From The Tavern to outside Harbor Hall, students, faculty and staff craned their necks toward the sky on the first day of class. Check out our photo gallery, and some of the highlights of the eclipse.
By Timothy Fanning
If you missed the eclipse today on campus, don’t worry, you only have to wait six years.
An astronomical rarity, students, staff and faculty gathered around campus, craning their necks toward to sky as they watched the moon slowly pass in front of the sun over the course of two hours.
“Dude, this is so cool. Just imagine the entire night sky, with the sun, which is just small and orange. This is awesome,” said Alexis Tansilla, political science freshman, who was one of only 53 lucky students to get a pair of free solar glasses from the Department of Public Safety and Compliance.
“When I heard about this once-in-a-lifetime event, I really couldn’t pass it up. It’s hot out here, but the wait really wasn’t that bad,” said Victoria Taracena, a health science senior, who waited 20 minutes to get a pair of glasses.
Nearly 100 students lined up along Harborwalk in front of the University Student Center to collect solar glasses, but were disappointed after being turned away.
Bulls who couldn’t get their hands on a pair of eclipse glasses got creative with a pinhole projector they made themselves.
Sponsored by the Department of Public Safety and Compliance, and took place all around campus from 1 – 4:00 p.m.
The department set out eclipse maps, which began in Oregon and ended in South Carolina. Along the course of the eclipse, known as the path of totality, the sun appeared to be completely blocked out by the moon with only a thin corona of light visible.
In Tampa Bay, the moon blocked more than 80 percent of the Sun by 2:49 p.m.
Inspired by her love of astronomy, the event was spearheaded by Safety and Compliance Specialist Michelle Penn.
“I am a big of astronomy, and when I was six years old I absolutely fell in love with it. So to share my love, I wanted to give students the opportunity to experience what I fell in love with as a kid in the safest possible way,” she said. “It’s more popular than I would have ever imagined, and in six years we will definitely be ordering a bunch more glasses.”
Information for this article was gathered from The Tampa Bay Times.
