VIEWPOINTS
Saturday, July 29, 2017
East Oregonian
Page 5A
Northwest eclipses illuminate solar system’s mysteries
Prepare to scare
away sun-devouring
monster on Aug. 21
A
fter sunrise on July 18,
1860, the sky west of the
mouth of the Columbia
turned back to night, as if a cavern
was opening between this and a
darker world. Soon, all around,
there was an “unearthy ghastly
glow.”
The 498 whites in Clatsop
County and Pacific County’s
406 — along
with hundreds
of equally
human Native
Americans the
1860 Census
didn’t deign to
count — would
have witnessed
something like
Matt
the following as
Winters
a total eclipse
Comment
formed offshore
and began racing
halfway around the planet:
“The western horizon was
lost in darkness, and the conical
hills to the north-north-west were
invisible, while the clouds toward
the east sent forth a bright glow
of light, from the sun shining on
their fronts. At this moment bright
waving lines of light flickered
one after another over the ground
parallel to my line of sight with
the sun. On looking upward from
these I found the sun had already
disappeared, and that I had missed
the formation of the corona. The
black circle of the moon was
already surrounded by this crown
of glory; two stars shone brightly
a few degrees from the sun, and
so magnificent was the spectacle
above, as glorious as the spectacle
below, that I could not help looking
a few moments from the one to
the other. A bright light, I think of
a greenish-yellow colour, skirted
the horizontal sky, and the banks of
cumuli shone with a brilliant glow.
The darkness was not intense;
the light from the corona and the
distant refractions far surpassed the
brightest moonlight …
“Though much occupied with
these observations, the impression
produced by the total eclipse is one
which can never be effaced from
the mind.”
Described in Tedula, Spain, by
University of Dublin teacher R.A.
Thompson, this very eclipse began
over the ocean just southwest of
Oregon’s Cape Disappointment.
It ripped across North America —
mostly through unpopulated areas
of Canada including Hudson’s Bay
— over the Atlantic and through
Spain and Northern Africa before
evaporating three hours later into
nothingness above the Red Sea.
New York Public Library Digital Collection
This was the total eclipse of the sun as observed July 29, 1878 at Creston, Wyoming Territory.
Columbia River Maritime Museum/Jack Edwards photo
North River Packing Co., which operated near the north shore of
what is now called Willapa Bay, issued this creative depiction of
the 1878 eclipse.
Totality — the time the sun’s
disc was completely covered by
the moon — lasted one minute
and 46 seconds in Astoria. But
this deepest shade also extended
north and south. The New York
Times described it as “a black belt
seventy miles wide, traveling at
the speed of 1,850 miles an hour,
or four times the velocity of a
cannon-ball!”
It took 51 seconds for the center
of the moon’s shadow to pass over
Washington Territory, a dark angel
in silent flight.
If anyone in these parts made
their own eloquent observations, I
haven’t found them. Perhaps it was
a foggy gray morning and folks
only commented, “Gosh, even
gloomier than usual today!”
Great eclipse of 1878
The eclipse of July 29, 1878,
began near Mongolia and arched
Quick takes
Fair, rodeo volunteers are separate from EOTEC
By DENNIS BARNETT
Friends of the Fair and Rodeo
Legacy of Frank Harkenrider
He was a wonderful ambassador for all
of Hermiston. Proud to have known him.
— John Tolan
Very sad. Hermiston would not be
Hermiston without him.
— Sandi Higginbotham Greene
One of a kind. RIP Harkie.
— Dallas Morris
Bike Week, Whiskey Fest jolt
Pendleton economy
Omg — whiskey fest was awesome.
It was great to have something other then
country singers. I cannot wait for next years.
— Shelly Christensen
I cannot tell you how many people that I
saw drinking and smoking the big “m” and
getting on the bikes and riding off into the
sunset, no cops around to bother the out of
town people.
— ChrisandToby O’Malley
There will always be Round-Up, but that
doesn’t mean that’s the only thing the city
should be. Pendleton should be doing more
of these, it’s great to see the town growing.
— Zack Shannon
State struggles to identify
ways to cut PERS debt
Wait one cotton picking minute. State
assets belong to the citizens of the state.
Tread lightly.
— Kelly Tolman
The property around prisons is super
desirable. That would fix it instantly. Kate is
a genius! Put a Goodwill on each one so the
escapees can stop in for some fresh duds.
