Here Comes the Solar Eclipse

Good morning. It’s Monday. Today we’ll look at a momentous day in New York: the day of the solar eclipse. Don’t forget to wear your eclipse glasses!

Credit…Ted Shaffrey/Associated Press

On the morning of Saturday, Jan. 24, 1925, New Yorkers traveled northward from Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn to find the best vantage point for the solar eclipse. They squeezed onto subway cars and trudged through the bitter cold. Their destination: anywhere north of 96th Street.

That was the edge of totality: North of 96th Street, the entire sun would be blotted out at 9:11 a.m., and the sky would grow dark. South of 96th St., a bottom portion of the sun would be visible, even at the height of the eclipse.

Nobody wanted to miss a spectacle that, in New York, “will not be seen again for 99 more” years, the article the following day in this paper noted.

Well, 99 years have passed. And the moon, earth and sun are right where they are supposed to be in relation to each other. Right now, the moon’s trajectory is nearing a point directly between New York and the sun. A total eclipse will be visible in parts of New York State this afternoon.