For many the total solar eclipse on April 8 will be their first, but for eclipse chasers, also known as umbraphiles or “lovers of the shadow,” it will be just another in the books.
For Dan McGlaun, a mathematician and veteran chaser, following and talking about eclipses isn’t just a hobby, it’s a way of life.
“I’ve always liked astronomy,” McGlaun said. “I think everybody loves space and their connection with the universe, and it sounds kind of cliched, but it's true.”
McGlaun has experienced 14 prior eclipses. He saw his first total eclipse in Mexico in 1991 after using spare airline miles on a whim to see it. That very eclipse happened to be one of the largest eclipses since the sixth century, reaching totality for about seven minutes total. After that, he was hooked.
In 2017, McGlaun started a website for people to view an animation of the path of totality for that year’s eclipse, dubbed “The Great American Eclipse,” as it spanned 15 different states from the Pacific to Atlantic coasts.
In 2019, he began to work with a team of developers on a new version, where he was able to use his mathematical background to create 2,500 videos simulating what the 2024 eclipse will look like in specific cities. It also includes a database of over 140,000 cities across the states with information surrounding the eclipse.
Currently, there are multiple videos for cities throughout Ohio listed on Eclipse2024’s YouTube, detailing what the eclipse will look like for each city including Akron, Ravenna, Cuyahoga Falls, Cleveland, Lorain and others.
McGlaun said they create the videos by calculating how the totality path relates to each city.
"When it happens and how long it lasts depends very much on your location and where you are in the path,” McGlaun said.
Eric Harris, an education programmer with the Cincinnati Observatory and a newly proclaimed eclipse chaser, lives just outside of the totality path in his hometown of Cincinnati. He is particularly excited about this eclipse occurring so close to home.
Like McGlaun, he believes eclipse chasers aren’t just simply looking to view the eclipse, but rather to experience it wholly.
“Somebody who goes to chase the eclipse is also somebody who's looking to share the experience with somebody else,” Harris said. “Whether that means getting the telescope out and just showing people to view safely of course, but it could also mean taking photos, putting them online getting the word out about how to safely view the sun.”
Harris is giving an Eclipse Chasing 101 talk Feb. 13 at the observatory as part of its Astronomy Evenings series to share his own experiences and photos from his personal “eclipse chasing” and how to chase the total upcoming eclipse in April.
Northeast Ohio cities are great places to be for the upcoming total eclipse, as places like Cincinnati are only going to experience "99% totality, and 0% of the experience," according to Harris.
Because of this, Harris and the observatory are planning to host volunteer eclipse chasers to send out across Ohio and surrounding states to aid in getting the perfect photo of the eclipse, as they battle getting “clouded out,” a chaser’s way to describe cloudy conditions covering an area of the eclipse.
“Our hope is that somebody happens to catch clear sky,” Harris said. “Somebody happens to take a photo of it, somebody happens to share the experience with someone and better yet, we all can communicate with each other and let each other know where the good spots are going to be.”
The next total solar eclipse in Ohio will be 2099.
