Thousands view solar eclipse in Oneonta

Apr. 8—The total solar eclipse drew the eyes of thousands of people in Oneonta toward the sky Monday afternoon, as the moon overtook the sun for about four minutes.

Dozens of people chose Huntington Park to view the eclipse, including many families — several school districts had cancelled school Monday, opting to use unused snow or emergency days to cover the time off.

People brought lawn chairs to the park or sat on blankets on the ground. Others sat in the plaza at the top of the hill.

Protective eclipse viewing glasses were a hot commodity Monday.

Huntington Memorial Library adult programming librarian Ariel Turrigiano said Monday that the library had 500 pairs of glasses available at the beginning of the day.

Library staff gave out 250 glasses in the morning and saved 250 for the actual event, but demand was high.

"We were out of the first 250 within like an hour and a half," Turrigiano said. "We didn't even make it for an hour" after starting to hand out the second batch of glasses around 2 p.m.

People seeking glasses showed up early and formed a line that wrapped around the building, she said.

The sun dipped in and out of sight as cloud cover obscured the sun at times. At 3:24 p.m., many people cheered as the moon covered 97-99% of the sun, the maximum coverage for the region.

Campus events

The city's two colleges, SUNY Oneonta and Hartwick College, hosted public viewing events on their respective campuses.

At Hartwick, people gathered along Founder's Way for an unobstructed view of the celestial event from the campus's hilltop location.

It was a special anniversary for the school — on April 8, 1927, the college moved to Oneonta.

Meanwhile at SUNY Oneonta, thousands of students and visitors attended a viewing party on campus, with three locations of activities.

At the AJ Read Science Discovery Center, which drew 2,200 visitors Monday, volunteers hosted hands-on activities for kids and handed out free eclipse glasses.

According to numbers from the school, 275 glasses were distributed to visitors in just the first 10 minutes, and 600 glasses were distributed by the end of the first hour. The school ran out after two hours.

In total, the college gave out 1,500 glasses Monday, which featured a design by SUNY Oneonta student Victoria Hallenbeck.

Anna Rutenbeck, coordinator of science outreach activities, said staff started planning eclipse events in the fall — building on activities the science center hosted for a a partial eclipse Oct. 14 — and began preparations in earnest in January.

"We had a pretty good idea of some of the things that would work," she said. "Various offices on campus have also been immensely helpful, like the president's office helped us figure out how much seating we were going to need and where to put that."

One of the science center's goals was to make its activities accessible to anyone who wanted to experience the eclipse, particularly those with visually or hearing impairments.

The college received a LightSound, a sonification device that turns the changing light waves from the eclipse into sound, therefore making the eclipse listenable, from the Sound Lab at Harvard University.

There also was a tactile guide to the eclipse for people who are blind or visually impaired, which explained what's happening with Monday's eclipse and showed the paths of totality for the last three eclipses across the United States.

"One of my real passions is making sure that science is accessible to everyone," Rutenbeck said. "Accessibility to the blind and visually impaired has been my first project in my position here."

The outdoor pathways and quads of the SUNY Oneonta campus were filled with even more students, staff and community members to catch a view of the solar eclipse.

In the President's Garden, spectators used telescopes fitted with a solar filter that blocks out a majority of the sunlight to the point where it's safe.

Skyler Reed, a 22-year-old junior, assisted with aligning the telescopes with the sun. Despite the cloud coverage, he was excited to educate the public about the science behind the solar eclipse.

"I really just love astronomy and science," Reed said, "and I was asked to help out with this. I felt like it was a good opportunity to be able to educate the public about science, and be able to see the eclipse for myself."

Dr. Valerie Rapson, SUNY Oneonta professor of physics and astronomy, is working on a physics education research paper with scientists in Europe on novel ways of presenting astronomy to the public, including how people engage with a disco ball while looking while viewing the sun.

The little mirrors on a disco ball act as projectors. When the eclipse comes, people were able to watch the eclipse through the projections off the disco ball.

"We're just trying to get a sense of, do people notice the disco ball?" Rapson said. "Do they engage with it? Do they ask questions about it? and if things go well, we hope to promote the use of it for future eclipses as an inexpensive and fun way to get people's attention during a solar eclipse event."

Patricia Levis, SUNY Oneonta human development and family studies adjunct assistant professor, visited the telescopes with her husband, Brian Levis.

"I'm just fascinated by all things astronomical," she said. "I think it's special because we all get to share in it in some way. It's just a shared experience."

She also praised Rapson's dedication to bringing eclipse viewing to the community.

"I follow her and everything she does because she's the smartest person I know," she said.