A week after the eclipse viewing event at the track field on April 8, students are still talking about how disappointing it was only to see the sky turn black due to the cloudy weather.
Solar eclipses are, to much surprise, not rare, they occur every one to three years but are usually seen at the poles or in the middle of the ocean. But because of that same reason, they are so rare whenever they pass over the majority of the continent.
Physics teacher Mr. Kurzban said, ” At first glance, one might expect solar eclipses to occur during every new moon, but due to the tilt of the Moon’s orbit around Earth, they only occur about once every six months… And while partial eclipses are often dismissed as underwhelming, the difference between a partial and total solar eclipse is quite literally like night and day.”
As a school with a lot of Hindus, many did not observe or participate in watching the eclipse due to their religion. Some stated they stayed at home to pray and be with family for a good omen in the future, but for the ones at school, they sat in the foyer with other Hindu students and students who did not participate.
Junior Srilaasya said, “As part of my religion [Hinduism] we view the solar eclipse as something that warrants bad luck, so I stayed behind in the cafeteria to make sure I was not out during the eclipse.”
With how cloudy it was outside, some felt like it dulled the occasion a lot because they weren’t able to look at the sun at all.
“We made a binocular projection in our physics [2 AP] class so we could see the eclipse, but because of the clouds the light from the sun wasn’t bright enough to cast a projection onto the paper,” said senior Kayton.
Enjoying the break from classes and spending time with friends was for a couple the highlight of the eclipse viewing event.
Freshman Micaela said, “Even though the eclipse was underwhelming because I was really excited for my first, I had a lot of fun spending time with my friends during the 45-minute break we had.”
