If you have ever been in totality, the desire to stare directly at the sun is magnetic and all celestial terminology seems deficient. The temperature drops quickly and significantly . In just a few minutes, the day darkens to night and returns again to day .

People in New York City last witnessed a total eclipse of the sun nearly a hundred years ago, in January 1925 . Wall Street stayed quiet , its opening postponed to allow traders to watch the totality. Across New England special trains were put in service so the public could get to better viewing locations . Along the path of totality, s cientists urged people to use stopwatches to help calculate the exact path of the moon .

A few years later, in 1932 , some New Yorkers got to watch a partial eclipse from the top of the Empire State Building, then the tallest building in the world . People around the city stared through film, smoked glass or colored glasses and even peeked through their fingers . (These are not safe ways to observe an eclipse, and proper glasses should be used to protect your eyes.) On that same day, in Detroit, Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera looked skyward from the top of the Detroit Institute of Arts .