On Monday April 8th 2024, BHS had an early dismissal due to the event of the solar eclipse. The solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes in front of the sun in the middle of the day. The moon is 400 times smaller than the sun but 400 times closer to the earth than the sun is. That is why when the moon passes the sun it appears to be the same size as the sun and covers it entirely. Causing it to become pitch dark in the midst of the daytime.
The last solar eclipse was coast-to-coast in August 2017. The eclipse will be on a diagonal angle from Maine to Texas, the eclipse will go through fifteen states across this diagonal. The actual eclipse itself will go on for over two hours but it will only be able to be seen for four minutes. It will start at 2:09 and the maximum of the eclipse will occur at 3:24 and come to an end at 4:34.
There are roughly about 2,380 solar eclipses of all kinds every 1,000 years. In the U.S. there is no set duration of time in between the eclipses, for example, the last one before 2017 was in 1979. Although the eclipses occur very frequently, they only appear in certain parts of the world, making each time they come even more important.
The reason the school will be closing early is so that kids won’t accidentally look up into the sun as they are exiting the building. If anyone looked up into the sun during the time of the eclipse without the proper glasses, if the harmful ultraviolet and infrared light reach your eyes., it could cause burns within the retina.
There were mixed reviews on how the eclipse went. Senior James Mertz said, “It was a dud and like most things in life it was underwhelming.” Clearly he took no interest in watching the eclipse and analyzing what was happening around him. Teacher Mr. Malossi stated, “I have always loved the planets and been interested in astronomy. I loved the eclipse, I watched it with my kids.” He thoroughly enjoyed watching the eclipse and considered it a bonding experience with his family.
That’s all folks hope you had a great eclipse day!
