CLARION CO., Pa. (EYT) – Mother Nature cooperated when it mattered the most during Monday afternoon’s partial solar eclipse.
(PHOTO: A partial eclipse captured by Patty Schmader near Hi-Level Golf Course in Kossuth, Pa.)
While the unique happening passed with little fanfare in most of the region, Clarion University students took the time to get a pair of the special glasses and pay attention.
As clouds obscured the sun near the time of 2:35 p.m. when the sun was three-quarters covered, it seemed it may pass without an opportunity to see it. However, the clouds broke up, and despite a few raindrops falling, for those who were outside and had glasses, they had the chance to see it.
The largest group on CUP’s campus to take in the partial eclipse, with nearly 78 percent of the sun was blocked, was the Color Guard squad.
Brandi Mulligan, a sophomore majoring in Business Management, is from Blairtown, New Jersey,. and she was thrilled with the spectacle.
“We’re here for band camp, and we came outside to see it. If you had the glasses, you could see the orange moon, and it was awesome!” Mulligan said.
“It’s completely amazing,” Schultz said. “We’ve never seen it before.”
Wearing the specially-made glasses was the key to seeing the partial eclipse. Those who didn’t have them noted nothing special.
For two of Clarion University’s incoming freshman, Kristin Fiscus and Meghan Lobbestael, moving-in day will always be memorable.
“We’re going back to Harvey Hall where they gave us glasses, so we can see it and not get blind,” Fiscus said. “I’m really surprised I’m getting to see something like this because I never thought I would.”
“I thought it was really cool,” Lobbestael said. “We looked at it when it was starting to happen, and I’ve never seen anything like that.”
According to space.com, a total solar eclipse occurs when the disk of the moon appears to completely cover the disk of the sun.
In Clarion County, eclipse watchers saw the moon cover 77.7 percent of the sun. The moon was in the sun’s path starting at 1:11 p.m. and continued until about 3:53 p.m.
The best time to see the peak of the eclipse was 2:35 p.m.
Skywatchers outside the path of totality could still see a partial solar eclipse using solar viewing glasses that allowed them to look directly at the moon’s progress across the face of the sun.
The path of totality was a 70-mile ribbon stretching from Lincoln Beach, Ore. to Charleston, South Carolina.
It passed through Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.
Outside the path of totality, skywatchers in the continental U.S. saw a partial solar eclipse, in which the moon appears to take a bite out of the sun’s disk.
