun. The wind had picked up, and it was noticeably darker already — though it was unclear how much of the darkness was from the thickening cloud cover and how much was from the eclipse.
A dark cloud slid in front of the eclipse in the moments before totality began. Then real darkness came, along with increasing wind and a collective cheer from the crowd at the summit. A scattering of raindrops accompanied the dark.
For four minutes and 22 seconds, everyone looked around as the dark descended. It was too dark to walk safely around the rocky surface of the summit, so everyone stayed put.
Then, as quickly as it came, the dark lifted. The clouds parted and a noise went up again as people rushed to put their glasses back on and look up.
A fingernail of sun was visible for a few moments, then the clouds passed over again.
At The Rock at La Cantera’s Frost Plaza in Northwest San Antonio, about 500 students, plus educators and volunteers from 11 schools gathered Monday morning, anxiously peering up into patches of sunlight through thick gray clouds.
The cloud cover didn’t break for totality, but students excitedly ran around and fireworks provided by Six Flags Fiesta Texas blasted off as the entire region plunged into darkness for just over two minutes.
Younger students squealed, while older ones snapped selfies as brightness returned to the region almost as quickly as it had gone.
When it was all over in Garner State Park, photographers compared shots and kids complained of the cold. Collapsible chairs slid back into carrying bags. Two young men talked about how their view of the eclipse will be better in Egypt in 2027.
Gonzalez put his pack on, time for him to head down.
Texas in the path
San Antonio hasn’t seen a total solar eclipse overhead since 1397 — about 95 years before Christopher Columbus’ famous journey that would credit him for discovering the Americas and about 321 years before the city was founded.
San Antonio won’t see another total solar eclipse darken its skies until 2343, about 319 years from now.
On average, a total solar eclipse only graces a single spot on Earth every 375 years or so, due to a few different factors including that the moon’s elliptical orbit around the Earth is at a tilt, and the fact our planet is not perfectly spherical but is instead an ellipsoid — more egg-like than ball-like.
Total solar eclipses are also rarer for people to experience because their paths of totality only span about 100 miles across radially, explained San Antonio eclipse expert Angela Speck, professor of astrophysics and the chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at UTSA.
Whereas lunar eclipses can be viewed by the entire half of the planet experiencing nighttime, total solar eclipses are viewable only by those in the path of totality, Speck explained — which is typically a very small portion of the planet.
The event also takes on unique religious meanings for some groups, including representing a time of renewal for many Native American tribes such as the Navajo.
Because the phenomenon is so rare, millions of visitors have descended on Texas over the last several days. Indeed, day passes for state parks across Texas for Monday’s date were snatched up within just hours of being released last month.
On the basketball court across from the Frio River at Garner State Park, regional interpretive specialist Stewart Lefevre was setting up a sunspotter, which allows viewers to see the eclipse indirectly, plus two telescopes.
One massive scope blocks out “99.99% of the light,” Lefevre said, so viewers can see the eclipse without burning their retinas — like looking through glasses, but with magnification. The “hydrogen alpha” telescope he was setting up only blocks specific wavelengths, so viewers can see much more detail — including, if the weather cooperates, solar flares.
Research opportunity
Scientists across the nation, including those in San Antonio, planned to use the rare event to gain more insight into our sun and its corona.
A group of Warren High School students recorded data for the NASA Eclipse Soundscapes experiment. They sat at the peak of Mount Baldy, observing and writing down the natural sounds 10 minutes before the eclipse, during and then 10 minutes after.
Students reported seeing birds flying before the eclipse, then disappearing when the eclipse happened.
“We heard wolves howling during,” said Hayleigh Anguiano. “It was really quiet during. And then after, everything came back to normal. I could hear the insects again.”
The students also used an AudioMoth device to records frequency of natural sounds at multiple frequencies.
Head of science at Warren High, Ivan Bañuelos, first heard of the opportunity to participate in the experiment through a park ranger at Garner State Park during a volunteer work trip with students.
“NASA is repeating a 1935 experiment doing the same thing, except back then, they didn’t have the technology they have now,” he said.
On Monday, students helped see if anything had changed during the last 100 years compared to the 1935 solar eclipse.
Bañuelos said it’ll take at least six months for NASA to process the data.
“To them, this is once-in-a-lifetime. A lot of them will never see anything like this again,” he said. “I wanted them to feel it and to absorb the moment.”
Students view eclipse
At the Rock at La Cantera, junior Sofia Acosta and sophomore Alexandra Alvarran, from the North East School of the Arts, donned tinfoil hats in a playful rivalry with other students from the school wearing alien antennae, a nod to the extraterrestrial nature of the event.
“We’re super bummed about the clouds,” Acosta said. “I wish it was sunny out.”
Sophomores Sabina Ramon and Gianna Carruth talked about the unique hues expected during the eclipse event.
“Apparently with the eclipse happening, the green and red scales are supposed to even out and so we’ve just kind of tried to observe that,” Ramon said.
The phenomenon is known as the Purkinje effect, or shift, and is unique to total solar eclipses. As the light dims, colors with longer wavelengths appear darker and shorter wavelength colors such as blue and green appear brighter.
Elementary school students cycled through dozens of educational opportunities outside on the lawn set up by Communities in Schools, including some where they got to control robots, create video game controllers and more.
NASA broadcast educational content on a jumbotron and provided exhibits for students to learn about the rare event, as well as a live stream view of the eclipse, unobstructed by the clouds.
District 4 councilwoman Adriana Rocha Garcia, who had been planning the event for about two years and was wearing an eclipse-themed dress, said she hoped Monday’s eclipse would inspire students to get involved in STEM.
“We are hoping to inspire the next generation of astronauts, of researchers, of space nutritionists,” she said. “And that’s exactly what this was intended to do today.”
Traveling across the nation
Economist Ray Perryman estimated a statewide impact of $428 million due to eclipse visitors hoping for a view of totality. His multiplier effect brings the indirect impact to an estimated $1.4 billion.
With so many guests to the area, the Texas Department of Transportation warned residents that traffic may be worse than usual Monday and advised drivers to be extra cautious during the eclipse and when heading to or from eclipse watch parties or events.
Harold Okino drove from Palo Alto to view the eclipse from Mount Baldy, pointing his 2-foot-long telescopic lens skyward, with a welding lens taped over it with blue painter’s tape.
Down in the park below, two families, the Dolans and the Shens, sat on a lawn in front of the Frio River, hundreds of miles away from their homes also near Palo Alto, California. The two families met at their church and traveled in two cars with three kids to see the eclipse at Garner State Park.
After wondering whether to relocate from the park, where the sun had just peeked out of cloudy skies, they were finally feeling hopeful as totality neared.
The Dolans and Shens planned their trip to the Texas Hill Country around November, specifically because the park was in a path of totality and because of the river.
But as the trip neared, they worried about the forecasted thunderstorms.
They came to Texas for beautiful, clear skies, said Kelly Dolan, as the sky was still cloudy. His wife Michelle sat on a lawn chair next to their son Joseph, “Jojo.”
Jojo was only a few months old at the time of the 2017 total eclipse, they said. Dolan said he’s excited for him to witness the once-in-a-lifetime event.
“We were like, if there’s going to be overcast, it’s OK. We’re still going to love the experience and being out here,” Christine Shen said.
Up on Mount Baldy, Okino was also making the most of the moment.
“I got some beautiful cloud shots,” he said.
San Antonio Report journalists Lindsey Carnett, Tracy Idell Hamilton, Isaac Windes and Raquel Torres contributed to this report.
