Waterford ― With students out of school for spring break, hundreds flocked to Camp Harkness and adjacent Harkness Memorial State Park on Monday for an eclipse-viewing party.

Families wearing protective glasses staked out spots on the grass, on the beach and in the parking lots. Talk and laughter radiated through the park.

“For some people, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing that they will see,” said Michael Ross, an environmental education coordinator at Dinosaur State Park in Rocky Hill.

Dinosaur State Park had come to Camp Harkness with telescopes so people could view the eclipse.

He said that since so many people were in the path of the eclipse, it was a good chance for them to “get out and have that shared experience.”

That was evident in the park Monday. No matter where people watched from or what they had been doing, when 3:28 p.m. came and the moon had almost fully eclipsed the sun, they were looking up.

Just getting started

At 2:32 p.m., the moon had just begun to eclipse the lower right portion of the sun.

Waterford neighbors Eleanor Chapman, 79, and Angela Bartelli, 50, sat in beach chairs on the grass at Harkness Park.

“People are flying from what, Utah? Arkansas? It’s right here. I’m not going to miss it,” Bartelli said, adding the two had wanted to be around people and be swept up in the action.

It was Chapman’s second visit to the state park that day. Around 10:30 a.m., she and her husband had been walking their dog at the park when they saw that many people already had staked out spots on the lawn.

The two said Monday’s eclipse was better than the partial solar eclipse that had been visible in Connecticut in 2017. Only 68% of the sun was blocked that day and it had been cloudy.

“It wasn’t like this for sure,” she added.

Halfway there

Around 3 p.m., Benjamin Gregorcyk, of New London, told 13 family members from New London and Lebanon that the eclipse was “right at half.”

He said he and his family had seen the partial solar eclipse that took place last Oct. 14. But Connecticut viewers of that eclipse would only have seen 20% of the sun blocked that day.

Gregorcyk told his kids to make sure they looked down at their shadow. Solar eclipses are known to sharpen shadows to the point where individual hairs from a person’s head cam be seen, according to the European Space Agency.

Sun is a sliver

By 3:18 p.m., the sun was becoming a sliver of orange light through the darkened viewing glasses. In another 10 minutes, viewers would get what they’d all come out for, a maximum coverage just around 90%.

“You can see it starting to get darker now,” said Cindy Cassidy, 51, of Oakdale. “I’m curious to see what happens in a few minutes. Are people going to be clapping? Are they going to be ooh-ing and ahh-ing?”

She and husband, Chris, also 51, were able to come to the park because they’re teachers and local schools are on spring break this week. On Chris’ lap, corgi Noel pawed at viewing goggles strapped to her head. As the three viewed the event from a picnic table, families nearby threw footballs, flew kites and picnicked.

“It’s a great day,” Chris said. “I’m glad we have a nice place to see it instead of just being at home.”

Show’s over, folks

Moments after 3:28 p.m. as the moon moved away from the sun, 45-year-old Andy Cheng of Waterford described the darkness of the event as “like sunset, but not. It was weird.”

“You could really feel the cold,” Cheng added.

Gary Buttery, 72, of Oakdale, who had decided not to go through with his initial plans of traveling to Burlington, Vt., to view the eclipse, still enjoyed it at Harkness.

“This was great. It was beautiful,” he said. “Even with the percentage we had, which I think got up to 92%, it was fun to watch it fill up.”

“It was just amazing to see that,” agreed friend Tom Jeffers, 81, of Norwich.

Jeffers and many others had expected the eclipse to make it darker.

Shaine Frederick of Enfield, a self-proclaimed “science guy” and amateur astronomer whose telescope had resulted in a crowd of people around him during the event, said the eclipse had “exceeded his expectations.”

As Elisa Marcoux, camp director for Camp Harkness, took down tables and chairs that had been set up for viewers, she said the camp had passed out 300 pairs of viewing glasses and the parking lot had been full.

“We wanted to do something because we have these gorgeous beaches and wanted people to enjoy this event,” she said.

d.drainville@theday.com