Butler Twp. resident to see second eclipse, dig up birthday present
A Butler Township woman will get down and dirty for her birthday this year, which falls one day after the solar eclipse.
Photographer Christina Lynn Moss decided to take some professional snaps of the 2017 eclipse, which crossed the U.S., starting in Oregon and ending in South Carolina.
Having never photographed an eclipse, Moss began researching the 2017 event, plus the equipment she would need to shoot it.
During her analysis, she discovered another solar eclipse would meander across the U.S. in April 2024, and the two trajectories cross in Carbondale, Ill.
Moss’ birthday, April 9, also falls on the day after the current eclipse, so she hatched a plan to make both eclipses even more special.
She bought an Oregon sunstone to commemorate the starting point of the 2017 eclipse, plus a moonstone so both celestial eclipse participants would be represented.
“I thought, wouldn’t it be cool to bury a necklace (in Carbondale) and go back and watch the second eclipse in the same location where I watched the first one, then dig the necklace up?” Moss said. “I had the two gems, and I decided to make the necklace.”
Moss traveled to Carbondale for the 2017 solar eclipse and stayed at a campground, where she set up her equipment and had her camera at the ready.
The bright, sunny day was perfect for viewing the eclipse, which passed over Carbondale at the same times in 2017 and today.
“It was sunny all day, and I saw this cloud coming from the south,” Moss recalled of her 2017 trip. “Everyone in the campground was watching this cloud.”
She said the cloud kept creeping closer and closer to the sun, much to the disappointment of everyone at the campground.
“We thought we were going to miss the eclipse, and it just kind of grazed the side of the sun,” Moss said.
Having shot pictures for three hours, Moss knew she captured the cloud near the sun in the flurry of shutter clicks.
When the eclipse ended, she tore down her equipment, got a bite to eat, and returned to the campground to view her digital pictures on the camera.
She noticed one image of the cloud skimming the sun resembled a sea horse.
“I didn’t even know I had that picture when I was taking it,” Moss said. “I just kept shooting.”
When she got home, she uploaded the photo onto her computer so she could see a bigger image.
“I was like ‘Wow, that looks like a dragon,’” Moss said. “It’s not altered in any way.”
She now calls the snap the “Diamond Dragon” photo, and counts it among the best images she has ever recorded.
She also placed the necklace in a metal can and buried it in a state park in Carbondale and recorded the GPS coordinates for retrieval on April 9, 2024.
Moss chose a metal can because she will use her hobby of metal detecting to find the necklace if it does not appear at the GPS coordinates for some reason.
She will then wear the necklace, along with a matching bracelet she did not bury, to commemorate her dual experiences watching the moon pass before the sun.
“It was basically just a birthday present for myself,” Moss said.
She left Butler for Carbondale on the evening of April 3, along with her four Boston terriers.
“They’re well-versed in camping,” Moss said.
She shrugged off the cautionary tale that appeared on social media before the eclipse warning dog owners to put their pups inside during the eclipse, lest they freak out and run away.
“They probably won’t even notice,” Moss said. “My dogs will probably be sleeping.”
