By Jose Hernandez
OSWEGO – On April 7th, 2024, the city of Oswego had a block party to celebrate the eclipse the next day on the 8th. On the 8th, the city held a viewing party for the eclipse, as did SUNY Oswego, along with talks and events for all who attended.
People from all over the world have flown into Oswego due to the totality being viewable. “A general rule of thumb is that once every hundred years, a total eclipse is visible from a specific location, so the next one won’t likely occur to 2124,” said Dr. Shashi Kanbur, Director of the Astronomy Program at SUNY Oswego. This was truly a once-in-a-lifetime event for the residents of Oswego.
Community Director Amy Murphy and her team oversaw organizing the block party. Working in concert with other Oswego entities, the Development Office wanted people from out of town to have a good experience while in town. “What we really wanted to figure out was how do we entertain people who are coming for the entire weekend. How can we fill time and space? Well, we know how to throw block parties, so we’ll throw on Sunday,” said Murphy.
The event had live entertainment from local musicians Mike Shiel and Jess Novak Band. There was a magician and inflatable houses to entertain the kids. Businesses on 1st Street, some who aren’t usually open on Sundays, had their shops filled with customers.
Some shop owners were out on the street selling their goods, like Cat of the Hill owner Deven Balsam. The city has monthly business meetings to allow small businesses to network with each other, leading to the opportunity of being a vendor at the block party. “I’ve only been in New York state for a year, I moved my sons and I up here from South Carolina, and I was a fish out of water. I didn’t know anyone here, and the small business organization really helped me a lot,” said Balsam. “Here I am making money off a scientific phenomenon, woo!”
Everyone downtown was enthusiastic about the event, as well as the eclipse itself. Chad Jaconski, a teacher at Manlius Pebble Hill High School. Jaconski answered a call from the City of Oswego for volunteers and was set up at a table talking to people about scientific discoveries made during the eclipse. “The discovery of the element Helium during an eclipse in 1868. Helium had never been discovered on Earth; it’s the only element to be discovered somewhere other than Earth, and it wasn’t until 30 years later, during the eclipse, that it was discovered here,” said Jaconski. “It was discovered by splitting up the sunlight and looking for different colors, and a color was seen that had never been seen on Earth before. The scientist named it after the god of the sun Helios, calling it Helium.” Jaconski teaches science at Manlius Pebble Hill High School and was thrilled to take part in the event.
On the day of the eclipse, SUNY Oswego and Dr. Kanbur set up a series of talks. The talks had subjects such as how medieval and ancient civilizations viewed an eclipse. “The cultural significance nowadays is a bit different since we understand, reasonably well, what is happening. The cultural significance hinges on the fact that it’s something that gives us life, the sun, will be blocked out for 3 minutes at a time you’d expect it to be bright. It’s going to be colder and darker, and it’s a time to be with friends and family to experience it,” said Dr. Kanbur.
“For older times, some people thought it was a demon eating the sun, the solar eclipses were generally seen as a bad omen, those times the sun was everything. It gives us life. To see it blocked out must’ve been a traumatic event. They had myths related to eclipse, a lot of them were bad omens for the emperor or the king or the society that hosted them,” said Dr. Kanbur. “For example, the Babylon’s would remove the real king, put in a fake during the eclipse, that way if there were any bad omens, resulting from the eclipse, it’d fall on the fake king.”
People from all over the world were in Oswego April 8th, and thanks to people like Amy Murphy and Dr. Shashi, Oswego was ready to receive them and have them engage in events leading up to the eclipse. “My staff is amazing, and I definitely could not do it without them. We’re a really good team, I can trust them. This was a success because of them,” said Murphy.
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