Albert Lea residents travel to totality in Texas to view solar eclipse
Published on Tuesday, April 9, 2024 at 5:34 p.m.
- Holly Babcock said she was able to see solar flares during the totality while observing the eclipse from Austin, Texas.offered
After experiencing her last total solar eclipse in 2017 in Pawnee, Nebraska, Albert Lea resident Holly Babcock was excited to see it again this week.
She and Phillip Johnson headed south to Austin, Texas, to witness the eclipse.
She said the forecast had been poor all week, and even on a rainy and cloudy Monday morning, she considered driving to another area for better chances. But everywhere they looked, they met a similar fate.
She was able to get a little peek as the clouds parted and came back 15 minutes into the event, but the last 20 minutes gave her a clear view through the total solar eclipse, allowing her to see the full eclipse. He said he was able to witness it.
“We were lucky!” she wrote in a message about their experience. “After the totality was over, clouds covered the whole sky. It rained right after that, and the weather was terrible!”
She said that unlike the 2017 solar eclipse, she was able to see solar flares this time, which she thought was very nice.
“There were a lot of clouds in the sky, so totality wasn't all that 'magical' in terms of the moon's shadow. The 2017 pictures were pretty cool in that sense, but the fact that we saw something today and totality was clear enough was really cool, and the solar flare was icing It was! '' Babcock said.
She and Johnson watched the eclipse from the roof of the hotel's parking lot along with about 30 other people at the hotel, she said.
There they met wonderful people. She said one hotel employee told her that people staying there had experienced four total solar eclipses.
