When a 3-year-old named Lincoln put on his solar protection glasses to view the eclipse Monday afternoon, he asked his mom, “Who turned off the lights?” and when he saw the partial solar eclipse from the Skokie Public Library lawn, he said, “It looks like a crescent moon.”
The mom and son were just two of a few hundred people to congregate outside the Skokie Public Library on April 8 to watch the sun partially blocked by the moon. According to library staff, 1,000 pairs of solar protection glasses were given out half an hour ahead of the moon’s peak, creating a 94% partial eclipse.
Around 300 people watched the partial solar eclipse at the Skokie Public Library in Skokie on April 8, 2024. Richard Requena, Pioneer Press
“I feel like it’s always something special,” said the three-year-old’s mother, Destiny Star of Chicago,who remembered seeing the partial eclipse in 2017. “They call it once in a lifetime, but you get at least like four, right?”
Destiny Star and her son Lincoln, of Chicago, viewed the partial eclipse from the Skokie Library’s lawn April 8. Richard Requena, Pioneer Press
According to Skokie Public Library Executive Director Richard Kong, the library had also given out 5,000 pairs of eclipse safety glasses for free in order to allow people to view the eclipse.
Children’s Librarian Mandy O’Brien with her puppet Schmoranges at the Skokie Public Library viewing of the partial eclipse on April 8, 2024. Richard Requena, Pioneer Press
Children’s Librarian Mandy O’Brien attended the eclipse viewing in a chrome-colored outfit with her orange-colored puppet Schmoranges. With her 50th birthday falling on the same day as the eclipse, she joked that she would be teleported by aliens. “It’s a coping mechanism,” she joked. “When you have your 50th birthday on the eclipse, you have to laugh.”
Skokie resident Norbert Kowalski uses a homemade pinhole viewer to safely view the eclipse at the Skokie Public Library on April 8, 2024. Richard Requena, Pioneer Press
