Eclipse watchers in San Antonio and across Texas study, cheer, reflect on rare celestial beauty

Eclipse watchers throughout the San Antonio region got the show of a lifetime on Monday as the moon silently slid across the sun.

Even those not in the path of totality marveled over the drama of darkness descending in the middle of the day as they munched on eclipse themed snacks. Others shared the moment with their fellow humans and perhaps even turned inward for a moment to appreciate their small but often beautiful life on Earth.

San Antonio was on the edge of the path of totality. The eclipse began at 12:14 p.m. Peak viewing took place at 1:34 p.m. It ended around 2:55 p.m.

Eclipse watchers across the San Antonio area took their positions under cloudy skies hoping for an unforgettable view of the eclipse. For many, the clouds proved a challenge. But it was a thrill to experience brief glimpses and momentary darkness.

When the fullest moment of eclipse took place over downtown San Antonio, street lights flickered on, a checkerboard of building windows glowed and small crowds of people stood on sidewalks, pointing upward or positioning their eclipse glasses on their faces. Construction on nearby structures paused as the workers took a break to take in the scene. The air cooled. Flags hardly stirred in the calm twilight.

Brian Kirkpatrick

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TPR

Almost 2,000 people savored the event from the Alamo's wide-open plaza. Visitors snacked on eclipse-centric treats, including Moon Pies, Cosmic Brownies, Orbit, Milky Ways, Starbursts and Eclipse gum. Alamo Trust Spokesman Jonathan Huhn estimated the crowd had grown to about 1,300 people by 1:30 p.m.

George Runner from California spotted the sun for a moment. "Oh, oh, oh, right there. It's coming! Oh, it's teasing."

Chris Johnson from Denver, Colorado, and his partner lay on their backs in Alamo Plaza to get the best view. They were among the many visitors who were disappointed with the cloud cover. "[But] we stuck through it since we already had our plans booked."

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Xochitl and Alejandra Arroyo, 16 and 13 years old, respectively, visited from Chicago. They had mixed emotions but the event left them smiling. "I liked seeing how it went from daylight to night," Xochitl said, while Alejandra admitted, "It kind of like scared me and stuff — like, I didn't really know how the experience was like."

At St. Mary’s University, Patrick Green, a professor of physics, joined what he estimated to be a couple hundred students to view the eclipse. "At least it's not raining, knock wood, so it could be worse," he joked. But Green appreciated the historic moment, and he remained optimistic that even if the clouds never lifted, at least there were other sources from which to view the eclipse, including NASA.

Dot Kirby traveled to the university from Virginia. "The clouds broke through right at the right time, and it was fabulous," Kirby explained. "Very gorgeous. Very cool. We were afraid we weren't going to be able to see anything but we came this far so we were like, 'what the heck, we'll see what we can do.' Very cool. We were very excited, and we got what we came to see."

Karla Benavidez took a moment from her lunch hour to take in the scene. She loved the moment the street lights came on. "That was awesome," she said. But Benavidez also admitted to feeling a deeper significance. "You feel tiny compared to the rest of the universe, you know?" she explained. "It's just 'who are we?' [It] gives you all the ... existential questions."

Joey Palacios

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TPR

At the main campus of The University of Texas at San Antonio, an ocean of students, staff and visitors packed a sports field, lay on the turf and donned their sunglasses.

As darkness descended over the campus, people whooped, sighed cheered and clapped. Campus buildings glowed in the distance.

The Diaz family live on the South Side of San Antonio, which was outside the path of totality. So they took their three children to Northwest Vista College to get the full experience.

It was too cloudy to see the corona of the sun, but it got dark for two minutes.

Analia Diaz, 15, said a sense of calm came over her during the darkness. “It just felt peaceful," she said. "It felt like there couldn’t be anything that could really harm us.”

She said her little sisters’ faces lit up during the eclipse. Analia added that she hoped she can share the experience with them again in 2044.

Camille Phillips

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TPR

In Grey Forest, just northwest of San Antonio, Myron Gerhard and his wife traveled from Colorado to visit with relatives and to view the eclipse. “It was extraordinary,” he said. "What surprised me was how very dark it did get. I knew it was going to get dark, but I was surprised how dark it got.”

Gerhard had his camera gear set up and ready to go. “We were really lucky because we got some breaks in the clouds right at the last few minutes,” he said. “And so we were able to get some photos of the sliver of the sun. It was great [and] rewarding. It was worth the effort, worth the effort to come for sure.”

The last total solar eclipse in Texas was in 1878. The next total eclipse in the United States will be in 2044. The next eclipse for San Antonio is in the year 2343.

The border and Rio Grande Valley

Eagle Pass on the Texas border was among the first U.S. communities to witness the eclipse.

