The 2024 solar eclipse was beset by clouds Monday afternoon, disappointing some who had made the trip to see it.
In Lockport, Elmer and his brother Jonas Concepcion described themselves as “space buffs” with a father who was more an astronomer nut than even they were. They booked hotel rooms a year in advance to be here, they said.
The two brothers hung around the Flight of Five Locks on Monday comparing this region’s eclipse to that of South Carolina where even more of their family, who live in Middlesex County of New Jersey, gathered to see the celestial event.
“It was a big moon right in front of the sun,” Elmer said of the 2017 event, noting the clouds here.
The Concepcion brothers were not the only ones that made the trip.
Guy Horanberg grew up in Lockport but ended up in sunny southern California. A self-proclaimed eclipse chaser, he had a card made up five years ago that he handed to everyone he met, saying he’d be in Lockport on the Big Bridge when the 2024 solar eclipse took place.
Horanberg talked about traveling via RV trailer in 2017 and driving back toward the West Coast as he realized that weather conditions would be better in that direction rather than trying for South Carolina. He saw that solar eclipse in Nebraska with 10,000 other spectators in a rodeo stadium, about double the size of the town’s population, he said.
This time he was staying with family in Lewiston, he said, and there was no chance to chase better skies. Besides he’d made a commitment.
“So, I’m here now but you know what?” he said. “Not one of those people who I handed my card to bothered to show up!”