A partial solar eclipse on Thursday has people looking forward to a total solar eclipse in the coming years.
MU Department of Physics and Astronomy hosted a viewing party Thursday afternoon at Laws Observatory so the community could catch a glimpse of the partial solar eclipse.
Ten-year-old Samuel Kingsley was at the event with his family and said he’s seen a blood moon before, but never a solar eclipse.
“It looked like someone bit the corner off the sun,” he said.
Samuel was just one of over 50 people who came out to watch the eclipse.
Director of Astronomy and Professor of Astrophysics Angela Speck helped organize the event and said she was happy with the turnout considering the weather.
“With it this cloudy, I’m impressed with how many people have come up here,” she said.
The eclipse started around 4:40 p.m. and lasted until the sun went down around 6 p.m. The sun could be seen off and on through the clouds.
The observatory offered telescopes with solar filters and special glasses for people to wear so they could watch the eclipse without hurting their eyes.
Speck said while partial solar eclipses are rare, she’s looking forward to an even more rare event happening over Columbia soon.
“Just under three years in August of 2017 there will be a total solar eclipse that comes right over Columbia,” Speck said. “We have actually convinced the Athletics Department, thank you Mike Alden, to let us use Faurot Field. So we will have an event where people will get to come and watch that whole event there and that’s when the moon will really cover the sun and we’ll see the whole thing.”
Speck said the last total solar eclipse over the continental U.S. was in 1979.