Organizers planned to hold an eclipse viewing festival at Eagle Pass' Shelby Park. But they had to move it to another location because of Gov. Greg Abbott's seizure of the park as part of his controversial Operation Lone Star border security program.

People also glimpsed the eclipse from Del Rio. Despite the clouds, the glow of the sun began to change as the moon moved into position.

In Port Isabel, residents mixed with tourists to enjoy the eclipse from their perspective at the southern tip of Texas.

The city was not in the path of totality, but it nonetheless offered a unique view: from the top of a lighthouse.

The winds that blew all morning calmed as the eclipse began. The sky darkened, and the shadows of the dozens of people who gathered on the lighthouse lawn grew translucent.

At the top of the lighthouse, people perched along the catwalk and peered into the darkening sun.

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TPR

Jeanne Oelfke from Minnesota was among them. She last viewed an eclipse from the Canadian border in 2017. “People have been saying that there's this emotional component to the eclipse," she said, "and I honestly don't feel that. But it truly is a once in a lifetime experience."

She added: "And then look at all the people down below us who are enjoying it. It's a crazy world we're living in, and if you can just do something like this and relax a little bit, more power to you.”

Port Isabel has been on the fringes of a handful of eclipses, but the last total eclipse to cross here was in 1994. The city also experienced a total solar eclipse one month and 100 years earlier. That was the same year the 42 year old lighthouse was relit after being extinguished for six years.

Gaige Davila

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TPR

The view from Kerrville and the Hill Country

Kerrville was ground zero for big viewing crowds. By 9 a.m., dozens of people had gathered at the Western Art Museum for an event sponsored by TPR..

Jim Cook traveled from Napa, California. He came with his brother and other relatives. Cook said he wanted to see a full solar eclipse for a long time.

“We were talking about a year and a half ago on my birthday," he explained, "and, and I was saying, 'yeah, the eclipse is coming up, and we should figure out where to go.' ”

Jack Morgan

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TPR

He added: “I've been an astro geek for a long time," he said. "This is ... a science thing for me.”

Cook's brother Jeff enjoyed a hammock he’d stretched between a pair of live oaks. “This is a bucket list item," he said. "Has been for a good long time.”

Eventually, more than 100 people chose to watch the eclipse there, including Eric Solomon, who came to the Hill Country from Atlanta with his wife Sharon.

"It's so eerie, it's so strange, it's so bizarre, it's so unusual," he said. "I don't know if I can call it a life-changing event, but I mean ... it's not something you'll ever forget; that's for sure."

Sharyl Tenayuca from San Antonio said Kerrville was a special place to experience the eclipse.

"The images of the moon passing; I've already seen images of it taking a little bite of it," she said. "And the corona, and all the other phenomena that's happening with it. It's very beautiful. Makes you appreciate nature."

She added that she didn’t feel like she had to draw a line between the science and the religious aspects of it. “It makes you appreciate the universe and its creation, its beauty, how vast it is. And the science of it is fascinating.”

Brandon Hart drove up from San Antonio, and he too melded his scientific interest with a spiritual one.

“Science is my primary interest, but there's also something super spiritual about it as well," he said. "It's just a great way to connect with the power of nature and, seeing things that are so rare like this being a part of it and then taking taking a part of it with community, that that makes it extremely special. So, I love every aspect of it. It fills both my brain and my soul.”

When the eclipse began, the temperature dropped five or six degrees, and the moon shaded the sun to about the darkness of a full moon night.

Elsewhere in Texas

KUT in Austin captured multiple scenes of crowds through the city, including at Pease Park and before the Tower at the UT Austin campus. Austin experienced about two minutes of totality.

It also noted that people who want to recycle their eclipse glasses may give them to the “Astronomers Without Borders program, which will repurpose them for future eclipse viewing across the globe.” After the 2017 eclipse, KUT added, “the group collected more than 3 million glasses from 1,000 sites in the eclipse's path. The nonprofit is hoping to recreate that success.”

KERA reported that about “12,000 people flocked to the Cotton Bowl Monday to watch the eclipse as part of an event sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.”

KERA added that Dallas was the “largest city to be completely within the totality.” Ennis, it explained, which is about 40 minutes from the metroplex, expected an influx of 200,000 eclipse watchers.

Weather conditions threatened the viewing parties but the clouds broke just in time.

In Brownwood, between Abilene and Austin, a couple dozen people gathered at the tiny Elkins Cemetery south of the city to view the eclipse.

