Experiencing the great American eclipse

(Seguin) — Although Mother Nature had other plans for us here in Seguin, Monday’s partial solar eclipse still fueled plenty of excitement, casting a shadow over much of the city.

Now, if you weren’t among the lucky ones to capture those few seconds of partial totality, you probably saw a bunch of clouds.

With the forecast calling for these clouds and even some rain, Seguin Radio KWED and the Seguin Daily News wanted to at least attempt to bring you some type of glimpse of this “total solar eclipse” that again won’t be seen here in Texas until 319 years from now, or until the year 2343.

KWED Creative Director Lizz Daniels made the trek back home to Bandera County for the day. Daniels headed north on State Highway 173 to experience this rare natural phenomenon with her mother, Arlene Butts.

Although the clouds also obstructed their total experience, the darkness still managed to arrive on their front porch like clockwork.

On assignment, Daniels captured the experience as it happened.

“Look, the light on the flag pole came on,” said Butts.

“Ooh, and the birds. Where did all the birds go?” Daniels responded. “It’s crazy how it’s getting so dark all of a sudden.”

Also adding to their experience during those few dark minutes was witnessing fireworks being shot off at a nearby celebration during the moment of totality—again, just another way for folks to commemorate the moon completely covering up the sun.

“The light is coming back,” said Daniels.

“Yes, look over at the driveway,” responded Butts.

“Ooh, behind the house, you can see it coming in over in that right side because it’s moving in this direction, and look that side is way brighter than this side right now. There it is, the sun is coming back,” said Daniels.

As the eclipse passed, Daniels reported that the birds sprang back to life, and they could hear a flock of nearby geese start honking. A few moments later, she and her mother also heard a rooster crow his morning song at a neighbor’s house.

While everyone did not have the opportunity to head north toward the area of totality for the Great American Eclipse, the city of Seguin took steps to provide its own unique experience for residents. The Seguin Public Library was among those throwing a solar eclipse viewing party.

Planned with plenty of snacks, games, prizes, and special drawings, the library set out to provide a learning opportunity no matter Mother Nature’s behavior.

The event attracted as many as 100 people.

City Manager Steve Parker applauded library staff for rolling out the red carpet during this celestial experience.

“I just want to thank everybody who took part in today’s event, it was, I think, a really good turnout, even, you know, people were maybe scared off a little bit because of the cloud cover. But our staff put a lot of work into making sure that our community had something that they could do on an event today with school being closed and everything. So I think overall, we were pleased with the turnout and hopefully some people will remember this and it could be your career decision one day, maybe a future astronaut or something like that in our community. So really, really cool event even though we were a little disappointed by the cloud cover, but uh, hopefully we had a good event. The live streaming inside was I think well attended and it was a good, good overall job. So very proud of our staff for putting this together,” said Parker.

Despite the weather, the library experience did not disappoint. It allowed folks to witness a live stream of the event in addition to the partial eclipse.

Area schoolchildren were also witnesses to the event. Although the Seguin ISD canceled classes, the Navarro and Marion ISD classrooms were held outside, allowing students a unique learning opportunity.