During the Eclipse, Don’t Just Look Up

There are people who have organized their lives around the appearance of a total eclipse. They’re known as eclipse chasers, or more obscurely, “umbraphiles” (shadow lovers). They’ll travel across continents for perfect weather, collect decades’ worth of eclipse-related life stories, speak lovingly about the sun’s corona. One example is the retired astrophysicist Fred Espenak, who earned a bit of celebrity when the United States Postal Service chose his photo of an eclipse for a 2017 stamp—an efficient way to spread the news that “a total eclipse of the sun is simply the most beautiful, stunning and awe-inspiring astronomical event you can see with the unaided eye,” he once wrote.

Then there are other people (such as me) who need some convincing that it’s as awesome as advertised. In this episode of Radio Atlantic, I talk with Espenak and Marina Koren, The Atlantic’s self-proclaimed “outer-space bureau chief.” Between them, we learn about the full-body experience of an eclipse, which, if not quite spiritual, is at least eerie, when you know what to tune into. How does an eclipse feel on your skin? What does it do to the animals? What does it do to your sense of time? And what are you waiting for?

Listen to the conversation here:

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The following is a transcript of the episode:

Marina Koren: So in 2017, I was in a park in Tennessee, and it was having an eclipse event, and everyone had their eclipse glasses.

This is staff writer Marina Koren. On Slack,