Bay Ridgites seeking a sight of the solar eclipse flocked to the American Veterans Memorial Pier at Bay Ridge Ave. and Shore Road on Tuesday just in time for the peak viewing at 2:44 pm.
They said the spot offered up unparalleled celestial views and an exciting atmosphere to match.
“I thought it was pretty cool,” said Steve Gates. “It was quite a crowd. I thought it would be fun to experience the eclipse with a group of people. It made it more exciting rather than sitting alone on the front steps at home.”
Gates headed to the pier with his daughter and their homemade pinhole viewer, made of cardboard, aluminum foil, and a sheet of printer paper. Gates said that the viewer was easy to make, and that other attendees at the pier gladly passed around their glasses — which offered a more impressive view than the pinhole viewer — to those who came without.
“It was great, people just came up to us and gave us the viewing glasses,” he said. “The glasses offer a bigger, more dramatic view than the pinhole. But the pinhole was kind of neat.”
Another eclipse-viewer was less impressed with what she saw in the sky by using the glasses.
“I was honestly really surprised with the glasses, I didn’t realize that’s how it would work, that it would be blacked out like that,” said Claudia Deliteris, referring to the view of the sliver of sun set on a background of black sky that the glasses showcased for the sun-spotters.
Deliteris’ son Matteo took a look through the lenses as well, but also came prepared with a homemade box viewer. His mother said he was a fan of the sunny sight.
“He thought it was really cool,” she said.
People gathered all over the borough to take in the eclipse, which occurred across the U.S. as the moon passed in front of the sun, leaving only a thin halo of the sun’s light in its wake and reaching totality in the U.S. for the first time since 1979.
New Yorkers only got a partial eclipse, at 71 percent, on Tuesday, but Brooklyn state will get a better view when we host the next total eclipse, which will cross the eastern U.S., in 2024.
