As the sky turned dark, students were left in awe as they watched the moon cover the sun.
During the eclipse on April 8, students were led to the football field to experience a solar eclipse, which took place around 1:30 p.m and lasted around two-and-a half hours. While our area was in the Penumbra and 97% of the sun was covered by the moon, other areas were able to experience a total solar eclipse, and experience a totality.
Before the eclipse began, students were provided with glasses, and safety instructions in 8th hour. The Wentzville School District provided these specialized eclipse glasses for all students throughout the district, which even included faculty and staff members.
“I think it was amazing how the Wentzville School District thought of the staff members when distributing eclipse glasses,” WSD executive assistant of students and schools Debbie Sethaler said.
Many students have experienced an eclipse before. While some students were too young to remember the one that took place in August of 2017, others were excited to experience this one of a kind event again.
“Getting to see it again is really cool because most people don’t get to see an eclipse more than once,” junior Marissa Varga said.
Students were excited to experience an eclipse once again. Not only students, but staff members were also excited to experience the eclipse.
“I love how it gets light to dark so quickly in the matter of minutes. And the quick change in temperature,” staff member Mr. Kevin Haynes said.
As the skies darkened, students were able to experience darkness in the middle of the day. And some students who traveled south may have even experienced darker skies.
Solar eclipses tend to take place every one to three years in various places around the globe, however, they are super rare to occur in the same location where people can see it more than once in their lifetime. The next total solar eclipse to cross throughout North America (but not visible in Missouri) is set to be on Aug. 23, 2044. This means that most people could possibly never experience an eclipse again.
And with this information, people all over the United States traveled to the totality zones so they could experience a once in a lifetime event.
These totality zones were located in the southern part of Missouri along with other states that contained totality zones.
Eclipses are expected in our future, but nothing is certain as NASA continues to study the moon and Earth’s paths throughout orbit. Many people are left wondering if they will be able to experience this atmospheric phenomenon again.
