Ashlanders in Texas get a break in the clouds: ‘That moment of totality — it was breathtaking’
By Holly Dillemuth, Ashland.news
“An upcoming event will soon make your life more exciting.”
Despite the cloudy and rainy forecast for Dallas, Texas, the optimistic message that emerged from Ashland resident Jessica Sage’s fortune cookie on Sunday evening was spot on. Sage and her husband Barry Kraft were enjoying Chinese food with family in Dallas the night before the eclipse when Sage happened on the fortune.
“When I got that fortune … I told my family, we are going to see the eclipse tomorrow (Monday),” Sage said, in spite of the expectation of overcast skies.
She was right. See and experience the eclipse the four of them did — and in the path of totality no less.
“Even though it was cloudy … we got to see probably 2 and a half minutes of the 4-minute totality,” Sage said. “It was so beautiful and perfect … I’m going to have to say it was the most beautiful solar eclipse I’ve ever seen, I’ve ever experienced. That moment of totality, it was breathtaking.”
Sage described first contact, when the sun and the moon touch.
“You look up at the sun, it’s becoming smaller and smaller … and I feel a little light-headed, this happens to me every time,” Sage said.
While walking around during the eclipse, Sage noted that even birds stopped flying during the eclipse.
“Everything becomes so still,” she said. “And then it just gets dark and it’s a phenomenon like no other. I don’t know anything else that I can describe that comes close to the phenomenon of a solar eclipse.”
Sage, artistic director of Rogue Theater Company in Ashland, and Kraft are fairly well-versed in solar eclipses.
The couple are “shadow chasers,” and have seen 14 eclipses between the two of them. Kraft has seen nine and this eclipse was Sage’s fifth.
“Barry’s serious about this,” Sage said, of Kraft. “I am, too.”
Kraft saw his first eclipse in Canada on Feb. 26, 1979.
Sage saw her first solar eclipse on Aug. 1, 2009, in Russia, several hours from Moscow. The pair were together for that one.
From Russia to Australia to Patagonia, they have trotted the globe to feed their passion, and this time it took them to Dallas, Texas.
“I feel really, really fortunate,” Sage said.
Of all the eclipses the couple has seen, Sage especially relished spending this eclipse with her uncle Dr. Malcolm Davidson and aunt Lois Davidson. They had never seen a full eclipse before.
“It was mind blowing to them,” Sage said. “They were not expecting it to be that much of a physiological experience. It’s almost indescribable because it’s your body that reacts.”
Not far from Sage and Kraft, Ashland.news’ own copy editor and Ashland resident Jim Coleman is visiting Austin and Kerrville for the eclipse and dropped Ashland.news a line to check in. He and his wife, Anne Coleman, and their daughter Elizabeth McCroskey made the trip to experience the eclipse together. In 2017, they all went to Nashville for the eclipse.
Coleman told Ashland.news via email that he drove his family Monday morning to an eclipse viewing event in Kerrville in the Texas Hill Country, a little west of Austin.
“We were among several thousand people at Louise Hay Park, beside the Guadalupe River,” Coleman said via email. “Clouds obscured the sun as the moon crept over the face of the sun, and thick clouds often completely blocked the eclipse.
“As the eclipse approached totality, the crowd would cheer and applaud whenever the clouds broke up enough to give us a good look.
“We got a good look at the ‘corona’ as the eclipse became total, but we could clearly see only about 30 seconds or less of the total eclipse with the corona before the clouds hid it from view.
“It was totally worth it, though! The ring around the sun was spectacular. The sky stayed dark for the nearly 4 and a half minutes of totality, but the clouds prevented us from seeing any stars during that ‘night’” Then the sky brightened again. A viewer sitting near us called it a sunrise.”
Back in Ashland, sunshine-filled skies made for easy viewing of the partial eclipse Monday morning for eclipse enthusiasts and those who happened on a pair of glasses last minute.
Ashland resident Pip Kitely smiled as she peered through eclipse glasses outside of Growler Guys in Ashland. She was one of a handful of people gathered to watch the 27% eclipse.
“It looks like a cookie with a bite out of it,” Kitely said, adding later, “or Pac Man.”
Kitely, who has lived in Ashland more than two decades, saw the last eclipse in 2017 at Symbiosis, a festival celebrating the eclipse in the Nevada desert that she says is similar to Burning Man.
She planned in advance to come watch this one, despite Ashland being far from the zone of totality.
“It’s all pretty special,” Kitely said.
The next solar eclipse in the contiguous U.S. won’t occur until 2044.
Reach Ashland.news staff reporter Holly Dillemuth at hollyd@ashland.news.
