Chasng The Moon's Shadow

This summer, Elizabeth Pearson travelled across the US to hunt down the total eclipse of the Sun on 21 August 2017.

- Dr Elizabeth Pearson

In 1999, a total eclipse of the Sun passed over Cornwall. And I missed it. Ever since, I have wanted to see totality, and so when I heard that the Moon’s shadow would be passing coast to coast over the US mainland on 21 August 2017, I knew I had to be there. I decided to take a road trip that would end up taking me almost 3,000km across the country as I attempted to chase down the lunar shadow.

My journey started in Salt Lake City, Utah, where I picked up the hire car that would prove to be my faithful steed for the week. My first stop was Salt Lake City’s Clark Planetarium, where I found queues out the door. The crowds had been brought in by an email from a major online retailer recalling eclipse glasses, sparking a panic.

“A lot of people who thought they had glasses just got emails saying their glasses cannot be trusted, and have come to the Clark Planetarium because we have the real ones. We never thought we’d be the only supplier in town. We have a supply for today, we may even have a supply for tomorrow, but then who knows,” says Seth Jarvis, the director of the Clark Planetarium.

Like most of the nation, Salt Lake City would only see a partial eclipse, making appropriate eyewear crucial. But for me, the 91 per cent it would see wasn’t enough. I wanted totality. It was time to start chasing that shadow.

As I drove from Utah into Wyoming, I began to see signs that I was heading into totality country. On the highways there were notices banning heavy vehicles on 20-22 August to keep traffic moving, while in towns handwritten signs offered eclipse parking. Every business, it seemed, had special ‘Totality Deals’.

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