MARQUETTE, Mich. (WZMQ) – The Upper Peninsula may have only had around 80% coverage of the solar eclipse, but that didn’t stop Marquette residents. The solar eclipse, although cloudy, came through the clouds on Monday for people to enjoy in the UP.
Organized by its Physics department, Northern Michigan University held an Eclipse viewing event, as the school shared the front lawn with students and even some community members seeing it for the first time.
“This is a first and I’m really excited and it’s so cool to see everybody here staring at the Universe,” commented Marquette Resident Dianne Patrick.
Students and faculty were handing out safety protection as the clouds started to clear for the event. “Weather’s not the best, but we have eclipse glasses that people can use to safely see the sun, your retna is very sensative to light, normally you can’t look at the sun for too long, without having to turn away,” commented Physics Department Head Dave Donovan.
“Yea the glasses are really cool cause you can look directly at it,” commented NMU Student Grace Solorzano. Some participants in Monday’s celestial phenomenon said events like that can open up more interest in astronomy.
“We were expecting community members maybe homeschool families that are involved in our programming but its really cool to see the NMU students, faculty, and staff out here, it just reminds me that life-long learning is a thing for everyone, let’s promote that for K-12 and let’s promote that for college as well,” commented STEM Education Consultant Renee Jewett.
The next total solar eclipse is expected to occur in August of 2044, just another 20 years until next.
