FROM THE ARCHIVES (Aug. 22, 2017): Multiple shades of twilight

This story originally appeared in the Tribune Aug. 22, 2017, the day after an eclipse was visible in much of the United States. It was about a 95% eclipse in our region. Another eclipse will happen from about 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Monday, with the sun about 25% covered here.

STEPTOE — It wasn't "The Day the Earth Stood Still," but Monday's solar eclipse still prompted a national pause, as millions of Americans took time out of their morning to step outside and look to the heavens.

Some battled traffic jams and high prices to reach the zone of totality, where day turned into night as the moon obscured the sun. Others settled for a partial eclipse.

Thousands of people in north central Idaho and southeastern Washington joined them, catching a quick glimpse in between classes or during a break from work - or making an event out of it with lawn chairs, drinks and snacks.

The eclipse began at 9:12 a.m. as a small nibble that turned into a larger "bite of the apple" as the moon moved across the face of the sun. The bite gradually increased in size until only a crescent of sun remained, then a fingernail slice, then a thin sliver.

David McDaniel of Sultan, Wash., was among the dozens of people who came to the top of Steptoe Butte to witness the eclipse. He said a dark shadow zipped across the landscape when it began.

"It was like a black line going across," he said.

At about 10:10 a.m., 17 minutes before the height of the eclipse, the temperature dropped and it became noticeably darker, as if dusk were approaching. There was still plenty of light, though, enough to see to the far horizon.

At its maximum extent, the eclipse obscured about 95 percent of the sun. As it progressed, the thin sliver of visible sun shifted from the left side of the moon to the top and then around toward the right side before it began to expand again. By 10:45, it was like being back in full sunlight again, although the eclipse continued until 11:47.

Experts warned that even the little bit of sun visible during this partial eclipse would make all the difference, compared to being inside the zone of totality, and that proved to be the case.

"It got colder really fast, but it didn't get that dark," said Lora Hovland of Spokane. "That was a little disappointing. It shows just how powerful the sun is, that just that little sliver provided so much light."

Hovland is the Life Enrichment Director for the Touchmark at South Hill retirement community, which brought a bus with 15 residents to Steptoe Butte. She started planning the trip in May.

"I figured High Drive (Parkway) would be packed, so I started looking for other high places," she said. "I've never been here (to Steptoe Butte) before."

By the time the bus arrived at 8:30 the upper parking lot was full. By about 9:15 the large lower lot was full as well and people began parking along the road, pulling out cameras, folding chairs and picnic fixings and donning their eclipse glasses.

Mike Hause and Jon Hastings of Spokane snagged one of the last parking spots at the top of the butte. They watched the eclipse in style, with sandwiches, cookies and a pair of welding helmets.

"We think we have one of the best looks," Hastings said. "It's been cool. This is one of the better spots to watch."

- William L. Spence

'Pretty spectacular' in Clarkston

Eclipse watchers at the Asotin County Library in Clarkston glanced skyward through dark glasses as they waited to view the phenomenon through a telescope with a solar filter.

"Whoa. It looks like the sun is the moon," exclaimed Jeremiah Webster, 7, as he glimpsed the sliver of sun.

The telescope's owner, Clarkston resident Clayton Carson, said in his six years as an astronomy enthusiast only the cloud bands on Jupiter rivaled the solar eclipse.

"It's pretty up there," Carson said. "It's pretty spectacular."

The library distributed 75 pairs of solar glasses at the gathering, which attracted about 140 people. Youth services librarian Mary Neuman strolled through the crowd, loaning her pair to those who didn't get one.

Others improvised, including Clarkston-area resident Annetta Wilson, who watched through an old welding helmet.

"My son rigged that up," Wilson said of the helmet with a lens filter duct-taped in place.

Kenyon Hall took a break from his job at nearby Rodeo Networks to join the party in the library parking lot. He saw his first eclipse in California was when he was 12, Hall said, but that was only about one-third totality, far from the approximately 95 percent totality Lewiston-Clarkston Valley viewers saw Monday.

"This is kind of neat to see a whole one and not have to travel halfway across the planet," Hall said.

Ange Kingsborough waited for her children to peek through the telescope before heading back to the family's home in Clarkston.

"We're going to go home to see if the chickens put themselves to bed," Kingsborough said. "That's our little experiment."

