By Michael Huson, Alissa Widman Neese and Mark Ferenchik, The Columbus Dispatch
COLUMBUS – Viewing the solar eclipse Monday was hampered somewhat by clouds and the sixth smog alert of 2017 for central Ohio.
READ MORE: In The Columbus Dispatch
Thousands of people gathered Monday afternoon at COSI Columbus, eager to catch a glimpse of history.
But when they looked up, they couldn’t see it.
During peak viewing time of 2:30 p.m., a solar eclipse passing through central Ohio had become eclipsed itself by, thick, gray clouds. That meant anyone wearing protective eclipse glasses — to view the phenomenon without damaging their eyes — couldn’t see it. Some had waited in line for hours that morning to get a pair.
Luckily Alexander Rodriguez, 43, of Blacklick, learned a few tricks the last time he watched an eclipse as a child in Colombia, where he grew up.
While everyone was looking up, he was looking down, coating ordinary sunglasses with soot from a candle flame. His children, Daniel, 10, and Anna, 8, sprawled on their bellies in the grass and, while wearing the glasses, took turns peering into an opaque black bowl full of water.
The water’s reflection produced a perfect image of the moon passing between the Earth and the sun. The family called out to nearby bystanders to let them take a peek.
“I’ll never forget this — when the glasses didn’t work, we were the stars,” Daniel said.
The soot trick also works with ordinary pieces of glass, so Rodriguez brought a glass dish. Anna also came equipped with a pin-hole projector, her favorite homemade viewing option, built out of a box of Raisin Bran.
The Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission, meanwhile, issued an air quality alert for Franklin, Delaware, Fairfield, Knox, Licking and Madison counties on Monday. The air quality index was expected to hit 101, which is high enough to be unhealthy for sensitive groups.
The reason? Sunny skies, little wind and temperatures close to 90, combined with exhaust from cars and trucks, said Brooke White, the air quality program coordinator for the planning commission.