Taking advantage of the beautiful grounds, many Hackley students scattered around the school on Monday, April 8th, 2024 to view a remarkable phenomenon: a solar eclipse.
A solar eclipse happens when the moon passes perfectly between the Sun and the Earth, thereby casting a shadow on parts of the Earth and blocking the face of the sun from viewers. This phenomenon occurs about every three years but is typically only visible from the middle of the ocean or the earth’s poles, and goes unnoticed by most. Students gathered on Akin Common, Pickert Field, and the Quad to see this once-in-a-lifetime experience.
The solar eclipse began at 2:11 p.m., reached its maximum coverage point at 3:25 p.m., and ended at around 4:36 p.m. At the eclipse’s maximum coverage point (~90%), a few Cirro-level clouds were present but these high, thin clouds didn’t prevent the students from viewing the event. In the Westchester area, the maximum coverage was about 90%, but other regions experienced the eclipse in totality.
While it is never recommended to stare directly at the sun without proper protection, it is imperative that during a solar eclipse viewers do their best to not stare at the sun without ISO-certified (International Organization for Standardization) solar viewing glasses. It can be extremely dangerous to look at the eclipse without proper glasses because it may cause permanent eye damage, essentially burning a hole in the retina and causing a black spot in one’s vision.
The school provided ISO-certified solar viewing glasses that students were able to pick up from their homeroom teachers. Both middle school, Junior Varsity, and Varsity indoor and outdoor sports were pushed back to later times for safety reasons.
Students were already on edge, anticipating yet another natural phenomenon after the shock of a 4.8 magnitude earthquake a few days prior.
