ASHLAND — The birds stopped chirping and the street lights flipped on for around three minutes as people from all over gawked at the heavens on Monday.
Clouds cleared for the total solar eclipse in Ashland — and it didn’t disappoint for the group gathered at Freer Field.
“This is so cool,” said Shawn Fausey, of Delaware, during totality — when the moon totally covered the sun.
He and his wife, Michelle, drove from The First State for the occasion on their way back from a wedding in Missouri. The science teacher was excited to witness his second total solar eclipse, this time with his four children.
He wasn’t the only family from out of town.
William Dressler, 16, came with his family from southern Maryland. The teen worked on capturing the entire eclipse with a camera hooked up to a number of gadgets.
He said he got hooked into this sort of thing when he discovered “astro-photography” mode on his new phone.
“I tried it, saw the Milky Way — now I’m into it,” Dressler said.
Craig Snodgrass planned a trip for his parents. He witnessed the last solar eclipse in South Carolina and his stories from that encounter got his parents, David and Susan, curious.
The Snodgrass family, from Richmond, Virginia, chose Pittsburgh as a base. From there, they monitored the weather to determine which area would be the best bet for clear skies.
“We just looked at the weather, and based on the weather, we decided where to go from (Pittsburgh),” said Craig Snodgrass, adding many of the locations were within a three-hour drive.
‘Worth it’
Conrad and Shantih Bianco, of Pittsburgh, had a similar strategy. They followed the National Weather Service’s cloud coverage forecast. The name “Ashland” intrigued them, Shantih Bianco said.
“When we got here and saw the town, we thought, ‘yeah, this is the spot,’” she said.
Bill and Lorena Bellomo came with their two sons, Gabriel and Liam, from Garwood, New Jersey. It was around seven hours to drive to Ashland — but they drove 13 hours to South Carolina in 2017 to see that solar eclipse.
“It’s worth it every time,” said Bill Bellomo, saying the family is now looking to the next eclipse.
He said there’s one in Greenland in 2026 and another in Spain in 2026 and 2027.
