PORTLAND, Ore. — The crowds on hand Monday to see the eclipse in Portland may not have compared to 2017, when Oregon was witness to a total eclipse, but people in Portland were still excited to witness a partial eclipse.
"This just shows that people love to watch the eclipse. A lot of them remember 2017; they are coming back here again," said Jim Todd, director of space science at Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI), where hundreds came out Monday morning to participate in an eclipse watch party.
Todd said even though Oregon wasn't able to see totality Monday, the experience lasted longer than in 2017. The reason for the longer viewing experience? Todd said it's because the moon is closer than it was seven years ago.
"(In) 2017, it was further away, that's why it was only two minutes. This one is going to be four minutes because it's closer than it was in 2017," he said.
If people weren't gathering outside of OMSI, they were inside the planetarium watching the NASA feed. In Portland, the partial eclipse started just after 10:30 a.m. Monday, and it reached its peak almost one hour later around 11:25 a.m. During that time, the weather shifted in everyone's favor. The clouds cleared out just enough for many people to watch the moon slowly cover part of the sun.
There were lines of people trying to catch a glimpse from high-powered telescopes, while others brought their own setup. One of those was Cole Field, who came ready with a smartphone-base telescope. He was also able to snap some photos using his cellphone.
"I'm an airline pilot, so I get to look out the window and look at stars and stuff like that, and it always fascinated me looking at those things," Field said.