Merced College students observe solar eclipse

Dozens of students and faculty gathered on the Merced College campus Thursday to get a peek at the roughly 90-minute solar eclipse.

The Merced College Geology and Earth Sciences Club sponsored the gathering, which used special glasses, a solar telescope and a projector to allow anyone interested to see the partial eclipse safely.

“I think it’s important for people to know what’s happening in the sky,” said Robert Davies, an astronomy professor at the college. “And, it’s fun.”

An eclipse occurs when the shadow of one celestial body passes over another. In Thursday’s case, the moon passed in front of the sun. Looking into the sun can be dangerous and seriously damage the human eye, so the club used dark glasses made of a special film and a projector to give students and others a look at the eclipse.

Students oohed and aahed as they used the glasses to watch the black shadow pass in front of the reddish sun.

Eclipses happen every year but are not visible from all parts of the Earth at the same time. The next partial solar eclipse that will be visible in Merced will be Aug. 21, 2017.

This story was originally published October 23, 2014 at 6:13 PM with the headline "Merced College students observe solar eclipse."