People gathered early at Chula Vista’s three library branches to observe the 2017 solar eclipse, a natural occurrence that happens when the moon passes in front of the sun between the Earth.
Marie Simpson was one of those people who stood in line at the Chula Vista Civic Center Library at 365 F St. to get their hands on the NASA-approved solar eclipse glasses.
Although the library had a sign on its sliding glass door that read: “We are officially out of the solar eclipse glasses.
We apologize for the inconvenience.” Simpson and a few others still managed to get their hands on them as the library only had a few glasses left in stock.
According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, a solar eclipse is when the moon passes between the sun and Earth and blocks all or part of the sun. Depending on location some people can see the path of totality where the moon completely covers the sun.
Simpson remembers viewing her first solar eclipse in 1979, and said there was more buzz surrounding the Monday morning eclipse than the one in 1979.
“It’s crazy,” she said. “Now it’s more amplified with people traveling across the country and camping out to see the path of totality,” she said.
Edward Lopez,54, described what he saw as he put on his eclipse glasses and looked up towards the sky.
“It’s astonishing, very amazing to watch,”he said. “The moon is coming to intersect with the sun’s path to align with the sun and earth.”
People shared their eclipse glasses with each other so everyone had an opportunity to see the eclipse. Several cars pulled up on the side of the library with people asking if they could borrow eclipse glasses just to see the eclipse.
Amongst those standing outside the library to watch the eclipse was Chula Vista Mayor Mary Casillas Salas who witnessed her first solar eclipse.
“It’s something I’ve never seen in my life,” she said. “It’s fun to be here and it’s fun to see so many of our community members out here at the library.”
Vicky Jimenez, 49, said she has seen eclipses before but doesn’t remember if they were solar or lunar eclipses. She said she couldn’t miss Monday’s phenomenon.
“This is something special that won’t happen again for a very long time, “ she said. “As you can see the community is together to see it because it will be a long while before we see something like this again,” she said.
