Protect your eyes from this 1979 news anchor’s touching wish for the 2017 eclipse

By Sam Barsanti | August 20, 2017 | 8:31pm

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Tomorrow’s total solar eclipse feels like a pretty big deal, but as Neil deGrasse Tyson would probably be quick to point out, it’s not the first one that has ever happened. The last eclipse like this to be visible within the contiguous United States was way back on February 26, 1979, and while you could only really see it from the Pacific Northwest, the fact that nobody could be distracted by celebrity astrophysicists on Twitter back then meant that it was still a big deal. So, people have been looking back at 1979 eclipse coverage to try and prepare themselves for the way the 2017 eclipse might impact society, but it seems like the biggest thing that people are learning is that life in 2017 is already pretty different from how people in 1979 might’ve hoped it would be.

That’s according to one clip in particular that has been gaining a lot of traction on social media, at least. In the clip, ABC news anchor Frank Reynolds talks about the 1979 eclipse and notes the date of the next one that people in the United States will be able to see (tomorrow) before ending his report with a simple message of hope that is both lovely and—given the state of the world and the country—just a bit heartbreaking: “May the shadow of the moon fall on a world in peace.”