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2/12/2025 2:18:15 AM
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What are the odds? Eclipse reflections from Hot Springs


What are the odds? Eclipse reflections from Hot Springs



Ecliptic Festival
Daniel Nansel

For a weekend, the eclipse was all over. If you were making the drive from Fayetteville (98.5 percent protection) to Hot Springs for its 4 delirious minutes of totality, you would've begun detecting eclipse vibes circa Alma. The local Valero was offering glasses at the counter, however you needed to wait for the cashier to return from out back, assisting somebody buy minnows.

The impression driving south on Saturday was of a state rallying to support and to milk a local tourist attraction. Typically in Arkansas you see this sort of roadside siren call as you approach a well-known cave or a natural spring: for-sale fudge, antiques, shiny mineral bits, or some combination of the lot. The eclipse got people working an old playbook in new methods. A visitor to the area may assume this is a local hobbyhorse, a regular incident, not the location's first such eclipse in a couple of centuries.

Heading even more down, eclipse anticipation gathered more force. Roadside swag shops made parking lots look like fireworks season, with $20 eclipse T-shirts for sale in a Rotary charity event.

If you wished to see the eclipse as an indication, church marquees were primed. National Forest Church in Hot Springs subtweeted the eclipse with a quote from Psalms: "The paradises state the magnificence of God! And skies declare the work of his hands." Out on Highway 270, the Lake Ouachita Baptist Church marquee seized the day to co-brand with the Almighty. "Eclipse parking here," the marquee read, "is like redemption in Jesus: totally free." By a kindred instinct, Oaklawn hosted a celebration where folks paid $20 to enjoy the eclipse from the race track's center field and someone would win a Mitsubishi Eclipse.
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The last big American eclipse, in 2017, cut its swath north of Arkansas, gracing southern Illinois and western Kentucky with totality (for a reasonably modest 160 seconds). What are the odds that you and the individuals you enjoy will be around for the next cross-country eclipse in August of 2045-- which will also cut right across Arkansas? The chances that our world would take place to have a moon one-400th the width of the sun and one-400th as far away, a ratio that makes an overall eclipse simply barely possible?
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Projection for Monday stated 15%, many of that late in the day. Monday, though ... Monday looked, well, like everything was falling into location.

Nothing to do till then however look at the sky, or come by Ecliptic, the joint endeavor between Valley of the Vapors Independent Music Festival and Atlas Obscura, which drew a mix of astronomy geeks and crunchy music enthusiasts (about 2,500 in total, throughout its four days) to a grassy hill at Hot Springs' Cedar Glades Park. Adam Savage, the former co-host of "Mythbusters," was among a couple of dozen folks who drank from little cups at a lecture on local sake on Saturday. Then there was a presentation about the nature of time by LD Deutsch, which is a matter you, too, are welcome to dispute.
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Daniel NanselEcliptic Festival
Once the sun set, the phalanx of high-end telescopes in one corner of the big hilltop field fired up. Orion's belt appeared in the southwest sky, hovering over a horizon dotted with the winking red dots of broadcast towers. Alt rock shoegazers Blonde Redhead played the last set of the night, and before their final tune lead singer Kazu Makino said the trio had actually been overjoyed to play this celebration ... however recognized later on they were 2 days early for the eclipse. You might hear the near-miss in her voice.

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You were alive on Monday, so you probably saw some or all of the eclipse. I do not see what the huge offer is.

If you saw totality, the words that enter your mind are some variation of oh, bless your heart. There's a reason why you take a copy of a home key back to the hardware shop if they just got it 98 percent. Why you don't submit your taxes as soon as they're 98 percent done. Why nobody appreciates the time you struck 98 percent of a hole-in-one. Why you don't wrap up your wedding before both celebrations state "I do."
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The sun did its part by sitting still. The moon revealed itself as an infant nibble on the lower-right part of the sun and after that spent a strong hour scooching its way throughout. The temperature dropped. The daytime seemed to kink.

At Ecliptic, a harpist called Mary Lattimore plucked on the stage as totality neared. Harp music for dead whales is exactly what you desire to listen to as an eclipse deepens, it turns out. She played a tune she composed in honor of Scott Kelly's yearlong stay on the International Space Station, around the time she suffered a damaged jaw in a fall and could not talk for 2 months, and contemplated isolation.
A few minutes from totality, a guy wearing a welding helmet joked to his buddies, loudly enough for all to hear, "Who's got the knives ...? For the human sacrifice ...?" Individuals laughed.

The sun became unnoticeable behind the solar glasses, and everybody took theirs off to look around the dusky field, the pink-fringed horizon, and one another. If you saw it on Monday, you understand: The backlit moon looked like a smoking cigarettes bullet hole in the sky. I see what the huge deal is.
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Individuals gasped; then they laughed at their own sense of marvel; then they chuckled at the noise of other individuals chuckling. People murmured; individuals kissed. 4 minutes passed, and then the smallest scrap of sun glimpsed out, absolutely blinding.

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Elwood Hill
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Elwood Hill

Elwood Hill is an award-winning journalist with more than 18 years' of experience in the industry. Throughout his career, John has worked on a variety of different stories and assignments including national politics, local sports, and international business news. Elwood graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in journalism and immediately began working for Breaking Now News as lead journalist.

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