Solar Spectacles

For the April 8, 2024, eclipse, our chapter wanted to do something people would never forget. We borrowed 4.5-inch reflector telescopes from our university observatory and created solar filters for them. We also purchased eclipse glasses and helped construct a solar projector for our campus’s historic 12-inch aperture refracting telescope. We put up flyers and made signs for the campus viewing.

On the morning of the eclipse, the sky was cloudy. Still, a crowd formed around the telescopes and we handed out glasses. About halfway to “totality” (we only got about 30 percent coverage), a break finally occurred in the clouds. We scrambled to point the telescopes and heard audible gasps as students peeked through them and the glasses to see a small bite missing from the solar disk. As the eclipse continued, the crowd grew. Students gathered around the telescopes every time the clouds parted, and everyone was delighted.