Mark Conder took the day off work and drove five hours to take a chance the clouds would clear up enough to see the totality. “I came from Lubbock to view the eclipse,” he said. “It was just on the edge of the totality and kind of the closest path to Lubbock, coming in from the northwest. It was a little questionable because of the clouds this morning where the best viewing areas would be. But it looks like it cleared up.”

Gail Croft said she wasn’t worried about the predictions of cloudy skies blocking the view. “It’s a once in a lifetime,” she said. “It was wonderful watching it as it came in and covered, and then the temperature dropped. It was cool, pleasant. I wish everyone could experience it because it was beautiful.”

Houston also got lucky with the weather. Houston Public Media (HPM) reported that visitors to the Houston Zoo were concerned over the overcast skies, including Amber Clark, who came to visit friends and family.

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“I’m a little disappointed that we have so much cloud coverage, but we did get to see a little bit of it and got a couple of pictures of it, so that was fun,” she said.

HPM added that the zoo’s animals, including the giraffes and eagles, did not react unusually to the eclipse.

The view from upstate New York

TPR's Bioscience & Medicine Reporter Bonnie Petrie watched the eclipse from her mother's hometown of Angola, in western New York, where the sun was no more willing to be the center of attention than it was in San Antonio.

She joined Jason Keem, a dental hygienist, at a spot right in the path of totality. He bought a lot of gear over the last several months to maximize the enjoyment of the eclipse with his wife and daughters, their grandmother, and his brother-in-law, Joel Krawczyk.

Investing in experiencing something like a total eclipse of the sun is a gamble because the power of nature is not only the star of the show but also the bouncer at the velvet rope.

“Well, this one right here is, Coronado Telescope. So this actually looks at the hydrogen alpha wavelength of light," Keem explained to onlookers. "So that is a low end telescope. Great for looking at the moon distance objects, like nebulas or the planets”

But like the Buffalo Bills fans that they are, they weren't surprised that even with all this fancy gear, they might not see it.

“Wide right, no goal. Always a bridesmaid, never a bride. No eclipse.”

Courtesy photo

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Jason Keem

They expected to be disappointed, but they didn't go anywhere. They and a few dozen other hopeful people gathered on a beach on Lake Erie and hoped for the best.

“So we'll know what's going on. We just don't see it. You'll get like a twilight level of. Of light. Even with the clouds. We just won't see it, unfortunately.”

When the moment came, the temperature started to drop. Keem pointed at the birds: “Swallows are flying over. So they probably think that it's going to be nightfall. And the insects and the insect activity picked up to, like over the tent here."

The someone told him to look at the horizon, where the heather gray of the clouds collided with the liquid iron of the lake -- a streak of iridescent blue then purple, brightening to a vibrant pink -- began to bleed across the horizon.

“Oh wow. Wow.”

The sky and the sea deepened to charcoal with a shock of orange in between.

“There’s your shadow, Coming in. That’s what you’re looking at."

"Oh my God. Wow. That's awesome. Wow. Look. Look at this. Look on the horizon there. The orange. Look at the horizon line. Look at that. It's breathtaking. Wow! Oh my God! Wow. Ma look at that. Look at the horizon."

Then, at 3:18 in the afternoon, in the tiny town of Angola, New York, it was night. The sound of applause broke through the quiet.

“No disappointment.“

“Don’t feel disappointed. Stunning, breathtaking. Just over the water reflecting on the waves. Absolutely beautiful.”

“The yellows looked like a second sunset and a second sunrise. It was beautiful, it was very surreal.”

“Beyond words -- really I just never thought it was going to be that beautiful.”

“This was very exciting. This was fun.”

Experienced without tools or even the stars of the show, for this group in upstate New York, the total eclipse of 2024 was a complete success.

Science and education

Teachers used the total solar eclipse — when the Moon passes directly between the Sun and Earth — to enlighten their students.

Researchers also saw the event as a supreme opportunity to learn more about light and shadow, about the moon, and about the sun itself.

A group of young astronomers from the University of Pittsburgh traveled to Concan, Texas, about 80 miles west of San Antonio, to try to crack a 200-year-old mystery about shadow bands.

Shadow bands are thin, wavy lines of alternating light and dark that seem to race across the ground in the minute or so right before, and right after, the moon completely blocks out the sun.

The leading hypothesis is that shadow bands are caused by atmospheric turbulence. The students are there to test the theory.

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Other scientists and teachers had their students study how insects and animals reacted to the eclipse, something teams did throughout Texas on Monday.

“The shadows get sharp, the birds start going to roost, the crickets start chirping, the dogs lay down,” Patricia Reiff, a self-proclaimed “eclipse junkie” and Rice University professor, told Houston Public Media.

