Michael Humphrey was a little kid, living in Buffalo’s Perry Projects, when he sent in a few dollars and ordered his first simple telescope. He was already fascinated by space travel and the stars, and he found the ad for the telescope in the back of some children’s magazine or comic book.
Weeks later, a letter carrier showed up with the package in his bag. That childhood wait – when you knew something of meaning would arrive soon, at your doorstep – carried a sweetness and power in itself.
That’s not so different from how Humphrey, 69, feels right now, looking toward nine months that will both take forever, and go too fast:
On April 8, 2024, Western New York will experience a total solar eclipse.
“It’ll blow your mind,” said Humphrey, president of the Buffalo Astronomical Association, describing “a phenomenal thing to happen” for the city where he was born.
Humphrey and Mark Percy, founder of the Buffalo Eclipse Consortium at buffaloeclipse.org, say downtown Buffalo is on the best-the-eclipse-can-be center line for the “path of totality,” a 100-mile stripe running through North America – from Mexico into Texas, then on to Maine and Canada – in which a total eclipse will be visible to residents or visitors.
As in, potentially, a whole lot of visitors.
…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply