Many Northeast Florida residents headed outside for a glimpse of Monday afternoon’s solar eclipse, but mostly-cloudy skies blocked much of the show.
In the Intracoastal Danforth neighborhood, Al Clawson was trying to focus the sun’s image through a homemade pinhole viewer, but it was too cloudy to see much. Still, he said, he was happy to see so many young people giving it a try.
“I think it’s a good learning experience for children. They can get out and see it and maybe become interested in science and astronomy. It’s a good thing,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mandarin High School student Amber Elphick wasn’t able to find special glasses in time for the eclipse, but a pizza shop owner let her and a friend look at celestial event through a piece of welder’s glass. She said she could see the sun as a yellowish color and the moon as a gray spot covering it up.
She said she’s glad she took advantage of an excused-absence for the special occasion, “especially since I’m old enough to experience it and I’m not like a kid and I won’t remember it.”
And in downtown Jacksonville, Janel Bacote took off the day from work at JEA to watch the eclipse on the roof of Intuition Ale Works, surrounded by a crowd of lots of different ages.
“Look at all the people that are out here. It’s bringing families, people, all kind of stuff together. And to be able to experience this, this is phenomenal,” she said.
The eclipse peaked in Jacksonville at around 2:45 p.m. Monday. Because Northeast Florida is not in the path of totality, the sky did not drastically darken.
Melissa Ross, Michelle Corum and Kelton Givens contributed to this story.
