KALAMAZOO (WKZO-AM/FM) — Despite gloomy forecasts, Kalamazoo got to see the eclipse after all.
Larue Russell at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum saud they were mobbed by people eager to catch the solar event and Mother Nature did not disappoint.
She says just as the time was coming for the moon to take its first bite out of the sun, “we had quite a few clouds, and right…I mean right at 12:58, when we were ready for first contact, the clouds parted, it was kind of like magic. We were happy and there was a great …’AHHHHH’… gasp from everybody” and the viewing began.
She says except for a cloud or two obscuring the sun, what she called a “Michigan total eclipse” they had great viewing of the rare lunar-solar interface.
She estimates they had a thousand people on the north mall looking up.
Russell says they had pinhole projectors and solar tubes, telescopes, enough of the sun screening glasses to share and a great sense of community during the once in a generation event.
She said they also had NASA’s live coverage and the play by play from their solar scientists playing in the planetarium. All it all it was a much bigger and better day than they anticipated or could have hoped for.
And if you missed it, there will be another one on April 8, 2024, that will race up the middle of the country, just nipping the southeast edge of Michigan. The next one after that will be decades away in 2045.
