Andi’s New Year’s Eclipse

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December 1888

I do not know how I was talked into visiting San Francisco for the holidays. I mean, honestly! Riley had barely recovered from his horrible accident at Thanksgiving, and Kate begged and pleaded for the entire extended family to come to the city for a special Christmas. I certainly did not feel like going. I felt miserable and sick, just finding out I was in the family way about the same time Riley had his nearly fatal fall from a horse (see Stranger in the Glade, “Count Your Blessings.”)

I was truly counting my Thanksgiving blessings….until the telegram arrived from Kate. She’d learned that her husband, Troy, would be released from San Quentin prison in January, and she wanted us to help celebrate this glorious news by having the family gathering in her mansion (Aunt Rebecca’s mansion, actually, but she bequeathed the house to Kate before she died).

Reluctantly, I packed up Jared’s little duds, a couple changes of clothing for me, and agreed to go. Riley, as cheerful as always, seemed excited about the Christmas gathering. In fact, he even invited his mother and father, who were back at the Presidio fort in San Francisco, to join us.

“And you simply must stay through New Year’s Day,” Kate insisted when we arrived on her doorstep, sicker than ever from the 8-hour train ride and then bouncing through the rainy, slippery streets up to Pacific Heights.”

“Why is that?” I asked testily, wishing only to lie down and try to keep my luncheon from coming up.

Kate explained. She was pretty proud of Levi, who was attending university. Apparently, he had learned that something called a “solar eclipse” would be happening mid-morning on January 1. He and his chums were very interested in the skies above. Levi knew the names of all the constellations, where a planet was at any given time of the year, and had actually seen a shimmering comet a year or two ago. “On New Year’s Day,” he crowed, “the new moon will pass right over the sun, blocking the entire thing for 2 minutes and 17 seconds.” He shivered in anticipation.

I sat down, stunned. “Two minutes and 17 seconds? How in the world would you know about something that hasn’t even happened yet?”

“Since the moon, the sun, the planets, and the stars orbit in an organized manner, it’s easy to calculate pretty much anything in the heavens,” he boasted. “It’s all about the mathematics. In fact–“

I waved his explanation away, but his excitement was contagious. At least, until I looked out of the window, where rain splattered the glass panes. “I don’t think you will be able to see much of anything in this weather.”

“We’ll see!” With that, Levi bounded up the stairs, returning shortly with a funny-looking contraption. “This is a telescope. I even have a sun filter. Mother let me buy it with some of Aunt Rebecca’s inheritance when we heard about the eclipse. I might even become an astronomer someday.”

By this time, I was so tired that I nodded and sighed, “That’s nice.”

Riley insisted I get some rest. He lugged our bags upstairs and settled me into the soft feather mattress. Then he lifted Jared onto his shoulders and blew me a kiss. “I’ll come get you for supper, my princess. You rest.”

And I did.

———

The Christmas holiday was so fun! I started feeling better a day or so before Christmas so I could enjoy the tree decorating and didn’t have to cover my ears from the excited squeals of the little cousins, who danced and jumped and ran around in circles. Jared being one of those who yelled the loudest.

January 1, 1889

Levi’s enthusiasm for this rare solar event infected the entire family. We prayed for good weather (no rain, no San Francisco fog) and waited on pins and needles until New Year’s Day. Without Aunt Rebecca there, insisting we host innumerable New Year’s Eve guests, our family spent a most relaxing evening. We watched the fireworks over San Francisco Bay then retired early.

New Year’s Day dawned clear and bright. Levi had dragged out a map he had copied in class a few weeks ago, showing the path of the eclipse–from California all the way into Canada. I had to admit that Levi had very good drawing ability. He took red ink and circled San Francisco. “Here’s where it passes over us,” he explained. “Totality between 9:45 and 9:50 am.”

We all gathered around the table, where the map lay spread out, while Levi rushed around to set up his mechanical contraption.

Soon, we were standing around outside. Levi had explained that when the moon covered the sun, everything would get dark. Ha. The sun was too big to be covered by our tiny moon. (Which shows how much I know about the heavens.) Levi fitted a funny-looking covering over the larger end of the telescope and hovered over it. Then he gasped. “Look here, Andi!”

For some reason, Levi wanted me to see the spectacle first. I made my way carefully to Levi’s side, where his eye was squinting into a tiny aperture. I raised my head to the sun. “Don’t look at the sun,” he warned, jerking his head away from the eyepiece. “Look in here instead.”

I looked and jerked backward. Then I looked again. I saw an orange ball (that’s the sun, Levi said). He also told me the spots in the middle were sunspots. And something had cut right into the sun! “That’s the moon starting it’s trip,” Levi said.

(Note: All these pictures were taken today from about 11am until 1:40 in Glen Rose, TX, by Mrs. M’s grandson, Christian, with his phone and his telescope. Except the very last one, which is a better view from Glen Rose taken by someone else today.)

Everybody crowded around to see this marvelous thing. Everybody gasped. I couldn’t wait to see what would happen next. Slowly, each time I looked through Levi’s eyepiece, the moon took out more and more of the sun. My heart was pounding so hard. I had never seen such a sight!

And then . . . just as there was only a tiny sliver of the sun left, the sky turned dark–a dark, dark blue. And I saw stars! I stopped looking in the telescope and watched the fastest “sunset” I’d ever seen. In about three minutes, the sun “set” and everything went quiet. I didn’t even hear any streetcars. Everybody in the city had stopped what they were doing, and they were all looking up!

I looked up and gasped. The sun was much smaller, but I could see it perfectly clear! I didn’t even need to shade my eyes. White glowed all around where the sun rays leaped out from behind the black moon. I got terrible shivers and then I said “How great and awesome is our God.” I couldn’t help it. He had made that moon to be the exact size it needed to be, and had placed it at the exact distance from the earth in order to cover the sun. Why? Well, why not? To show His great power, I suspect.

This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I enjoyed it immensely. I understood Levi’s fascination with the heavens and hoped he would pursue his new dream of becoming an astronomer.

Levi then proceeded to draw a picture of what he had seen. It was very well drawn.

“Thank you, Kate,” I whispered when we left the following morning. “You were right. This is something I will never, ever forget, not so long as I live.”

Note: As you can tell by the images, this was an actual eclipse on January 1, 1889, called the “New Year’s Day” eclipse. The map shows the path of totality (right over the San Francisco Bay area). See the two maps–1889 and 2024–today’s eclipse). The 1889 eclipse’s path is the BLUE line.

So . . . did anybody see the eclipse today? Comment with your reactions!