Photo by Makala Thibodeau

By Jack Gentempo

Do you ever have trouble finding just the right lighting? We all know the curse of the horrid fluorescents at the DMV and the resulting mugshots that we carry around on our license for the next five to seven years. But what if there was a lighting so beautiful, so majestic and so rare that it made your image unworldly, almost dreamlike? This light does exist, and it’s just one of the reasons that seven brave members of SMCC’s Association of Cosmic Explorers (ACE) ventured over 4,000 miles to Wyoming to see the Aug. 21, 2017, eclipse in its totality.

When it comes to scientific exploration, ACE knows that the sky’s the limit, and there’s so much of it out in Wyoming. But one major area of interest during the eclipse has more to do with what’s on the ground than what’s in the sky. NASA, among other organizations, has been known to launch crowdsourcing operations to study animal behavior during the moment of totality. While in Wyoming, ACE members had a chance to observe several animals during the eclipse. Antelopes scurried about, buffaloes stood quiet and steady, but the real change in behavior came from a particular group of Homo sapiens who seemed entirely composed until the darkness set in.

Perhaps it was the pent-up energy from lying dormant in a rental van for the last four days, or maybe it was the thin air of the Wyoming bluffs that led to this euphoria among the group. Running up and down the street, standing awestruck on a hill, whooping and hollering like something out of a Maurice Sendak story book, these seven bedraggled individuals were enlivened by the lack of sun.

It was less like a giant circle of shade and more like a gradual darkening that went into maximum overdrive seconds before the main event. In the half-day, half-night dreamlike twilight of totality, you can just begin to see stars piercing through the turquoise sky. If that sounds too much like lyrics to an Owl City song, you can take scientific comfort in knowing that those stars are not stars, but more likely planets, a fact you are sure to be reminded of when traveling with six fellow astronomy enthusiasts.

Understandably, not everyone is able or naive enough to spend over 64 hours in a rental van just to witness an event that lasts a few minutes. However, there’s plenty of opportunity for scientific exploration here at SMCC, as ACE has got some future trips and “star parties” in the making, and will be holding their weekly club meetings from 6 to 8 p.m. in Hildreth, room 224.

Nevertheless, if you feel that the perfectly lit selfie of an eclipse is what’s missing in your life, fear not, for the sun will partially shine again. The April 8, 2024, eclipse will include Maine in the line of totality. Get your iPhone 15s ready to rock and roll, and cue up that Pink Floyd album, because you’ve got just seven short years to prepare for the profile pic that will guarantee you right swipes from now till the end of time.