“Researchers observed unusual animal behaviors at the Riverbanks Zoo in South Carolina” during the 2017 solar eclipse, HPM reported. “According to a 2020 study, approximately 75% of the observed animals at the South Carolina zoo responded to the eclipse. Animals including baboons, gorillas, giraffes, flamingos and lorikeets displayed characteristics of anxiety.”

Jamie Wallace, owner and operator of Safe in Austin, a 10-acre rescue ranch for abused and neglected animals in Leander, invited children to her ranch on Monday to help comfort animals during the total solar eclipse. Darkness there lasted for almost four minutes.

KUT reported that during the eclipse, “David Griner, one of the co-owners and operators of the ranch, rushed to the enclosure where the chickens and turkeys live to see if they would go into their coops and put themselves to bed like they do every night when the sun goes down.

“He found the birds huddled together in the center of their enclosure, frozen in what seemed like confusion at the sudden darkness," KUT explained. "As the seconds passed, the birds slowly appeared to shake their reverie and make their way toward their coops. But then, just as quickly as the darkness appeared, light returned, and the roosters began to crow and flap their wings — just as they do every morning. ...”

KUT added that a horse on the ranch seemed anxious, and a pot-bellied pig just napped through the event.

Pet owners who enjoyed the eclipse with their pets could share their observations with the Solar Eclipse Safari project. "We are interested in collecting data from anywhere where people are," Adam Hartstone-Rose, a North Carolina State biological sciences professor, told KUT.

Hartstone-Rose spent Monday at the Fort Worth Zoo. He hoped to hear from people all over. "We are really interested in learning about not just which animals react to an eclipse and how they react, but what extent of totality is necessary ... to cause that reaction," he said.

Power concerns

Texas was expected to lose more solar power generation than any other state on Monday, but the state's power operator said the power grid would not be affected by the solar eclipse.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimated a 90 to 99% drop in utility scale solar capacity for most of the state. Homes and businesses with solar panels would also see a drop in generation and may need to pull added energy from the grid for that reason.

But energy experts said the state’s power system was ready to pick up the slack. One analyst from Texas A&M estimated big energy storage batteries could cover 20% of the solar shortfall, with the rest being filled in by other power generators.

ERCOT said it has worked on forecasting models to reflect reduced solar power production -- similar to a sunset and sunrise. It did not expect any grid reliability concerns during the eclipse.

Solar generation would gradually rise to normal as the sun re-emerges.

Business impact

While a lot of classic rockers may have spent Monday listening to "Brain Damage/Eclipse" from Pink Floyd's classic album Dark Side of the Moon, another track from that record would be just as appropriate: "Money."

That’s because KUT reported that Texas could see an eclipse-related economic impact of around $1.4 billion, which could ignite an economic boom that could resonate well beyond April 8. A report from the Waco-based Perryman Group said that amount includes $749.5 million in gross product and $453.6 million in personal income.

Thereport noted that Fort Worth, Arlington and Grapevine could see an estimated $53.9 million in direct expenditures and an economic impact of $197.2 million.

Bulent Temel, an assistant professor of practice and economics at The University of Texas at San Antonio, told the Texas Standard that Monday could feature the “most profitable 22 minutes in Texas history” — though his estimates weren’t as high as the Perryman Group’s.

It was not clear how accurate those estimates would stand up to potential low turnout over severe weather warnings issued before and on Monday.

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Big feelings and deep thoughts

Eclipses are silent but they can be dramatic, spectacular and even disconcerting events that can profoundly touch hearts and minds.

Some people feel these moments bring everyone together. Other people value the events for reminding them that they're part of a bigger solar system in motion around them. Some people feel small and insignificant. Others feel fortunate that they were able to witness a rare and harmless example of the majesty of the natural world.

"The Texas Standard" recently spoke with Sean Goldy, a postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins University, who studied the expressions of awe people shared on social media during the 2017 solar eclipse. "People felt closer to others ... during and after the eclipse. They felt humbled. They wanted to help people. Expressions of anger decreased in the Tweets, while expressions of empathy increased."

Such reactions occurred again on Monday.

KUT's Chelsey Zhu recently checked in with "yogis, astrologers, tarot card readers. They all agreed the eclipse was a rare opportunity for personal growth if you know how to take advantage of it."

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Similarly, in 2017, Norma Martinez explored how eclipses resonated in Mexican spiritualism.

One San Antonio botanica owner explained that "individuals who practice some rituals with stones, amulets, or talismans look forward to celestial events like an eclipse" because of how empowered it makes them feel.

Some superstitious people may also wear "calzones rojos — red underwear — during an eclipse." There may not be any understandable reason for it, but if someone’s grandmother said simply to do it because it works, perhaps no other reason was needed.

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The Texas Newsroom and NPR contributed to this report.

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