Memories of the 2024 Total Solar Eclipse

After over a year of planning, days of distributing eclipse glasses, and hours of preparing solar filters for the telescopes, the BGSU Physics and Astronomy Department brought the community together to view three minutes of stunning totality.  

Viewers gathered on April 8^th at the Doyt L. Perry Stadium to watch the total solar eclipse, a phenomenon that only happens one to three times a year, and often in remote places on Earth. On this special day, thousands of people gathered to walk around student- and organization-led booths, jump in the bouncy houses, learn more about astronomy, and of course, watch the eclipse.

One of the effects of a total solar eclipse is a palpable drop in temperature as the Moon covers the Sun. The weather station at the Stadium and the Chemistry Department here at BGSU gathered separate data of the outside temperature as the day went on, which when plotted, shows that dip in temperature.

As a faux twilight donned the sky and the moon finally covered the Sun, cheers erupted. The viewers, finally able to take of their glasses, stood and watched in awe. This type of eclipse won’t occur in Bowling Green again until 2099.  

        -Hannah Means BS'24

• Main BGSU eclipse page for 2024
• WBGU eclipses for kids videos and workbook
• BGSU Eclipse Speaker Series -- recorded talks from across campus
• Members of the History Department created the Eclipsing History podcast
• Media coverage before, during, and after the eclipse:
  • WBGU Journal -- Kate, Andy, and Emily Freeman Brown
  • WBGU Journal -- Chris Dietz & student composers
  • WBGU Journal -- Wood County EMA and planning
    
  • BGSU News -- Students prepare for the eclipse
    
  • BGSU News -- Eclipsed in Wonder
  • WTOL drone video
• In the weeks preceeding the eclipse, physics majors Cameron Keller and Devin Darr used BGSU telescopes and a video camera to capture practice images of the Sun. They used specialized softward to select out the sharpest images and combine them into this highly magnified view of a group of sunspots near the edge of the Sun's disk. On eclipse day, they videoed the top of the BGSU Planetarium dome from the PSLB rooftop to see if the elusive shadow bands appeared (alas).
• Original Music Compositions by BGSU students, organized by Dr. Chris Dietz and presented at the Doyt Perry Stadium on eclipse day with the help of WBGU staff (all files are MP3 format):
  
  • Cruz Stock -- Piece for an Eclipse (14 MB)
    
  • Elijah Stewart -- Totality (8 MB)
    
  • Yeonsuk Jung -- When the Serpent the Swallowed the Sun (13 MB)
    
  • Jacob McFarland -- Sunrise from Space (15 MB)
    
  • Hayden Mesnick -- Drone Piece 9561 (27 MB)
    
  • Sam Scheele -- Kuiper Belt (17 MB)
    
  • Lukas Bass -- Twilight (14 MB)
    
  • Kyle Bergler -- The Ocean Above Us (12 MB)
    
  • Colin Hochstetler -- Eclipse (18 MB)
    
• Activities presented by BGSU students at the Doyt on eclipse day (mostly in PDF format):
  • Temperature at the Doyt (with graphs and details) on this warm spring day, by Xiaohong Tan
    
  • Eclipse Day Star Chart and Draw Your Own Constellation by Emily Buesling
  • Eclipses on Other Planets by Lizzie Ryder
    
  • Lunar Geology and Features by Taylor Alday 
    
  • Learning from Solar Eclipses by Avery Benjamin
  • Ancient Civilizations trifold by Alix Hilger
  • Mythical Trivia by Brad Russell
  • What's Eating the Sun & responses by Claire Haas and John Paroda
  • Craft the Cosmos with Vietnamese To He by the Vietnam Student Assoc.
  • Eclipsing Sexism: Women in Astronomy by Sarah Rainey & SCCS/WGSSP
  • Eclipsing History by Alex Echart & Dept of History
  • Eclipse Library Archives and moon pies by Liz Lauck & BGSU Libraries
    
  • Scale Model Solar System by David Heath & Kate Dellenbusch
  • Songs by Tonal Eclipse A Capella
    
  • Popular eclipse songs sung by Sakshi Gupta and Tiyin Olushola Alao
  • Eclipse Photography by Natalie LaMacchia
    
  • Pinhole Projection Art by Hallie Knorr
  • Build a Pinhole Viewer by Theo Zacher & Chris Johnson
  • Shadow Bands by Julia Evangelista
  • Eclipse Coloring by Eva Mulloy & Sohan Muslim
  • Sounds of the Eclipse by Akul Rishi
    
  • Draw Your Eclipse Prediction by Natalie Murra
  • Eclipse puzzles and brain games by Sara Wadsworth & WBGU
  • Moon Phases Craft by Chloe Fry
  • Kids Eclipse Mask
    
  • Eclipse Stickers by Madie Martin and SPS
    
  • Where is My Hometown? 
    
  • The Sun's Spectrum 
    
  • Eclipses in History: Planet Vulcan to Relativity 
    
  • Where's the Next Eclipse?   
• Student volunteers, including Thompson Scholars, provided invaluable help:
  • Kiara Patrick, Lydia Gioiella, and Reese Minarchick helped distribute eclipse filter glasses and collect them for reuse in South America.
    
  • Abigail Kraynak and Mithilesh Mittameda presented eclipse activities like pinhole projectors showing partial-phase crescents to countless visitors including BGSU President Rogers. 
    
  • A group of Thompson Scholars set up a tent frame and punched countless holes to make a paper tent that created a crascade of crescents on visitors below -- our solution to the leafless trees of April.
• Many visitors set up their own telescopes and camera equipment to take photos of the eclipse.  Physics major Madie Martin took this photo of totality. BGSU alumnus Doug Balogh made this montage from his eclipse photo sequence taken in Indiana.
  
• Katie Douglas, John Laird and Marco Nardone showed visitors a magnified view of the sun using BGSU's 8-inch telescopes. Katie helped people take cell phone photos at the eyepiece, and captured many of her own.
  
• Key players from the College of Arts & Sciences: Kate Dellenbusch, Jasmine Gordon Schulz, Andy Layden, and Sue Sweeney (below)
  

Above: Astronomy professor Allen Rogel caputred the moon's shadow moving to the left (northeast) across the cirrus clouds during the last moments of totality at the Doyt. The small dot below-right of the eclipsed Sun is the planet Venus.

Thank you to everyone across campus who helped to make the BGSU eclipse experience happen!

It was a joy and honor to work with you!