Small Glimpses of Solar Eclipse in Portland and Oregon Coast

Published 05/21/2012

(Portland, Oregon) – For most people in northwest Oregon, Sunday's annular eclipse was no ring of fire. In fact, it wound up getting most fired up for almost nothing with all the cloud cover. But in parts of Portland and the Oregon coast, it did make a showing – albeit faintly.

In the Beaverton area, Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff caught a little bit of the blocked sun, which wound up looking like a crescent moon. About 6 p.m., the clouds thinned just enough for a patch of sunshine to get through for a few minutes, on and off, and then miraculously stayed thin enough to show the eclipse at its greatest amount of covering - called the accord..

Above is what it looked like around 6 p.m. Below is how it looked at approximately 6:10 p.m., about ten minutes before it had reached its height.

Below, this is what the eclipse looked like at approximately 6:25 p.m., a few minutes after its accord. In this area of Oregon, it covered 81 percent, although other parts of the country south of here and in the Pacific could see an actual ring around the moon.

Ironically, the very cloud cover that prevented the best views of the phenomena made it much easier to photograph. Pictures could be taken without any protection.

This was how the eclipse looked at about 6:35 p.m.

It then largely disappeared behind cloud cover for 25 minutes, and then a still-thick layer of clouds opened up just enough to get this very faint image of the eclipse around 7 p.m. with more than half of the sun visible.

Around the Oregon coast, reports were sporadic of it being spotted. In the Cannon Beach and Manzanita area, it was apparently a no-show. Farther south, cloud cover did seem to allow some views.

Laura Joki, owner of Rock Your World agate store in Lincoln City, said she caught some glimpses on the central Oregon coast.

“Cloudy but you could see it for a moment through the clouds,” Joki said. “Pretty cool.”

Some residents farther south in Lincoln County and some travelers moving along the routes to and from the coast reported seeing it intermittently.

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Keywords: astronomy, Manzanita, Beaverton, Pacific City, Cannon Beach, Yachats, Depoe Bay, Newport, Lincoln City, Oceanside, Astoria, Oregon coast, science.

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