Houstonians experience solar eclipse in path of totality

Over 200 people from Houston were able to see the total solar eclipse today (8/21) in Casper, Wyoming.

It started with first contact at 10:22 AM, local time.

The young and the experienced watching history be made with their very own eyes.

"I cried. It was just...if you knew me you would know I'm rarely speechless and that was phenomenal," says Houston resident Monique Studak.

A solar spectacle, starring the sun and moon. The moon's shadow racing right through Casper where onlookers had nowhere else to look, but up.

"I mean, you can't explain it to somebody because it's so eerie, you have to feel it yourself," says an emotional Bernard Rosenbaum whose career with NASA spans 50 years.

"I didn't know what I was expecting, but this was amazing," says Bill Studak as he and his wife, Monique, sat in amazement following the totality event.

The entire show, from first contact, lasting nearly 3 hours. Those 2 minutes and 25 seconds of totality, however, were exactly why many made the long journey from Houston to watch the moon eclipse the sun, unfiltered.

"We're so fortunate to be able to experience that and we had great weather today. If it hadn't have been for the weather like this it would have been a bust," says Rosenbaum.

Mother nature not clouding anyone's view, giving each member who traveled with the Houston Museum of Natural Science a very personal experience.

"It's this wonderful, spiritual, supernatural feeling," says Sugar Land resident Susan Pappas.

"You can't imagine whenever they line up just perfectly, that's whenever it happens and how infrequent that is," says Rosenbaum.

So how infrequent? 1979 was the last total solar eclipse on U.S. soil. Americans only have to wait 7 years
for the next sun and moon total encounter, taking place in April of 2024, which will cross through Texas.