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All eyes were on the sky Monday afternoon — behind protective glasses, of course — as the Northeastern University community packed onto campus quads to watch a solar eclipse.
Thousands of students, faculty and staff packed Krentzman Quad and Centennial Common on the Boston campus. Hundreds more spilled out of buildings along Huntington Avenue and Columbus Avenue — and all points between.
It was a beautiful spring day with temperatures in the 60s.
Most had glasses, others held old-fashioned cardboard pinhole boxes and some used telescopes and cameras — all to catch a glimpse of the rare astronomical phenomenon. The next total solar eclipse with a coast-to-coast U.S. path won’t happen until 2045.
“We weren’t expecting this much of a crowd,” said graduate student Neha Budh as she and friends jostled for space among the crowd on Krentzman Quad. “We knew people would be excited, but didn’t expect this many.”
The moon passed between the sun and the Earth on Monday, resulting in a solar eclipse visible across much of North America.
Many of Northeastern’s campuses organized watch parties with the best views coming in Boston, Burlington and Nahant in Massachusetts, as well as Toronto, Charlotte, North Carolina and Portland, Maine — though partial views could be seen from Miami to Oakland, California.
In Boston, the partial eclipse began at 2:16 p.m. as the moon began moving from right to left in the western sky, starting at the lower right quadrant of the sun.
There was a crowd on hand to witness.
“I think it’s a really great outreach opportunity and a cool way to bring people together for science,” said Teddy Mercer, a Ph.D. student in physics.
Mercer was volunteering with the physics department, which along with two student groups had set up a variety of instruments on Krentzman Quad — ranging from a colander and “eclipsinators” that projected the image of the eclipse, to telescopes covered with solar filters.
There was even a livestream from a radio telescope on top of the Churchill Hall, which was measuring the brightness of the sun through the radio waves it emitted over the course of the event.
“We’re trying to direct people to safe ways of viewing the eclipse,” Mercer said. “Part of my role here is to tell people not to look without protective glasses.”
Gabby Montano and Aidan D’Alonzo had taken time off from their co-op at Harvard Medical School to join the physics department in viewing the eclipse.
“They’re bringing out all of the equipment — it’s a pretty big deal,” Montano said, as she stood on the steps of Dodge Hall.
Meanwhile, Mohan Manjunatha was watching the crowd from a perch on the stairs of Ell Hall, taking a breather from studying and waiting for a new batch of protective glasses to be distributed.
He said that it was nice to experience the event as a community.“I feel like it’s going to be good with a lot of people,” Manjunatha said. “It feels good with everybody here.”
But it wasn’t just on Krentzman Quad that Northeastern students, faculty and staff had gathered in Boston. Nearly every bit of green was covered on Centennial Common as well.
Sahasrajit Anantharamakrishnan, a graduate student in robotics, was eagerly anticipating the upcoming peak — when 92.55% of the sun would be covered.
“It’s beautiful, I haven’t seen a solar eclipse,” Anantharamakrishnan said.
Gianna Spring noted the eclipse taking effect.
“There’s the lack of light, it’s getting colder, it was a beautiful sunny day out, until now,” Spring said as the light began dimming and a breeze kicked up across the common.
Meanwhile, back at Krentzman, a news helicopter hovered overhead, a beach ball was floating among the crowd, and the students cheered as the eclipse peaked at 3:29 p.m.
“This was definitely better than my expectations,” said Jonathan Blazek, assistant professor of physics. “I expected physics students, a smattering of other people and a few passersby. It’s really great that people were so interested.”