Solar eclipse: A once-in-a-lifetime experience?

(photo by MATT ANDERSON PHOTOGRAPHY / GETTY IMAGES)

This Monday, April 8th Walnut Grove got to experience the solar eclipse which is supposed to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
​by Emma Dickens and Cameron Parker

Before:
On Monday, April 8th Walnut Grove students were able to see the eclipse just as they got out of school. Though this is supposed to be a first-time experience many of the students have already seen the eclipse in elementary school. Tenth grader Leonardo Lopez says “Back in fourth grade, I was able to see the solar eclipse.” Most students were given glasses and saw the last solar eclipse during school.

Senior Abby Parker says, “Yeah my mom made me stay at home to see it, and it was kind of boring.” A lot of students do not care about the solar eclipse; they think it's boring and doesn't do anything, though they are correct that a solar eclipse is an event that they may never see again.

After:
After seeing the solar eclipse 9th grade teacher Mr. McGinty says, “It was interesting. I'm a science buff, and it was rather cool.” He is one, along with some of his students students, that had expectations set for something that didn't occur. Mr. McGinty states, “My expectations were not exactly right. Even though we weren't in the total eclipse, I still thought it would have been darker than it was.” Ninth grader Raigen Roberson also says, “I thought it was going to be way darker.” The expectation the interviewers had was for the eclipse to be much darker than it occurred.

Most of the predictions that the students had were not right, at what the outcome actually was going to be. Some of the students didn't even wear glasses when looking at the eclipse, but luckily it didn't do anything to their eyesight. But some students decided to not even watch this eclipse, even though this could happen again only a few more times​ in our lifetime.

Eclipse explained:
A solar eclipse happens when the moon moves between the Earth and the sun, blocking the view of the sun in its path. This event is “rare” because the orbits of the Earth around the sun and the moon around the Earth are not perfectly aligned. This causes the eclipse to be once every twenty years.

Though this event is supposed to be once in a lifetime, we have experienced an eclipse twice in six years. The paths for the solar eclipse to be visible in the United States are very rare and are the reason for the event being once in a lifetime with the alignment having to be almost perfect. The eclipse also has a certain path that determines whether you will get a full eclipse or not. In 2017 we were able to see a full eclipse which blocked out all of the sun and lasted for 4 minutes. This year we had a partial solar eclipse, so we still had a lot of visible light and the moon didn't cover the sun fully. Though this is our last solar eclipse for now we hope to see another in our lifetime.