The first solar eclipse to cross America in 99 years is coming. To some, it’s an act of God. (Source myrtlebeachonline.com)
On Monday, Aug. 21, in the middle of the day, the sky will go dark. The temperature will suddenly get several degrees colder. Birds will stop chirping and retreat to their nests. And tens of millions of people, crammed into a 60-mile-wide path that crosses from Oregon to South Carolina, will stand in America looking up at the sky.
It’s easy to understand why many people will view this as an act of God. The total solar eclipse that will cross America this summer – an event that last happened 99 years ago – will be an important moment for scientific observers and a massive nationwide spectator event. Columbia has been identified as one of the prime viewing spots, with one of the longest periods of totality.
The eclipse will also, for many people of faith, be evidence of God’s majesty – and even, to a few, a harbinger of the coming end of the world.
“I don’t think it’s an accident that God put us human beings here on Earth where we can actually see total solar eclipses. I think God wants us to make these discoveries,” said Hugh Ross, who is both an astronomer and a minister. “I would argue that God on purpose made the universe beautiful, and one of the beauties is a solar eclipse.”
Ross will be leading a trip to watch the eclipse for about 80 people interested in finding spirituality in science. They’ll travel down a dirt road into a field in eastern Oregon, where they will wait for the sun to be blotted out. Across the country, other church groups will do the same.
A solar eclipse isn’t all that rare. The moon is always rotating around the Earth, while the Earth rotates around the sun. Usually the moon appears slightly higher or lower than the sunlight hits the Earth. But twice a year, it’s right smack in front of it, and the moon blocks out the sun during the daytime, and that’s at least a partial solar eclipse.
When a total eclipse occurs, the shadow falls on just a tiny part of the Earth, about 60 to 100 miles wide, and then moves about a thousand miles over the course of a few hours. Because so much of the Earth is water, this almost always happens over an ocean.
The last total solar eclipse visible from the continental United States was in 1979, and it was only over a corner of the Pacific Northwest.
Something like this summer’s event, where so many people on land can see a total solar eclipse, is exceptionally rare.