Hundreds of students and community members flocked to the Pentacrest to observe a nearly total solar eclipse on Monday.
The UI Department of Physics and Astronomy set up three telescopes behind a booth of polarized eclipse glasses but soon ran out of the special glasses. Long lines formed behind the telescopes, where viewers could see the orange sliver of the sun getting slowly covered by the moon.
The eclipse reached its peak at 2:01 pm, where onlookers remarked that the sun resembled “a fingernail.” The Pentacrest became briefly colder and windier, with the sky darkening. The eclipse lasted from 12:45 to 2:20.
A group of Iowa students watches the solar eclipse on Monday, April 8, 2024. Hundreds of people came to the Pentacrest to watch the partial eclipse.