In Bladen County just outside the Bladen County Courthouse, the eclipse was seen best with eclipse glasses between 3 and 3:30 p.m. Without solar lens caps or solar filter, there were many unique views and photos of the event. Here is a photo taken with a Samsung cellphone that records the bright sun and the negative picture of the eclipse also shown.
In Bladen County just outside the Bladen County Courthouse, the eclipse was seen best with eclipse glasses between 3 and 3:30 p.m. Without solar lens caps or solar filter, there were many unique views and photos of the event. Here is a photo taken with a Samsung cellphone that records the bright sun and the negative picture of the eclipse also shown.
Mark DeLap | Bladen Journal
NASA cameras came up with perhaps the best photo of Monday’s eclipse. There were 15 states reported to have seen complete and total eclipse.
NASA photo | Courtesy
Mark DeLap | Bladen Journal
ELIZABETHTOWN: Many people began pulling out their eclipse glasses a short while before 3 p.m. in Bladen County in hopes of getting a glimpse of only the second total eclipse of the 21st century.
The eclipse of 2017 was the first of this century. According to CBS News, “The last total solar eclipse was in 2021 and was only visible from Antarctica. The period of totality lasted just one minute and 54 seconds, according to NOAA.”
When the moon passes between the earth and the sun, it is considered a solar eclipse. A total eclipse occurs when the moon passes directly in front of the sun, blocking the light and causing parts of earth to feel like night for a few seconds.
It was reported that millions of people witnessed the total eclipse Aril 8 and the path in which people were able to see the total eclipse moved in a west-to-east direction in North America, starting from Mazatlán, Mexico and arching all the way to Greenville, Maine where people there witnessed a total eclipse on Moosehead Lake. The final city to see totality in the United States was Houlton, Maine before the show traveled up into New Brunswick, Canada and into the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
According to NASA, the next total eclipse is supposed to occur Aug. 12, 2026. That eclipse will be visible to people in the Arctic, down through Greenland, Spain and Iceland.
NBC News reported that “Limited data suggests prolonged problems aren’t common. Only about 100 patients reported ‘eclipse-related retinopathy’ after the 2017 total solar eclipse according to a technical report published by the American Astronomical Society.”
Numbers are not out as to the discomfort that some may have felt after this year’s eclipse.
Total eclipses that have been reported since records have been kept have occurred in 1778, 1806, 1869, 1878, 1900, 1918, 1925, 1932, 1963, 1970, 1979, 2017 and 2024.
According to WKYC.com, “Solar eclipses of all kinds happen more frequently than one might think. NASA breaks down the math to about 2,380 solar eclipses of all kinds every 1,000 years — or roughly 2-3 solar eclipses each year. For total solar eclipses, where the moon completely covers the sun, it works out to two eclipses every three years.”
Mark DeLap is a journalist, photographer and the editor and general manager of the Bladen Journal. To email him, send a message to: mdelap@www.bladenjournal.com