2024 Eclipse

We viewed the 2024 April 8 total solar eclipse at the campus of SUNY Brockport, NY. Thanks to the students and administration for hosting this event and inviting the public to come and view the eclipse!

The event took place in a field next to Eunice Kennedy Shriver stadium, and the organizers had marked the path of the eclipse centerline that passed right through the field. See some pictures taken by the students covering the event.

Unfortunately, the sky was completely overcast during the eclipse and we did not directly observe the sun. However, as you can see in the video below, the effect of the moon's shadow was still dramatic as it quickly swept across the sky and darkened the scene.

Videos

Time lapse of approaching and entering totality - the scene at the viewing site. At about the 32 second mark in the video, they turned the streetlights off and we got the full effect of the darkness (except for people's phones).

Towards the north, we could see sunlight reflected from Lake Ontario hitting the undersides of the clouds that were darkened from the eclipse.

The scene at the viewing site as totality approached.

Photos

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Solar Telescope

In order to view the sun during the eclipse, we modified a Galileoscope to create a solar telescope to project an image of the sun so that it could be observed safely during the period leading up to totality.

Build your own solar telescope

Download a PDF of the telescope plans if you are interested in building one for yourself.

Approaching and entering totality - the view of the 2017 Eclipse through the solar telescope