(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Total solar eclipse, at Melaleuca Baseball Park, in Idaho Falls, Monday, August 21, 2017.
Idaho Falls • Students from Dixie State University gasped, screamed and yelled on the banks of the Snake River as day turned into night at the peak of Monday’s Great American Eclipse.
The totality that drew hundreds to Idaho Falls lasted less than two minutes, but it was an amazing 120 seconds.
It seemed as if there was a 360-degree sunset. Birds flying overhead looked disoriented. A few folks shot off fireworks, clearly visible in the near darkness. Stars suddenly appeared.
“I could not contain my excitement,” said Samuel Tobler, a physics professor at the St. George college who planned his trip for years and brought a number of students with him. “Shock and amazement. It is hard to put into words the feeling of overawe.”
The students had similar reactions.
“To see birds confused, stars and fireworks...” said Maddi Geilmann of Ogden, letting her voice trail off.
The students set up special cameras and binoculars. They examined moon shadows. They journaled and drew what they were seeing on posters.
And then it was over.
“It’s like Christmas,” said Dixie State environmental science professor Kelly Bringhurst. “You put a lot of planning into it and then it’s over.”
The busload of students from Dixie State had needed special permission to miss their first day of fall semester. Tobler said the university booked rooms in Idaho Falls in May 2016.
(Tom Wharton | The Salt Lake Tribune) Dixie State University student Dolly Ames watches the Great American Eclipse through special binoculars in Idaho Falls, Idaho, on Aug. 21. 2017.
In the Salt Lake Valley, watchers saw 91 percent of the eclipse. The day grew cooler but not significantly darker, as spectators at Wheeler Historic Farm in Murray had hoped.
In Weiser, Idaho, also in the path of totality, the peak of the eclipse was like a scene from a science fiction movie.
A 360-degree soft pink sunset ringed the horizon as the moon covered the entirety of the sun. In place of the sun, a perfectly black circle hung appeared, looking like someone had taken a paper hole punch out of the sky. Surrounding the black disc was the corona of the sun, soft, gauzy wisps of white light emanating from the sun.
The temperature dropped about 20 degrees, leaving many with goosebumps.
The crowd of several thousand cheered and a brass band heralded totality. Amy Bullock, who drove from Salt Lake City with her family and several of her parents’ friends, said Monday was her first total eclipse.
“It was spectacular. It was one of the coolest things I’ve ever experienced,” she said. “It was absolutely worth coming to Weiser and the band of totality.”
Her parents saw the total eclipse in Australia in 2012 and booked a rental house in Boise nearly two years ago. “It really is a transformative event,” said Roger Bullock, Amy Bullock’s father. “It gives us a hint of where our place is in the universe, and it’s not big.”
He and his wife, Cathy Bullock, traveled with several of their longtime friends, who included a high school biology teacher, a retired physicist and an astronomer. She was happy to hear parents explaining the science of the eclipse to their children.
“It’s fun to hang out with scientists and friends, and it’s wonderful to see people learning about science on elemental levels,” Cathy Bullock said. “We need people believing in science and understanding the world.”
Amy Bullock says after watching the total solar eclipse, she’ll follow in her parents’ footsteps. “I want to follow suit and start traveling to see eclipses,” she said.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Darkness surrounds the ball park during the totality phase of the solar eclipse, at Melaleuca Baseball Park, in Idaho Falls, Monday, August 21, 2017.