Las Vegans enjoy rare solar eclipse

Mary Manning and Christina Littlefield

Tuesday, June 11, 2002 | 8:43 a.m.

Ancient astronomers were terrified of eclipses, but Las Vegas residents viewed Monday's moon shadow crossing the sun safely through darkened glasses.

"Solar eclipses happen very rarely," Community College of Southern Nevada student Darryl Thomas said. "There's a lot more going on than it looks."

Planetarium manager Robert Pippin said the college's gift shop had sold almost 1,000 pairs of special lenses to protect human eyes by 1 p.m. Special telescopes sitting on the lawn allowed almost 200 people to view the event from start -- about 5:15 p.m. -- to finish, about 7:20 p.m..

"It's an astronomical event that we can predict literally hundreds of years in advance," Pippin said. "It shows how well we can take a look at our universe and know to a small extent what's going on."

Sergio Delgadillo had seen a total solar eclipse in Mexico. "Everything went completely dark," he said. "I wanted to see what this kind was like."

Sixth grader Ashton Jones, a member of her school's astronomy club, said, "It looks like somebody took a bite out of it, or like a crescent moon."

Garrett Songhawke said celestial wonders are rare and modern people don't pay enough attention to natural phenomenon.

"This is a kick," Songhawke said. "But a total (eclipse) is like 'Whoa.' Your Neanderthal (side) comes out running and screaming at that point."

For centuries Chinese people believed that a dragon devoured the sun during an eclipse.

Chinese legend says that two royal astronomers, Hi and Ho, were too drunk on the day of an eclipse to chant, beat drums and shoot arrows at the monster swallowing the sun.

Although the sun returned bright as ever without any help from the court scientists, they were beheaded.

While observers no longer lose their heads, some people still believe that a total eclipse is "the eye of God," said Robin Edgar, who has delved into ancient myths about the disappearing sun.

In 1995 a Sky & Telescope article recalled how a dozen natives in Laguna Macaya, Bolivia watched the dimming sun as "the puma swallowed the sun," Edgar wrote.

For Las Vegas High School teacher Eric Rap, the eclipse was a must-see "because I'm a science geek, I've gotta be here.

"It just kills me, we are so far behind the times," said Rap, who was upset more people didn't view it. "Kids should have been building little boxes to take home and watch it with."

People have chased eclipses all over the world.

In 1878 Thomas Edison traveled to Wyoming to view a total solar eclipse. He set up his scientific viewing devices in a chicken coop.

Unfortunately, as the sun dimmed, the chickens returned to roost.

Edison's observations got fouled up as he shooed the fluttering feathered fowl away. He observed the eclipse for only seconds during the three-minute event.

Eclipses have also helped prove scientific theory.

In 1912 Einstein said that there would be an unexpected shift in the position of a star close to the limb of the sun during an eclipse.

This phenomenon was due to Einstein's theory that a beam of light is deflected slightly toward the sun due to the effect of gravity.

A British team in 1919 tested this out during a total eclipse in Africa and helped prove Einstein's theory of general relativity.

So why are people fascinated with eclipses? "Because we're clueless," Janet Carilli said as she watched her fourth eclipse. "We don't know what's going on out there so we wonder about it. Humans are curious creatures."