\u201cmassive runaway stars,\u201d<\/a> or stars that move at unusually high speeds across space. <\/p>\nIn the days and hours leading up to totality, she did her best to put the emphasis on the heavens, giving presentations and holding eclipse workshops in the area.<\/p>\n
She was joined by her family, who wore \u201cMar\u2019s Stars\u201d T-shirts, and her partner, Mart\u00ed Roset, 30, a mathematician who killed time by working out number theory equations in his notebook. (\u201cHe\u2019s my boyfriend,\u201d she said with a knowing nod to their shared passions.)<\/p>\n
On Tuesday morning, she stood between a \u201cSolar Eclipse 2026 in Rural Spain\u201d slide show and a few dozen older residents, many in wheelchairs. This would be the first eclipse on the Spanish mainland since 1905, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWas anyone here born in 1905?\u201d she said. \u201cAlmost?\u201d<\/p>\n
Afterward, she sat with them around tables and helped with eclipse-themed crosswords (among the answers: \u201cmoon\u201d and \u201cglasses\u201d) and card games in which she helped a 101-year-old woman put the stages of the eclipse in order. <\/p>\n
In the back of the room, her father, Juan Jos\u00e9 Carretero, 60, marveled at his daughter\u2019s commitment to spreading the scientific gospel. Still, his interests were somewhat divided. He\u2019d watch the eclipse up on the hill with her, he said, but he also wanted to check out the party. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt reminds me a bit of the raves they hold in Spain \u2014 raves where people come from various countries,\u201d Mr. Carretero said.<\/p>\n
She had originally, she said, hoped to give a scientific talk at the village hall on the day of the eclipse. But the mayor told her \u201cwe have many people for the party, I don\u2019t know if we will have the space,\u201d she recalled. <\/p>\n
They finally agreed that she could hold it the day before, and it seemed the entire town showed up. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a space problem,\u201d she ebulliently told the standing-room-only crowd. \u201cI\u2019m going to tell you everything you need to know about the eclipse.\u201d<\/p>\n
She repeated the presentation she gave the group of older residents, stressing that she was a local girl and encouraging them to join her gathering on Wednesday evening for hilltop colander experiments. At the talk\u2019s conclusion, a 12-year-old boy came up to her and asked what he could do to follow in her footsteps. She told him to keep asking questions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe eclipses we had in 1905 really pushed astronomy in Spain,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is another opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet even as she spoke, her competition was already setting up.<\/p>\n
During her talk, a black van parked in the square and workers began setting up the D.J. booth and stage. The mayor, Galo Contreras Sanz, sped onto the square, dashed into his office and retrieved eclipse glasses to hand out to the departing townspeople.<\/p>\n
Mr. Contreras Sanz said that while only locals came to hear the astronomer\u2019s talk, the party would draw people from all over. (He himself, he said, would watch the eclipse from up in the church bell tower. \u201cThe view is going to be amazing,\u201d he said.)<\/p>\n
He greeted Ms. Carretero-Castrillo and they spoke politely, but guardedly, about the eclipse and the party. As she left to join her family, friends and dozens of other locals in the town\u2019s watering hole, she and her boyfriend watched tests of the laser lights on the church\u2019s stone tower. The party, her boyfriend said, looked like it was \u201cgoing to be fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Wednesday afternoon, as Ms. Carretero-Castrillo gave another packed talk in a nearby town, partygoers started putting up tents and filing into the town hall to collect their orange ribbon wrist bands and Eclipse-Fest hats.<\/p>\n
Nacho Donoso, 50, an out-of-towner from Madrid, said the promoter\u2019s parties were always top notch, and for many, \u201cit doesn\u2019t matter that there\u2019s going to be an eclipse.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the party\u2019s organizer, Jorge Barrero, who handed out eclipse glasses, picnic-spot recommendations and hats and bracelets, said the eclipse would still be the star of the show.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe eclipse gives you the right here, the right now,\u201d said Mr. Barrero, 51, a chemist by training and former science ministry employee. He said there would be no music for the minute or so of total eclipse, \u201cout of respect.\u201d The D.J.s would start playing at 10 p.m. and go until a breakfast of churros and chocolate more than eight hours later.<\/p>\n
He said he met Ms. Carretero-Castrillo the day before, and invited her to the party. \u201cShe told me she\u2019s coming,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Carlos Barrag\u00e1n contributed reporting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The day before the first total solar eclipse on the Spanish mainland in more than a century, Mar…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[119492,9,24,63,84479,122,124,123,72535,2208],"class_list":["post-319737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-eclipses","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-parties-social","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-space-and-astronomy","tag-spain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}