Caribou astronaut Dr. Jessica Meir planned to chase the eclipse via jet, while a Houlton tattoo artist inked patrons to mark the occasion.
HOULTON, Maine — Dawn MacDonald smiled as she walked to a back room in her downtown Houlton studio.
The owner and artist at Crowe's Tattoos told us Saturday she had gotten an idea to mark the celestial phenomenon headed directly for her town Monday afternoon and turn it into permanent art.
"I felt that it’d be a great idea to, kind of, give a souvenir-type tattoo to this one-time event in Houlton," she said, as local resident Nicki Casella sat in her chair. "And I just thought it’d be an awesome idea to give permanent art of the eclipse day on people."
Crowe's posted on Facebook on Thursday that it was starting a flash tattoo sale special for the event. Patrons could choose from seven eclipse-themed designs. On Friday alone, MacDonald said 11 people eagerly signed up for the permanent mementos.
Casella happily joined the growing list.
"Well, I like to support Dawn and I just thought it was a great idea so, of course, I wanted to be part of it," she smiled, while getting the tattoo.
Casella chose her right shoulder for the new piece. Before sitting down she removed her sweater, revealing an arm and back with patterns of stars on her skin. Her mother, she said, used to call her "Twinkle."
"And, you know, the fact that it was the moon and the stars kind of sold me on it," she said of her fresh artwork.
Across the country in Texas, Dr. Jessica Meir prepared to celebrate Monday's event in a way that shouldn't surprise followers of her career.
The Caribou native and astronaut made history in October of 2019, as part of the first all-female spacewalk team to leave the confines of the International Space Station.
Still a member of NASA, which has a prominent control center in Houston, Meir told us during a Thursday Zoom interview she intended to take off in a jet as the eclipse began its U.S. path of totality in Texas and chase it across the sky.
"I'm actually going to be in the T-38 jet, the jet that we use for astronaut flight training," Meir remarked. "I will be in the jet trying to chase the path of totality from pretty high altitude. So, even if the weather is bad, we should be up above the clouds and still be able to have a good view of the eclipse. We actually did this in 2017 as well, so it was a pretty cool place to be for it."
Back in Houlton, NEWS CENTER Maine meteorologists predicted Maine would likely have one of the clearest views of the eclipse of its entire swath across North America.
In front of the town's library, Taryn Reed and Ashley Blake manned a popup tent and offered Polaroid photos to passersby. Families stopped, grabbed provided props like fake mustaches, and posed for the instant pictures.
Reed and Blake, both Houlton residents, were not used to crowded sidewalks, brief as the crowds were still three days out from the eclipse, but were happy to see full shops and restaurants.
"It's a little overwhelming, but I'm excited for the businesses in town," Blake said. "They've missed out on a lot this winter from snow sleds not coming through; even a couple years ago from COVID, the businesses really hurt here for a while. So, I'm really excited for people to make some money."
As for how they would experience the moments of totality when they came Monday afternoon?
Both said they planned to close up the tent shortly before and rush to their homes, opting to head away from the gawking crowds and spend the time in their yards, looking to the sky with the people and pets that mean the most to them.
Not a Polaroid; instead, a memory with loved ones to last a lifetime.
- NASA planes out of Ellington will be on a mission during Monday's eclipse
- Eclipse 2024: Maine wildlife expected to stir during totality
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