Eclipse Viewing Party Draws Hundreds to Caltech
October 16, 2023
Several hundred visitors flocked to Caltech's athletic fields on the morning of Saturday, October 14, to watch a partial solar eclipse, with the moon's shadow obscuring up to 71 percent of the sun over a two-hour span.
Attendees, who received free solar glasses to view the event safely, spread out picnic blankets and stood in line to peer through telescopes and view demonstrations given by Caltech students and postdocs. They also got a chance to hear astrophysics graduate student Ivey Davis and Gabriel Muro, postdoctoral scholar research associate in physics, deliver lectures nearby in the Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics on "Understanding Solar Eclipses and Solar Research at Caltech."
From left, Cassidy Magnus, Ally Uyetanaka, Olivia Ta, Solana Lilly, four high school students who traveled from Temecula for the Saturday morning event, watch the eclipse on the athletic field with several hundred participants.
Shina Adegoke (left), postdoctoral scholar research associate in physics, and astrophysics grad student Sam Rose set up a telescope before the eclipse begins.
A boy, one of several dozen children who attended the viewing party, peers through a telescope to see the eclipse, as well as several sunspots speckling the sun.
A kitchen colander is used to mimic the optics of a pinhole camera multiplied many times over to cast crescent-shaped images of the eclipse.
A young girl peers into a Solarscope, which reflects a magnified image of the eclipse onto a white sheet inside a shaded box.
Using free solar glasses provided by volunteers, visitors were able to safely view the event in which, locally, 71 percent of the sun was eclipsed by the moon.