Philly region makes the best of a cloudy eclipse; when to expect the next one

About 3:20 p.m., it was left to 7-year-old Gonzalo Octavian to tidily summarize the cosmic phenomena that he and fellow Philadelphians and millions of others witnessed on Monday afternoon.

Looking through the cartoonish protective glasses that he had placed ever so carefully over his regular glasses — this was no time for eye damage — as a subtle twilight settled over the region, he declared, “It’s a banana moon.”

More properly, it was a banana-shaped carving of the sun executed by the encroaching new moon, but let’s credit Gonzalo for a judicious use of poetic license.

Besides the memories, there's one other thing that you might have for a while now that the eclipse is over: Your eclipse-safe glasses.

Rather than just tossing them, there's a few other things you can do with your safety specs.

First, you could keep them around — not just as a memento of this year's eclipse, but as a practical piece of equipment for viewing the next one (even though it's a ways off). The glasses don't expire, according to the American Astronomical Society.

If you looked at the eclipse without your special safety glasses, you're not alone.

Searches for phrases like "my eyes hurt" and "I looked at the eclipse without glasses" spiked following the eclipse. So, despite warnings and advice from experts, it looks like plenty of folks snuck an unprotected peak. 

"For most people, they probably looked for a few seconds and looked away after, either because it hurt or because they knew it was a bad idea," said Sunir Garg, a physician and co-director of the retina research program at Wills Eye Hospital.

And with that, the Philadelphia region's turn at viewing the eclipse has officially ended.

After reaching its peak at 3:23 p.m., the eclipse slowly faded, with the moon revealing the full sun around 4:35.

If you missed it, you've got a while to wait.

The world might still be trying to catch the last of the eclipse, but some people have already moved on from the experience.

At Cousins supermarket in North Philly, cousins Destiny Ortiz and Dede Lozada waited while reports of the atmospheric event aired on the television above them.

“I didn’t see it, don’t really care,” Lozada said. “But, it was a very nice experience, very creepy,” Ortiz interrupted.

When the eclipse reached its peak over Philadelphia Monday afternoon, many onlookers took the expert advice to view it through a pair of special safety glasses.

But apparently not Gritty.

As the eclipse began, the Flyers mascot jokingly tweeted a photo of his bare eyes, writing that that was how would be "staring at the eclipse."

Though people at the Franklin Institute didn't get to enjoy the maximum eclipse — the clouds had taken over by 3 p.m. — plenty of people felt they made the most of it.

“I’ve enjoyed it so far,” said Philadelphia resident Sadie Moore, 8, who got to miss school Monday — her mother said it was ok to publish the absence.

Sadie was too young to understand the 2017 eclipse, though her mother Kacey made chalk drawings to introduce the concept. This time around, Sadie was old enough to grasp the concept and even got to make “2024 Solar Eclipse” paper hats.

Outside El Mundo Auto Repair in Hunting Park, five workers gathered by the cars. The voices of the children at Antonia Pantoja Charter School alerted them to the eclipse.

For an hour, they tossed expert advice out the window and shared one pair of special glasses in hopes of catching it.

“You never know what’s going to happen,” said Mejia Nolasco, 50. “Better to be ready than sorry, so I stay outside ready to run.”

Gonzalo Octavian, 7, was frightened of the eclipse. 

“It didn’t do anything to me, but the going blind and needing special glasses did it,” said the second grader at Antonia Pantoja Charter School in North Philadelphia.

Fear was abandoned as he put his little eclipse carton glasses on top of his regular glasses. 

“I was scared of everything going pitch black, and the earthquake didn’t help,” said 9-year-old Gabriela Espinal. 

Espinal is one of 708 students at Antonia Pantoja Charter School in North Philadelphia. 

Despite her mom’s assurance that “everything will be fine,” Espinal and her fourth-grade class was only at ease after spending the entire day learning about the eclipse at school.

Mazatlan’s sparkling beaches have been cast into darkness as the total solar eclipse reaches its maximum coverage.

Hundreds of gathered faces were illuminated only by the screens of their cell phones as they tried to capture the slightly more than 4 minutes of totality.

Palm trees were silhouetted against a faint glow near the horizon like one of the resort’s famous sunsets, but coming before noon.

While people going outside to look at the eclipse need to wear proper eye protection, should pets do the same?

Not so much, vets say — but there are some safety tips pet owners can follow.

According to New York-based veterinarian Carly Fox, animals are unlikely to look up at the sun and stare at it. She also isn't aware of any documented cases of eclipse-related eye damage in pets.

At 2:08 p.m. a smattering of amazement in the form of oohs and ahhs broke out at the steps of the Franklin Institute as hundreds leaned their heads back, keeping their eclipse glasses in place.

Just a few minutes prior a speaker had offered timeless advice: Live in the moment.

The speaker said attendees would be tempted to capture what they saw but urged them to leave it to the professionals and instead truly take in the moment.

We are extremely unlikely to catch even the remotest glimpse of it, but coincidentally a comet is streaking across the sky and may be visible faintly in the zone of totality.

The comet Pons-Brooks, which passes through the inner solar system every 71 years, makes its closest approach to the sun on April 21, according to EarthSky.

