Eclipse dazzles Arizona
Thrilled gazers pack state’s schools, learning centers
Thousands of people crowded onto Arizona State University’s Hayden Lawn Monday morning to watch the partial solar eclipse.
Sonja Wanebo of Paradise Valley and her 17-year-old daughter, Grace, arrived at 7:15 a.m., two hours before the eclipse started, to make sure they were able to get solar glasses to watch the event.
They didn’t want to miss the rare opportunity to see the eclipse, and the school Grace attends wasn’t letting students outside for safety reasons. So the pair came to ASU’s Tempe campus instead.
Armed with bottled water and solar glasses, they gazed at the sun in the 93-degree heat as the solar eclipse began short-
ly after 9:13 a.m.
Monday marked the first time a total solar eclipse crossed the continental United States from coast to coast in 99 years. Arizona saw only a twothirds eclipse, which was at times blocked by scattered clouds. But an estimated 5,000 to 6,000 who gathered at ASU for an event sponsored by the School of Earth and Space Exploration weren’t disappointed in what they saw.
Some ASU students skipped class, joining families who drove in from across the Valley to witness the rare event. Organizers at ASU quickly ran out of the 2,500 solar glasses they handed out, but those attending shared the dark shades with others. At one point, the line to view the eclipse through telescopes on Hayden Lawn stretched to more than 90 people.
“I remember viewing an eclipse with my grandpa. I really wanted them to experience it,” said Tiffany Zehring of Mesa, who brought her three children to the university: 9-year-old Macie, 11-yearold Hailey and 14-year-old Mady.
Rachael Rosenstein, a 22-year-old graduate student at ASU, set up a tripod on Hayden Lawn and tried to take photos of the eclipse.
“I just didn’t want to miss the opportunity,” she said.
J’Neil Cottle, a 23-yearold graduate student at ASU, gazed at the sun shortly before the peak of the eclipse with her mother, Kristin Cottle of Gilbert.
“This is the first one I’ve seen. It’s awesome,” J’Neil Cottle said. Scattered clouds at times got in the way of the eclipse over ASU’s Tempe campus. But the clouds parted frequently to allow people to see the partial eclipse through solar glasses.
Sonja and Grace Wanebo were glad they braved the heat and stayed more than three hours for the peak of the eclipse.
A cheer went up from the crowd at 10:33 a.m.
“It’s amazing. It’s incredible,” Sonja Wanebo said.
“It’s surreal,” her daughter said.
The solar eclipse was a schoolwide event at Canyon Springs School in Phoenix as students, teachers and administrators gathered out on the playground and fields to experience the event.
Partial cloud cover blocked the eclipse for part of the morning, but that did not dampen the excitement as students shouted and cheered when the eclipse did become visible.
“I was excited because this is my first time seeing a solar eclipse,” thirdgrade student Ava Rowley said. “I was always looking in my brain at what it was going to look like so now I get so see it.”
Students compared the eclipse to everything from an orange toenail to a croissant, with most students saying it looked like a bloody moon. Seventhand eighth-grade students, who got permission from their parents to bring phones to school, also got the opportunity to become citizen scientists using NASA’s GLOBE Observer app. Using the app, students entered data about the weather conditions and clouds and took photos of the sky.
“It was like being a scientist almost,” eighthgrade student Tate Williams said. “It was just super awesome.”
Fourth-grade math teacher Christine Rowlan took the lead organizing the event in honor of her science-loving brother-inlaw, who passed away in March.
“He really wanted to see this eclipse,” Rowlan said. “So in his memory I was like, ‘I’m going to make this happen for our school.’ “
She then set up a GoFundMe to help cover the costs of the glasses. Rowlan said the GoFundMe exceeded the $400 needed in just four hours. After that she bought the glasses and the school focused on educating the students about the eclipse and safety leading up the event.
“I’m emotional now,” Rowlan said as the students viewed the eclipse. “I’m just excited they have this experience. Hopefully they’ll remember it.”
The eclipse also drew people out early, sometimes hours before the event was to begin.
Officials at the Arizona Science Center in downtown Phoenix said the first guest lined up shortly before 5 a.m., a full four hours before the eclipse began. The science center handed out 500 solar eclipse glasses, and officials estimate at least 2,000 people came in to participate in telescope viewing and other eclipse activities.
“We definitely got more than we anticipated,” said Sari Custer, the center’s vice president of curiosity. “People were in such a great mood to celebrate science. It really brought people together.”