David Dix: Elcipse offers rare opportunity – Ravenna Record Courier

Published: July 30, 2017 4:00 AM

The sun for a few moments will be close to 80 percent dark across northeast Ohio at 1:07 p.m. Aug. 21.

For those of us in Portage County, that's the peak time for the upcoming solar eclipse, according to Jay Ryan, who, courtesy of Roger Sidoti, spoke to Kent Rotary Tuesday.

It's weather permitting, Ryan told Rotarians, because if it is cloudy, those looking toward the heavens will not notice much except a temporary greater darkness.

An amateur astronomer who has developed an expertise concerning eclipses, Ryan maintains a website, americaneclipseusa.com, that provides easy-to-read information for people fascinated by what happens when our moon briefly passes between the sun and Earth.

Solar eclipses, his website says, happen more often than we might think, but they cast a shadow along a relatively narrow track determined by the moon's orbit. Those outside the track, where the shadow does not fall, do not notice any darkness.

Ryan's website indicates we in Portage County will experience a shadow generated by a brief 80 percent blackout of the sun. If you want to see what a 100 percent blackout looks like, wait seven years. One is scheduled to occur in 2024 and if the sky is clear, that eclipse will be dramatic.

Wyoming adventure

In follow-up discussion at Rotary, Dr. E.A Mastroianni, the dentist, mentioned his son, Ernie, photography editor for the science magazine, Discover, will travel to Casper, Wyoming where the eclipse will be 100 percent. Wyoming's cleaner atmosphere will make it easier to photograph the eclipse.

In the 1970s, while studying at Kent State University's School of Journalism, Ernie was a photographer at the Record-Courier. We experienced a near total solar eclipse while he was working at the newspaper and Ernie shot stages of the eclipse that turned out brilliantly. We published his eclipse stages across the top of Page 1.

Ernie has always been interested in science so the job of being photography editor for Nature must be a nearly perfect fit. Ernie has covered a mission to the South Pole. A website gallery he maintains has, among many photos, some of owls and birds for a birding magazine. There is a photo he took of the planet Mercury crossing between the sun and the earth with tiny Mercury so far away its shadow was too diffuse to block out sunlight. There are photos showing thousands of people carrying huge Alpen Horns at a Swiss festival.

Ernie's photography decorates his father's dental offices and provides a nice distraction from one's dental problems.

Our courthouse

Three different versions of our Portage County Courthouse are shown on the cover of a program handed out during the 1960 dedication ceremonies for the courthouse we have now. Industrialist Jack Schafer, an expert on architectural preservation and a collector, shared this program.

The photo in the program's upper left shows the 1830 Greek Revival Courthouse and Jail on the square in downtown Ravenna. Greek Revival was typical of New England architecture in the Western Reserve, when it was first populated by New Englanders, mostly from Connecticut. Connecticut had "reserved" this section of Northeast Ohio from its original land-grant that stretched from seat to sea. Many Connecticut speculators bought huge tracts of land here to sell to settlers. Benjamin Tappan, the founder of Ravenna, was one of these speculators.

Greek Revival was the popular architectural style of the early 19th century and most of early Ravenna, including its commercial buildings, were in that style. The Phenix Block that Coleman Professional Services now owns, was primarily in this style. An 1877 remodeling by the IOOF changed part of it to a more florid version of commercial architecture, Jack said.

The lower left photo is of our 1882 courthouse. It was attached to the front of its 1830 predecessor, which the county had outgrown. Jack said our High Victorian Gothic courthouse showed more architectural exuberance than most Ohio courthouses of the era and that may be why its loss is still mourned today. It was well suited to Ravenna, defining the central public space of the community and it coordinated well with the commercial buildings that Henry Riddle constructed later, especially Riddle Block No. 1.

The image on the right of the program is a rendering of the current courthouse built during the modernist era that swept the USA after World War II. Its austere design clashed with the late 19th and early 20th century style commercial buildings that remain dominant in Ravenna today. Two decades ago some unflattering comments about the Portage County Courthouse appeared in a book about Ohio's courthouses. The commissioners were remodeling the courthouse's interior back then and asked the architect to soften its plain modernist exterior. He did so by attaching a pedimented portico on the front.

To enhance understanding of Ravenna's architectural heritage, Jack Schafer is providing interesting hour-long walking tours of the downtown to raise funds for the Main Street Ravenna program. The next one deals with the community's civic buildings. It is scheduled for 6 p.m. Aug. 17 with a repeat session at 11 a.m. Aug. 26.

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David Dix: Elcipse offers rare opportunity - Ravenna Record Courier