— Jeremy Clark
One of the great lessons of the Twitter age is
that much can be summed up in just a few words.
Here are some of this week’s takes. Tweet yours
@Tim_Trainor or email editor@eastoregonian.
com, and keep them to 140 characters.
over Southwest Alaska before
petering out east of Cuba. It wasn’t
total in our area, but it appears to
have made a keen impression.
Two different coastal salmon
canneries soon began using
“Eclipse Brand” labels — one like
a giant black melanoma and the
other a celestial waltz between sun
and moon above the Shoalwater
Bay wilderness.
Up in the Olympic Peninsula
town of Queets where the sun
was 89 percent shrouded, a
Quinault Indian quoted in the book
“Coquelle Thompson” recalled,
“The old people made all the noise
they could. They got on top of their
houses and pounded on the roofs
with sticks. They shouted, shot
off their guns, and beat on their
drums.” It was thought the racket
would scare away whatever demon
was eating the sun.
Elsewhere in the country the
1878 eclipse ignited an almost
equally frenzied reaction — by
scientists. It was the stuff of
legend when I was growing up
in Wyoming, having attracted
31-year-old Thomas Edison to the
territory. As school kids we were
taught he realized how to make
a long-lasting light bulb filament
when a bamboo fiber curled up
from his fly rod and snagged his
imagination.
Sadly, this “light bulb invented
while trout fishing” story is untrue.
But the celebrity inventor of the
phonograph did in fact come west
to the Union Pacific Railroad
boomtown of Rawlins, Wyoming
as a guest in a scientific expedition
led by astronomer Henry Draper.
Edison managed to find a
shared hotel room, where his first
night was interrupted by an ardent
fan.
“After we retired and were
asleep a thundering knock on
the door awakened us,” Edison
recalled years later. “Upon opening
the door, a tall, handsome man
with flowing hair, dressed in
Western style, entered the room.
His eyes were bloodshot and he
was somewhat inebriated. He
introduced himself as ‘Texas
Jack’… and he said he wanted to
see Edison as he had read about me
in the newspapers.”
During the precious minutes
of the eclipse, Draper’s efforts
to photograph the sun’s corona
succeeded, a major research coup
for the time. Edison’s attempt to
measure any eclipse-related change
in air temperature failed.
This summer’s big event
My first partial solar eclipse was
on July 20, 1963. Already a little
science nerd at age 5, two things
stuck with me:
• Daddy thoroughly warned that
looking at the sun, even partially
eclipsed, would burn my eyes
out. Recently given a magnifying
glass I used to burn holes through
scraps of paper and — may their
gods forgive me — a few hapless
ants, I could easily picture the sun
punching tiny smoking craters
into the backs of my eyeballs. This
image still flashes through my
mind whenever sitting at Ilwaco’s
lone traffic light on September
mornings, the rising sun crouched
straight ahead like a waiting archer
aiming at its prey.
When buying a telescope 40
years ago that may have been built
for or inspired by the 1878 eclipse,
I was partly sold by its specialized
“sun lens” — blackened in such a
manner that the sun and its spots
may be “safely” observed.
• The genuinely cautious way
to monitor progress of an eclipse
is to create a simple camera-like
device. Using a pin to make a hole
in a stiff piece of cardboard, you
hold it between the sun and a sheet
of paper, adjusting the distance
between the two until a sharp
circle of light is formed on the
target. Even after half a century, I
recall a fast-growing bite forming
in that glowing cookie of light. It
was a convincing demonstration
of interconnectedness — our solar
system as living thing, humans as
beings of the sun, illuminating it
with our understanding.
The coming eclipse on the
morning of Aug. 21 won’t be total
in Umatilla and Morrow counties,
but will come as close as most of
us will ever experience. NASA’s
convenient online tool says the sun
will be nearly 95 percent covered
in Pendleton, for instance.
The remaining 5 percent will
still be enough to damage eyesight,
and our newspapers will contain
ample advice on how to observe
the eclipse.
That small percentage is also
is likely to make the corona
— the sun’s frizzy Einstein hair —
invisible to us. And we’ll be spared
the throngs expected along the path
of totality that includes John Day
and Baker City.
I hope many locals will take
the morning off to watch from
some promontory. Take your kids.
Scream and shout. Save our sun
from the monster.
■
Matt Winters is the publisher
and editor of the Chinook (Wash.)
Observer, a sister paper of the East
Oregonian.