Contacted later, Kingsborough said instead of roosting the birds took a 10-minute nap.

"They didn't go in their coop like I thought that they would, but they grouped up behind us and went to sleep," she said.

- Mary Stone

A touch of twilight in Spalding

SPALDING - As the moon began to swallow 95 percent of the sun, the light at Nez Perce National Historic Park took on odd, unnameable features. A foreign, metallic haze glinted over everything. The dry, golden grass lost its luster and appeared a muted yellow. It looked as though the sun was shining through a piece of perforated aluminum foil. Everything took on a bizarre sheen. The temperature dipped a few degrees and a breeze kicked up.

It was hard for some to resist looking up at the sun without special eclipse-viewing glasses, even for a quick glance. Several of the more than 60 attendees at the park took quick unprotected looks at the sun. But the real show could only be viewed behind some protective lenses.

Helen Nameth joined several other seniors who were bused into the Spalding event to view the eclipse. The 96-year-old said it was her first eclipse and shivered a little bit in the cooler shade of the moon.

"They just signed me up so I went," Nameth said. "My son said 'Why don't you just watch it on TV?' Oh, I don't know. It's quite nice out here."

Park Ranger Brett Spaulding said the center stocked up on 175 viewing glasses and was sold out an hour after the park opened. The event was organized in an effort to bring in locals who didn't make the trip to see a total eclipse. The parking lot was full and the grassy lawn was populated with lawn chairs and benches.

"(When else) would you have an opportunity to stare at the sun," Spaulding said. "It's one of those great times to work and play with the opportunity to see this eclipse."

In the weird half-light the moon never fully eclipsed the sun, though it tried its best to become twilight Monday morning. Shadows turned fuzzy and indistinct as the moon moved in front of the sun. Shadows then became distinct and sharp once the moon passed away from the sun.

- Tom Holm

Back to school in style

PULLMAN - Washington State University stood still on its first day of classes Monday morning as students and staff stopped and stared as the moon swallowed about 95 percent of the sun.

Hundreds of students looked like they were more prepared to watch a 3-D movie than go to school, as they packed the Holland Library Lawn and passed the glasses around.

Others set up to view the solar eclipse on grassy spaces around campus, using pinhole cards and projectors to catch the spectacle or watching the eclipse through a solar filter on the telescope at the WSU Jewett Observatory.

"It looks like a crescent moon but it's the sun," said senior journalism student Forrest Holt when the eclipse neared totality at about 10:26 a.m. "I've been excited for this for weeks and it's finally here and it's cooler than I thought it would be."

Holt said the first day of his journalism class - scheduled during the solar eclipse - was cancelled. He said he was tasked with getting two quotes instead.

Holt said he only recalls seeing so many people on the library lawn during WSU orientation, or Week of Welcome.

"You never see this many people up here," he said. "Everyone is making friends with people by passing around the glasses."

Cassy Mendoza said her two morning classes also were cancelled.

"My second class was astronomy so I'd hope they'd cancel for this," Mendoza said.

She and her friends passed around a pair of solar eclipse glasses while she tried to fix a pinhole projector she made out of a Welch's Fruit Snacks box early in the morning.

"(Fruit snacks) are all over my floor," she said.

Fellow Student and friend Austin Anderson helped Mendoza fix the pinhole projector by covering the pre-existing holes with tape and using a pencil to place a small pin-sized hole in the foil covering the top of the box.

After the revisions, a small crescent shape was visible when looking inside and holding it up to the sun.

"Light as a ray travels in a straight line; light enters through the pinhole and it's reprojected," Anderson said.

WSU Freshman Mason White was one of the few who seemed to have a class to attend during the astronomical event.

"If my teacher is cool I'll probably come back out," White said. "I'm trying to catch the little bit I can."

Graduate student Briah Parchment had class, too, but she delayed her day to see something she may never see again.

"It's about half gone," Parchment said, looking into the sun with her protective glasses while the moon's shadow swallowed the sun.

"It's such a rare occurrence," Parchment said. "I'll probably stay a little bit past the peak time, then I'm going right to class.

WSU English professor Anna Plemons brought her family to campus to take part in the solar eclipse between her classes, which she said were not cancelled.

Plemons said her class of 35 students all showed at 9 a.m. Monday.

"We will see how many of the 11 o'clock class shows up," she said.

- Josh Babcock