Millions of Americans looked to the sky on Monday to witness the total solar eclipse, and at Salt Lake Community College’s Taylorsville Redwood campus, about 85 students and employees came out to share the experience.
The college’s physics department and the American Society of Civil Engineers organized the gathering. They provided four telescopes with filters and protective eyewear for those in attendance to safely view the eclipse, as well as posters that explained the celestial phenomenon. Computers were also available for people to research any questions they had and check updates on the path of the eclipse.
Physics lab coordinator Janalee Harrison, who helped organize Monday’s gathering, said viewing the eclipse is an opportunity to bring society together for a collective experience.
“I think it’s important that everyone be told about and offered an opportunity to observe an eclipse,” Harrison said. “It’s a natural phenomenon that can bring the human race together … No two sets of eyes saw the same photons. In this way, the event is individual but unifying. Only together, through combined experience, is the event whole. The sum of the observations makes it complete.”
All eclipses occur on a predictable cycle. The next solar eclipse will be an annular eclipse — in which the moon passes the sun but doesn’t completely cover the sun’s disk — slated to take place on Oct. 2, 2024, visible in parts of South America.
For those who didn’t catch Monday’s total solar eclipse, which trekked across North America, the wait for another chance will be long. The next time that the United States will be in the path of totality again is Aug. 12, 2045.
