Eclipse festivities begin in Jefferson City

NASA has taken over the Missouri Capitol lawn in Jefferson City for the total solar eclipse festivities.

“You don’t get to see that every day,” said Rhonda Nunn, a Jefferson City resident. “I feel like we’re making history today.”

Nunn said she liked that NASA has been educating the community on the eclipse and doling out outer space knowledge.

“Little Jefferson City!” she said. “Can you just imagine NASA being here?”

The organization brought its traveling exhibit, NASA Glenn Research Center Journey to Tomorrow, to the city and people waited for hours to go inside the trailer to check out the information and items NASA displayed.

“It was pretty cool, I mean they had a space rock from the moon,” said Brody Ferrell, a young Iowa resident. “I mean, come on, whoever did that must have serious tools to get that off the moon because I’ve heard it’s a pretty hard substance.”

Ferrell and his family came in from Iowa to see the eclipse. His grandmother, Diane Gladow, said she and her husband Dean are from Kansas and wanted to bring the family all together to see the eclipse.

“We thought, ‘hey, that’s perfect,’ and so we were the ones that got it all started,” she said.

Brody’s cousin Emily Gladow, who lives in Jefferson City, said she liked seeing the pictures of what the rockets looked like. She’ll be in school on Monday and said they’ve done all their eclipse drills.

“We’re going to be outside in the grass,” she said. “They’re going to be doing three whistles when it’s time to take off our glasses,”

In addition to the traveling exhibit, an astronaut was on hand to sign autographs for children and a street fair was held in downtown Jefferson City.

The Jones family from Mississippi has family in Jefferson City and said they have been exploring mid-Missouri looking for the best place to view the eclipse Monday.

“We’ve been staking out places to watch the event tomorrow and we’ve had a great time visiting, seeing the sights, eating in the good restaurants,” said Victor Jones.

They decided they’ll be watching the eclipse from Cuba, Missouri because they were worried about the traffic.

While Cuba, Missouri is, of course, in the U.S., Alejandro Arrayo traveled from actual South American country, Chile, to be in the path of totality. He’s something of an eclipse chaser and has seen an eclipse in 14 different countries. He’ll be adding Jefferson City to a list that includes China, Russia, Australia and Zimbabwe.

“The city is very beautiful,” he said.

This eclectic group all gathered together Sunday to enjoy the first day of eclipse festivities in Jefferson City. The traveling exhibit is closed for Sunday but there is a concert on the lawn tonight. The “Total Eclipse of the Park Experience” is going on until 10 p.m. in Riverside Park.

They’ll continue with the NASA exhibit Monday, along with a scholastic education series. NASA officials encourage people to get to the Capitol lawn early so that they don’t have to wait in a long line to see the traveling exhibit.

There will be an Eclipse Village Festival in north Jefferson City from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Monday in addition to Capitol lawn festivities.

You can see all the events here.

Even with an iffy forecast for Monday’s eclipse, most people are excited just for the experience.

“I don’t know whether we’ll get to see the actual eclipse but we’ll get to feel it because it’s going to go completely dark,” said Diane Gladow. “We’ll know what that’s like no matter what so we’ll appreciate it that way.”