MSU students make best of cloud-covered solar eclipse viewing
STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – MSU students got the opportunity to watch the once-in-a-generation event occur on campus.
Mississippi State University had a solar eclipse watch party inside of the theater in the Bost Building.
The eclipse was scheduled to occur at 1:56 p.m.
Everyone who attended was able to get free eclipse glasses to watch the eclipse safely.
The event was originally scheduled outside on the drill field but changed due to weather and atmospheric conditions.
Bob Swanson, the physics professor at MSU, said how special this eclipse is even with the changing of plans.
“Solar eclipses occur when the moon is in the new moon phase,” Swanson said. “New moons occur all the time, every month we have a new moon, but eclipses only occur on rare occasions. They’re pretty big events and that’s why we have this big party.” “Even with the rain, it’s still an opportunity to understand why eclipses occur if you have to have the moon passing between the earth and the sun and it’s kind of fun to think about and also to appreciate the fact that we can predict these things we know not only that this was coming we know the next coming, August 12, 2045, and that’s a really interesting mathematical and orbital mechanical study that students can become very interested in.”
The last solar eclipse that passed over the lower 48 states in the U.S. was August 21, 2017.
The next total solar eclipse passing over the U.S. will be August 22, 2044, and the next eclipse that will come across the lower 48 states in the U.S. will be August 12, 2045.