People who have the good fortune to be under clear skies in the arc of totality have an outside chance of seeing it between Jupiter, the second brightly object in the sky, and the sun.

While some local school districts are dismissing students early because of the eclipse — and at least one is keeping students late to make sure children can safely view the celestial happenings at school — the Philadelphia School District opted to do neither. 

Official guidance from Pennsylvania’s largest district said parents could pick their children up early if they were concerned about students looking at the eclipse during dismissal, but in general, city schools would be using the eclipse “as a unique learning activity for students.” (Some schools provided students with eclipse glasses, others did not.)

But that doesn’t factor in district students who are expected to be outside playing scheduled spring sports games, including softball, baseball and lacrosse, during the eclipse.

Today's solar eclipse has begun on the Pacific Coast of Mexico, where thousands of amateur astronomers have flocked to be the first to watch the moon block out the sun.

In Mazatlán, totality — when the sun will be completely obscured by the moon — is expected around 2:07 p.m. Eastern (11:07 a.m. locally).

You can watch the moon cross in front of the sun in Mexico live, courtesy of NASA:

Total solar eclipses themselves aren’t rare, occurring about twice every three years, with the next one due on Aug. 12, 2026, according to NASA.

They would occur even more often where it not for the tilt of the moon’s orbit, NASA explains. Sometime the moon’s shadow is cast too low to block the sun, and other times, too high. But more or less every 18 months the shadow aligns perfectly.

So why hasn’t what is now Philadelphia experienced a total solar eclipse since 1478?

Want a preview of what today’s solar eclipse will look like from your home or wherever you plan on watching? 

NASA built a handy tool that allows you to enter a zip code and see the exact timing of today’s eclipse and how much of the sun will be covered by the moon. 

Here in Philadelphia, 88.8% of the sun will be obscured by the moon at 3:23 p.m., according to NASA. 

Due to safety concerns and lack of available protective eyewear for its incarcerated population and staff, the New Jersey Department of Corrections is suspending outdoor activities from 2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m, said spokesperson Amy Quinn. 

The state has about 11,500 incarcerated persons at nine facilities statewide.

In New York, six inmates who challenged the state’s plan to put its facilities in lockdown during the solar eclipse will get to watch it.

An insipid, annoying upper-air disturbance will approach the region during the afternoon, forecasters say, but it shouldn’t ruin the show.

The National Weather Service says some “mid-level clouds” may form during the afternoon in northeastern Pennsylvania and slide southward by 4 p.m.

At the peak, around 3:23 p.m., the odds favor decent viewing from Philadelphia and to the south, but conditions dicier to the north and and west.

Colleges around the region and the nation have some fun ideas in mind to help their students learn about and enjoy Monday's solar eclipse.

At Rutgers University-New Brunswick, two English professors are planning to read all 10,000 lines of 17th Century poet John Milton’s “Paradise Lost” at a daylong outdoor eclipse party.

“Students, faculty, staff and members of the public are invited to join in the reading of the poem, which is filled with allusions to eclipses, as well as imagery of light and darkness,” a university spokesperson wrote, noting the event will run from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. in front of Murray Hall on the College Avenue campus.

The solar eclipse began on the Mexican Pacific Coast a little after 2:00 p.m. Eastern (around 11 a.m. local time). It is now slicing northeast across the United States, crossing into Texas around 2:27 p.m. Eastern (1:27 p.m. local time).

In Philadelphia, the solar eclipse began around 2:08 p.m., with 90% of the sun blocked around 3:23 p.m. The entire event is expected to last about two and a half hours, with the moon revealing the full sun by about 4:35 p.m.

The eclipse will hit Maine around 3:35 p.m. Eastern, and make its way into Canada though Newfoundland before crossing out over the Atlantic Ocean.

» READ MORE: Solar eclipse 2024: Start time, path, how to watch and stream in Philadelphia

Viewing a solar eclipse can be a spectacular, life-changing experience. It can also permanently burn your eyes — if you’re not gazing to the skies with proper protection.

In places such as Philadelphia, Monday’s eclipse will be visible, but the sun will be only partially covered by the moon. That makes it imperative that eclipse-watchers view this astronomical phenomenon only through special glasses to avoid long-term eye damage, experts say. And, no, your regular pair of sunglasses won’t cut it.

Look for glasses whose specs include this number: ISO 12312-2. That’s the code that the International Organization for Standardization, which sets technical standards for manufactured items around the world, has designated for glasses that are dark enough for eclipse viewing. The American Astronomical Society has a handy list of vendors that the society has vetted to be sure they are selling eclipse-safe glasses.

Just how long the sun and the moon have engaged in their celestial ballet of crossing paths and magically getting in each other’s way is unclear, but presumably it has been happening since the birth of the moon billions of years ago. It just took a while for humans to write things down, or at least carve them into rocks.

NASA says the oldest available record appears to date to 3340 B.C. in petroglyphs discovered in Ireland.

The Mayans were known to maintain careful astronomical records that include eclipse documentations, and they have been credited with predicting the solar eclipse of July 1991.