1979 Solar Eclipse – ABC News Coverage [Video]
The last time a total solar eclipse was visible in North America there was no social media, and it was glorious!
As I'm sure news stations will do today, ABC covered the total solar eclipse in 1979. It was the last one visible in North America in the 20th century. The coverage is quite a treat to watch.
Frank Reynolds anchored from New York, with live reports from former science correspondence Jules Bergman and reporter Bob Miller. Live images from Portland, Oregon, Washington state's Goldendale Observatory and Helena, Montana.
As you'll hear in the video, there are thousands of people gathered to see the eclipse on their own, but you can imagine the amount of people watching their television screens. There was no internet. Personal computers weren't the norm. People watched this extremely rare occurrence either outside, or glued to their TV.
Another thing that was so very different back then was that not everyone was their own camera person/news anchor. Think about how many videos, and pictures there will be of this solar eclipse. It's no doubt going to fill your news feed on any social media outlet out there.
Unfortunately, there will probably be many people that either ignored, or completely didn't see all of the warnings of how to properly view the eclipse. Please, don't be one of those people.