How the eclipse helped Detroiters connect with each other

HOLGATE, Ohio — Jacob Callebs didn’t have to look up to catch a thrill when the sky turned dark on Monday. All he had to do was glance around at the friends who’d traveled with him from Detroit to Cleveland to see the total solar eclipse.

“I could see the expression on everyone’s faces, and they were absolutely stunned,” said Callebs, a senior physics major at Wayne State University. “People were smiling, laughing, cheering.”

That sense of connection will stick with Detroiters about as much as the sheer weirdness of dusk at 3 p.m.

Whether you crowded around the solar telescopes set out for public use on Wayne State’s campus, took in the partial eclipse from Belle Isle, or braved the traffic on I-75 to catch the whole enchilada, you could be sure you weren’t alone. As a social phenomenon, the eclipse was a bit like a Lions Super Bowl win if football left people almost universally awestruck by the vastness of the cosmos.

The path of totality just missed Detroit, so many Detroiters headed south on Monday. In a small town outside Toledo, forecasts called for 2 minutes and 35 seconds of total eclipse. School was out, and there were lawn chairs and picnic blankets in just about every yard. Silence fell for a moment when the sun transformed into a black orb ringed with gray fire. Then, cheers rang out.

Randiah Camille Green, a journalist and yoga instructor from Detroit, drove alone to Cuyahoga Valley National Park, south of Cleveland, to see the total eclipse in solitude but found herself enjoying the presence of other humans.

“Someone — I think the park rangers? — kept shouting out ‘45 minutes until totality! 30 minutes until totality! 10 minutes until totality!’” she recounted in an email. “People would cheer every time, then everyone gave a collective round of applause for the sun and moon afterward.”

People’s reactions to the total eclipse reached Megan McCullen before she could see it for herself.

“It was kind of this wave of noise. You could tell other parts of town were in the eclipse before we were,” said McCullen, director of the Wayne State University Planetarium, who traveled to Findlay, Ohio, with her family for the eclipse.

Family bonding was a key outcome of the eclipse for some Detroiters.

“Six of my son’s grandparents were there, including my 92-year-old grandmother,” wrote Detroiter Michele Oberholtzer Zimmerman in an email. “You don’t have to have much physical ability to enjoy an eclipse! I also really appreciated that this was one of few things other than family itself that my extended family could bond over without getting caught up in politics.”

After a total solar eclipse swept across the U.S. in 2017, psychology researchers studied the wording of millions of tweets and concluded that such experiences can “arouse tendencies — from greater attention to one’s groups to motivations to care for and affiliate with others — vital to collective life.”

Want to keep the good eclipse vibes going? Don’t throw away those eclipse glasses. Various organizations are collecting glasses to send them on to those in the path of the next eclipse. Parts of Spain and Iceland are due for a total solar eclipse in 2026.

Glasses can be donated at Warby Parker stores (there’s one downtown) and at Walking Lightly in Ferndale.

Outlier Media · How the eclipse helped Detroiters connect with each other