PLATTSBURGH — Sunny of Champlain National Bank radiated warmth to passers-by and motorists streaming into Plattsburgh from I-87 Exit 38 for the Great Solar Eclipse of 2024.
“We wanted to do something to welcome all our visitors to Plattsburgh,” Sunny said.
“We thought a sun would be a really good opportunity just to wave to people. We were passing out glasses all morning. We have baked goods. We’ve got water. We’re giving out swag. We’ve had a lot of people come and take pictures with Sunny, and wave at Sunny, and honk at Sunny. Sunny, it’s a big hit.”
STATEN ISLAND VISITORS
CUNY Professor emeritus Irving Robbins and his companion Dana Barbato drove Sunday from Staten Island to Plattsburgh.
“I was in physics and astronomy,” he said.
“I’ve seen many eclipses. This is my second full eclipse. The last one was in 2017. We were in Idaho. We went to Yellowstone. We figured we would make a vacation out of it. Then, it turned out that the rangers wouldn’t let us into the Grand Tetons where the eclipse was, and we had to drive six hours to a little town in Idaho.”
Barbato is a retired elementary school science teacher, and Robbins was her professor more than 30 years ago.
“Then, we met up about 16 years ago,” she said.
“I was doing personal training, and he was trying to win a paddle ball contest.”
“Which I did,” he said.
“So, I trained him,” she said.
“She trained me good,” he said.
CAMERA SETUP
Robbins adjusted his Fuji film system, and Barbato fine-tuned her SONY camera setup to capture Monday’s natural phenomenon, which was viewed by an estimated 3.6 million New York State residents (or 18.2% of the total population), who live in the totality path, according to: https://captainexperiences.com/blog/states-with-best-solar-eclipse-view.
“The basic idea is the same,” he said.
“You must have a solar filter in front of your lenses otherwise you destroy your camera.”
“You’ll fry the sensor,” she said.
“Just like you’ll destroy your eyes if you don’t wear something,” he said.
“The idea now is we’re going to take pictures through the different parts of the phases. and then full phase, we take that off and then we try to shoot details where you see explosions going off inside of the sun. It’s very active. She caught it the last time we were in Idaho. She caught those explosions. These are mirror-less cameras, pretty good systems.”
ECLIPSE SIGNIFICANCE
New York State is one of 15 U.S. states that experienced the total solar eclipse. The others were Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.
“Basically, it’s a very simple process that most people understand,” Robbins said.
“The moon steps in front of the sun. Now ancient people used to observe this and be fearful. In China, they used to beat drums. They were fearful of dragons were eating the sun. On the other hand, the Greeks realized that the shadow that we saw up there, things are round. We don’t live in a flat world. That’s part of that. and then a lunar eclipse, even more, the Earth’s shadow goes on the moon, and you can see we’re not a flat little disc. We are a round ball.”
When Einstein first proposed general relativity, which is the theory of space and time and gravity, an English professor in the middle of the First World War went to Africa to look at an eclipse to take a picture, according to Robbins.
“Because Einstein predicted that the gravity will affect light,” he said.
“So he took a picture of the stars where the sun was going to be before the eclipse, and then at the eclipse stars come out when it gets dark. He matched the stars and found all the stars shifted based on Einstein’s theory. So, it’s one of the proofs of Einstein’s theory of general relativity that should interest people.”
TOTALITY TAIL GATE
Long Meadow, Mass. resident Henry Lanoutte organized his friends to witness totality in Plattsburgh.
They arrived Sunday to their destination, La Quinta Inn & Suites by Wyndham at 16 Plaza Blvd.
By 11 a.m. on Monday, they were perched on a grassy slope ensconced in their folding chairs with snacks, drinks, a grill and games on hand to make the best of it for the main event.
“Some of my friends came as far as Lebanon, Conn., East Hartford, Conn. and Arizona just to see this eclipse up here in Plattsburgh,” Lanoutte said.
“We made our plans last summer and invited other folks. We ended up coming up with eight people. This is the second total. We were down in Sparta, Tenn. for the last one. We knew that it’s a life-changing event when you see it in totality. When you see it in 95% or 97%, it’s sort of like you almost went to a concert and you were in the parking lot. But when you’re here for a full eclipse, it’s spiritual.”
Lanoutte will leave Tuesday morning.
“People who think they are going to buzz in and buzz out are heading into the zombie apocalypse when they leave,” he said.
“When we left Tennessee, we were stuck in traffic for more than seven hours to go approximately two hours in distance. It will be a nightmare. We’ve never seen it as bad as that.”
Lanoutte’s drive was beautiful into the Champlain Valley.
“It’s like going into a concert,” he said.
“People come in at all different times and they think, oh, it’s going to be the same when they go out. When this thing ends at 3:30, 4 o’clock, millions of people are going on the highway at the same time – 89, 91, 87 – it’s going to be a nightmare I think.”