A
s the preparation for the 2017
Umatilla County Fair and Farm-City
Pro Rodeo continues to increase in
pace, the board of directors of the Friends
of the Fair and Rodeo Inc. wanted to take a
moment to reflect on the relationships and
needs of the four entities involved in the
events.
This may help clarify the understanding
of what is happening next to the Hermiston
airport.
First, the fair and rodeo facility is owned
by the Eastern Oregon Trade and Event
Center — EOTEC. EOTEC is a joint
activity of Umatilla County and the city of
Hermiston. It is charged with building and
maintaining the facilities located on 90 acres
next to the Hermiston Airport.
Those facilities include an event
center, a common area, barns and a rodeo
arena. Those facilities are currently being
completed from funds that were provided
by the city, county, the state of Oregon and
donations from individuals and businesses
across Umatilla and Morrow counties. The
facilities are limited by these funds, because
EOTEC has built these facilities without any
bonded debt.
Secondly, a brief review of the makeup
of the Umatilla County Fair and the
Farm-City Pro Rodeo. The Umatilla County
Fair is run by a fair board appointed by the
Umatilla County Commissioners. These
U.S. Senators
Ron Wyden
Washington office:
221 Dirksen Senate Office
Bldg.
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-5244
La Grande office:
541-962-7691
Jeff Merkley
Washington office:
313 Hart Senate Office
Building
board members are non-paid volunteers
needs of the Umatilla County Fair and the
who manage the annual event. The fair is
Farm-City Pro Rodeo.
actually part of Umatilla County. This board
This entity was formed to allow
and hundreds of volunteers come together
businesses and individuals a way to donate
each year to produce the fair.
for the benefit of the fair or rodeo, or both.
The Farm-City Pro Rodeo Company is a Because the Friends of the Fair and Rodeo
nonprofit whose volunteer
is a charitable nonprofit,
board is involved in
all donations to it are tax
producing a Professional
deductible.
The fair and
Rodeo Cowboys
The board of Friends of
rodeo have
Association rodeo each
the Fair and Rodeo is made
year. The rodeo also has
of two rodeo board
made substantial up
many volunteers who help
members, two fair board
the board manage the event.
and an outside
improvements to members
The rodeo is completely
member, independent of
independent of the Umatilla
each board.
the facilities.
County Fair. The fair and
As EOTEC comes
rodeo cooperate with each
to the completion of the
other to hold the events in conjunction with
first phase of its development — and the
each other each year.
Umatilla County Fair and Farm-City Pro
Thirdly, the Umatilla County Fair and the Rodeo gear up for their first event at the
Farm-City Pro Rodeo do not own any of the new location — please keep in mind the
effort in man hours and money that has been
facilities. They merely rent the facilities to
expended for the benefit of our county and
hold their annual events at the EOTEC site.
Both entities have long-term leases with the our communities.
If you have interest in helping with the
landlord, EOTEC, to hold their events there.
needed funds to put the finishing touches
The fair and the rodeo both have made
on the facility, and assist the fair and rodeo
substantial leasehold improvements to the
in putting on their events, please do not
facilities to assist in the operations of the
hesitate in contacting one of the Friends of
fair and rodeo outside of what EOTEC
the Fair and Rodeo board members. They
has provided. These improvements are not
are Dan Dorran, David Dickmeier, Roe
owned by the fair or rodeo.
Gardner, Lucas Wagner and Dennis Barnett.
This all brings us to the discussion of
■
what the Friends of the Fair and Rodeo
Dennis Barnett is a member of the Friends
is. The Friends of the Fair and Rodeo is a
of the Fair and Rodeo.
charitable nonprofit formed to support the
CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES
Washington, DC 20510
Governor
202-224-3753
Pendleton office:
541-278-1129
U.S. Representative
Greg Walden
Washington office:
185 Rayburn House Office
Building
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-6730
La Grande office:
541-624-2400
Kate Brown
160 State Capitol
900 Court Street
Salem, OR 97301-4047
503-378-4582
Senator
Bill Hansell, District 29
900 Court St. NE, S-423
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1729
Sen.BillHansell@state.or.us
Representatives
Greg Barreto, District
58
900 Court St. NE, H-38
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1458
Rep.GregBarreto@state.
or.us
Greg Smith, District 57
900 Court St. NE, H-482
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1457
Rep.GregSmith@state.or.us