There was a presentation on the science behind the solar eclipse at the Ogden town hall on February 26th. I sat in the back row and with the seventy other people I watched a young man from the Rochester Museum and Science Center do a slide show. He was very engaging for the hour that he talked about the solar eclipse.
A few weeks later, there was Solar Eclipse maps made for Ogden that were ready to pick up at the town hall. I picked one up not knowing that maps would be distributed in the Westside News. Now I have extra. The map shows all the different places that are having events to view the solar eclipse and one place on the map is Homesteads For Hope in Spencerport. I bought a ticket a few weeks ago to go to this event where there will be food and music and they will be giving out solar eclipse glasses to everyone. So far, I’ve already gotten a pair of eclipse glasses at the presentation I went to and I also picked up a bunch for my family at the Ogden Farmers Library.
Rochester is considered one of the best cities in the country to view the total solar eclipse. This area is expecting a lot of people from outside of the Monroe County area to travel to the city during this once in a lifetime event. An eclipse like this hasn’t happened in Rochester since 1925 and the next one isn’t going to happen until 2144. When on April 8th, the moon will begin to cover the sun at 2:07PM where totality begins at 3:20PM and will last for three minutes and thirty-eight seconds. The eclipse ends at 4:33PM.
On April 8th at 1:00PM, I drove to Homesteads For Hope to experience the celestial event. Although the news for the last few weeks was talking about bad traffic on the day of the eclipse, the roads were empty on my way to the farm.
At the farm, I was greeted by a Homesteads For Hope worker who directed me to check-in tables by the barns. I told them my name and they couldn’t find me on the list. We realized that Spencerport Media was on the list and not my name. After checking in, I walked to the back of the property where a lot of people were gathered at picnic tables and in their own personal chairs. I found a spot at a picnic table and sat there rather than use the chair that I brought. Leon Hsu and Max Robbins were playing the keyboard and trumpet for entertainment. I listened to them for a little while and then went over to Agatina’s Food Truck. I ordered fried brussel sprouts and a bottled water and returned to my picnic table to eat.
I listened to the music some more and enjoyed the overall atmosphere with people talking at their seats and people walking around the property. In one of the barns there was activities to do such as creating tie dye t-shirts and playing with galaxy slime. At one point, I went to the farm store and got a cup of coffee.
At 3:00PM, the duo stopped playing music and packed up their instruments. DJ Bullfrog started to set up to play music for the guests. Ever since I got there, the atmosphere was very casual and it was remarkable how I wasn’t really getting excited for the total eclipse. It might be because it’s so cloudy out and we won’t be able to see the moon go over the sun.
The CEO of Homesteads for Hope, Jennyrae Brongo, spoke just before the total eclipse, and got everyone ready for the big event. I was actually getting a little bit nervous waiting for it to get dark. When it finally did get dark though, it was really cool to experience. Some people clapped but I just sat there in awe of the change of light. I was surprised to hear the DJ start to play music while it was dark. He played Total Eclipse of the Heart.
After it got light again, Jennyrae spoke one more time, thanking everyone for coming and then the DJ continued to play music. As I was leaving, the song that was playing was Dancing in the Dark.
Dan Bauman
