At 2:25 p.m. Monday, Ball State students and faculty turned their heads toward the sky to view a total solar eclipse.
This was the first coast-to-coast solar eclipse in the United States in almost 100 years according to Joel Bryan, chairperson of the department of physics and astronomy.
“The last solar eclipse that had totality seen from the U.S. occurred in 1979, and wasn’t observable from much of the country,” Bryan said in an email. “It’s an event that doesn’t occur very often, and it’s something that everyone should want to experience.”
University students and staff alike gathered in clear spots across campus to view the eclipse. However, some of them wouldn’t have been able to view it at all if it weren’t for a cancelled or rescheduled class.
One student, senior Adam LeClers, viewed the eclipse on the University Green as a part of the viewing party.
“To be honest, I feel terribly mortal right now,” LeClers said. “I’m looking up at this phenomenon and I’m just kind of a quivering and confused caveman.”
Allison Griffith, a junior communications major, captured the eclipse on film because her Ball State Centennial immersive learning class was pushed back.
“I think it’s awesome because so many students involved in the class are photographers or videographers, and now we have the opportunity to capture the event, too,” Griffith said.
Sheryl Swingley, a journalism professor, ended her 2 p.m. class early to allow students to see the eclipse at its peak.
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“When the university announced it was going to give away glasses to watch the solar eclipse, and it would have a viewing party Monday from 2-3 p.m., the time of one of my classes, I decided to find a compromise,” Swingley said in an email. “So I emailed my 2 p.m. class and told them we’d have class Monday, but I would let them leave about 2:25 p.m. to watch the solar eclipse.”
While the eclipse only reached about 90 percent of its totality in Muncie, viewers could not look at it safely without a pair of protective glasses.
This means many Ball State Students would not have been able to view the eclipse if it weren’t for the 10,000 pairs of protective glasses that the university distributed at the Scramble Light Monday morning.
University employees were scheduled to hand out the glasses from 9-11 a.m. However, all 10,000 of the glasses were handed out to Ball State students and faculty, as well as Muncie locals, by 9:40 a.m.
Another student watching from the Green, Abby Quigley, a junior public relations and event planning and management major, said she felt a little underwhelmed.
“I was expecting more,” Quigley said. “I’m not really excited. Like, I expected it to be black or darker and it really just looks like a cloudy day.”
The Charles W. Brown Planetarium celebrated the day by showing its program Eclipse: The Sun Revealed at the top of every hour, which informed guests how to safely watch the eclipse.
Charles W. Brown Planetarium employees were also on the University Green loaning out solar glasses that the planetarium had purchased nearly a year in advance.
One of the workers, Sarah Vise, a junior majoring in physics and astronomy, said that it got so hectic students began stealing the glasses provided by the planetarium.
“It’s very chaotic,” said Vise. “People are so anxious to look up into the sky and so excited to look that I can’t enjoy it myself.”
Vise said she plans to be right where she was standing for the 2024 solar eclipse. At that time, the eclipse’s path of totality will pass directly over Ball State’s campus.
Andrew Smith and Garrett Looker contributed to this story.
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