Glimpses of area eclipse gazing

The Charlotte Selectboard had had a long discussion about how to deal with a huge crowd at the town beach to view the eclipse before the event.

Members of the board worried about people camping out afterward and huge amounts of litter being left.

But at the selectboard meeting on Tuesday night, a day after the moon silhouetted the sun, chair Jim Faulkner said they had only picked up three bags of trash that morning and only found two people camping.

“It seems that I’m eating some crow,” said board member Lewis Mudge, who had been particularly concerned about eclipse crowds and too much revelry at the beach. “It seems that it was the nerds out last night, and not the partiers.”

On April 8, all over northern Vermont people donned eyewear appropriate for a Devo cover band. Even some dogs.

As Lee Krohn was taking photos of the eclipse at the Patrick Leahy Burlington International Airport, a man proposed to his girlfriend. She said yes, Krohn reported.

The celestial phenomenon was amazing, but the human bond that spontaneously formed in the presence of the astronomical marvel was unearthly. Strangers became best friends in minutes. Sharing and cooperation were the order of the day.

All over, there were amateur astronomers with telescopes encouraging any and every one to share their expensive equipment and experience the grandeur more close up.

At the Burlington Pier, as the day descended into night, people spontaneously sprang into a cappella celebration. Besides the inadvertent yells and gasps, some began to sing.

Strangely, the most common song sung, at times in tune, was Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun,” instead of the more predictable Credence Clearwater’s “Bad Moon Rising.”