West Virginians view historic solar eclipse

INSTITUTE, W.Va. — The rare sighting of a solar eclipse Monday left many in the Charleston area astounded at what they saw.

“It’s really cool to see something this spectacular,” said J.D. Thompson, a student at West Virginia State University.

The eclipse arrived in West Virginia at 2:35 p.m. The sun wasn’t completely covered. In Charleston, the moon blocked the sun at 90 percent. McDowell County saw more of a coverage at 93 percent.

Thompson, who serves as president of the WVSU Space Club, helped coordinate a viewing event at the university. Several viewing areas were set up on campus including a telescope, a card board cut out and a tent area. Protective eclipse glasses and polarized slides were provided.

“At first, I didn’t know what to expect,” said Colby Brogan, WVSU senior student. “I was surprised at how dark it got here. It felt like it was 6 o’clock in the afternoon, but it was still right in the middle of the day.”

Jason Frazer, a Charleston doctor, traveled to Clemson, South Carolina, to get a better view. He said, from where he watched, the sun was completely covered by the moon.

“This odd, almost sunset feeling — it was all around us,” he described in a phone interview to MetroNews. “You can look in every direction and see pink clouds off in the distance and then up in the sky, the sun was blotted out with the corona all around shining. It was beautiful.”

At totality, Frazer said it was nothing like he had ever seen before.

“This was a very unique, rare event that someone gets to see in their life,” he said.

Leading up to the historic event, experts warned people about the dangers of staring into the sunlight with the naked eye. Jack Magan, a physics professor at WVSU, was at Monday’s viewing to hand out eclipse glasses.

Magan said people don’t typically look at the sun, but the eclipse was an exception.

“It’s always dangerous to look at the sun. The sun will blind you,” Magan said. “The problem with the eclipse is not that the sun is any different, but that you are attracted to look at it. You make yourself look at it. You wouldn’t do that normally, so there’s lots of caution out there.”

Solar eclipses happen across the world, but has not occurred across the United States since 1918.

“They happen fairly often, but you got to be in the right place. You have to be in the shadow. The moon is a lot smaller than the Earth, so the shadow of the moon only covers a small region,” Magan said.

The next total solar eclipse over the United States will be in 2024.





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