SALEM — Nearly 1,000 people who came together on Salem Common Monday reached the same conclusion as the skies grew hazy and the air became abruptly cooler: the moon is a better door than a window.
The moon, considered a partial eclipse locally, blocked out 93.5% of the sun at 3:30 p.m. yesterday for those around the North Shore, the closest to totality anyone local would experience.
Several of those on the Common talked not just about the joy of using the park to watch an astronomically historic event, but of those who traveled great lengths — literally — to do the same.
Salem Academy Charter School was one such group, bringing most of the grades 6-through-12 charter school to Salem Common to witness the event. The rest traveled to Vermont for a totalic vantage point, faculty at the school said.
The same was said by Brenda and Jacob Rego, and their pup Rio, as they reclined on lawn chairs facing the sun.
“It’s special,” Brenda Rego said. “Our family drove up to New Hampshire, so we wanted to see a fraction of what they’re experiencing and be able to talk to them about it.”
A group of four Salemites sat elsewhere on the Common, viewing their viewing as a “once-in-a-lifetime experience,” Paul George described it.
“I did Facetime with my cousin in England,” Adele Maestranzi said. “I said, ‘you’re coming, one percent!’ and he’s like, ‘that’s the eastern side.’”
But for Salem Academy, there was more to the afternoon than staring at the sun. Science teachers prepared the whole school for lessons and activities to plant a seed that can grow once the sunlight returned.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime event,” SACS executive assistant Fallon Burke said, “and we just really wanted to have a greenspace available to have these activities.”
Standing alongside her, eighth-grade science teacher Nate Lilly outlined activities the school brought for its students. They ranged from box and paper exercises for watching the eclipse to tennis and beach balls for testing what distance was needed for one to eclipse the other from a student’s perspective.
Many students seized on the opportunity that handed them a beach ball in a city park, as the first hour of the afternoon was mostly spent with students … getting exercise.
But as the moon crossed the path of the sun, the park grew dark. The temperature then began to drop significantly as students sat en masse and watched the eclipse.
As 3:30 p.m. approached, some classrooms counted down the entrance and exit of 93.5% magnitude, the peak of the eclipse for Salem specifically. Many cheered between the two countdowns, and scientifically minded learners buzzed over opportunity in total.
“It’s once-in-a-lifetime, amazing,” seventh grader Farzeen Ahmed said. “It’s a huge impact on our science understanding because it’s a real-world experience, and we’re seeing it live, not just on a computer screen.”
“It’s our first eclipse ever. We’ve never had one before,” 12th grader Daria Porter said. “We’re not just watching the eclipse, we’re learning.”
That was a point that science teacher Katelyn Stolberg highlighted.
“The career applications… like, how many people are taking data on what’s going on today?” she asked, then transitioning to the focus of her students. “What are they taking data on, and what does that look like if they want to pursue NASA?”
Of course, there was one other seventh grader buzzing over the opportunity: Jeff Trotsky, a seventh grade science teacher who recalled watching an eclipse when he was 13, himself a seventh grader at the time.
As much as time is linear, it came full circle for Trotsky on Monday.
“Nearly 20 years later,” he said, “at 32 years old, I get to witness it from the other side of the classroom.”
Contact Dustin Luca at 978-338-2523 or DLuca@salemnews.com. Follow him at facebook.com/dustinluca or on Twitter @DustinLucaSN.