On Monday, April 8, Estella Courtyard at Pomona College was bustling with students, professors, families with children and furry friends as Claremont’s skies treated onlookers to a partial solar eclipse.
The grassy and open gathering featured space-related songs, solar and lunar-themed snacks and special solar eclipse eyeglasses.
A whiteboard featured a direct image of the sun experiencing an eclipse, projected by a 6-inch Orion telescope. Francisco Mercado, a first-year postdoctoral student in Pomona’s physics and astronomy department, oversaw the contraption.
Mercado emphasized the event’s goal of promoting inclusivity while viewing the eclipse.
“The mission of the event is to get as many eyes on the sun here as possible,” Mercado said. “Also doing it safely is very important.”
Solar eclipse glasses and handheld viewers were available for guests to borrow. These safety precautions were a necessity, as directly looking at the sun to view the eclipse can cause serious eye damage.
Along with these eclipse viewers, guests had the opportunity to make pinhole cameras, allowing them to observe crescent-shaped shadows by simply punching holes into sheets of paper.
Solar and cosmic-themed songs by the Beatles, such as “Here Comes the Sun” and “Across the Universe” added to the celestial ambiance.
Live broadcasts from Pomona’s Brackett Observatory and the Griffith Observatory were displayed on two large flat-screen televisions, allowing attendees to observe the eclipse in detail. Both observatories, located in Southern California, were outside of the eclipse’s path of totality, where, for a few moments, the moon completely covered the view of the sun. This eclipse’s totality was twice as long as the eclipse in 2017.
Once the eclipse reached its peak at 11:13 a.m., the light faintly dimmed and the onlookers experienced a slight chill.
Event guests had the opportunity to learn about the science behind a solar eclipse from a talk by Professor Alma Zook, a professor of physics at Pomona. Zook, who has seen a total of five solar eclipses, explained that the moon’s elliptical orbit and the three-dimensional nature of our solar system make solar eclipses rare. Specific alignment conditions between the sun, moon and Earth are necessary for an eclipse to occur.
Zook explained her love of astronomy began at a young age.
“My parents tell me that I was so fascinated by the way Saturn looked in the telescope that I decided then and there that I wanted to be an astronomer,” Zook said.
Kyle Thompson, a visiting assistant professor at Harvey Mudd College and self-proclaimed “eclipse enthusiast,” expressed his excitement for the event despite only viewing the partial eclipse.
“It’s the next best thing to actually being in Texas or New York, where we would be in the path of totality,” Thompson said “Plane ticket prices to where you see the path of totality are so high right now.”
Some professors let their classes out early or brought them outside to witness the event. At the eclipse’s peak there were very few empty spots available for sitting.
Denson Camp PO ’24 described how the dimming of the sunlight created an altered world around him.
“The vibes, because of the subtle change in light, are a little bit different,” Camp said. “It feels a little bit witchy. I feel like I am drawn to the shared childlike wonderment that’s happening.”
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