ADAMS, Mass. — It's not every day an astronomical event coincides with the first day of school.
But for Berkshire Arts and Technology Public Charter School students, Monday's partial eclipse was a chance to view something special together before dismissal.
"This is just a blast," new Executive Director Jay White said. "It is not as good as being in the path of totality but just look around — they are just so excited."
White, a former astrophysics professor, shared his excitement with the school community and made sure each student and faculty member had a set of eclipse glasses to safely view the event.
The students themselves were excited to end their first school day watching the moon slide across the sun.
"I know that it is when the moon covers the sun and casts a shadow on the earth," said Elijah Archer. "And it will make you blind."
Student Ollie Walter was thankful for the special glasses.
"It’s hurting my eyes and it's giving me a headache but I think it is going to look like Halloween."
Student Ashlyn Marcio said she was recently in Jackson, Wyo., which is directly under the eclipse.
"Everywhere you went, they were selling glasses. There was a lot of hype," she said. "There was way more action. Down there were signs everywhere, but this is still cool."
The eclipse was barely a blip in the Northeast and only covered about 65 percent to 70 percent of the sun, depending on where you were. Williams College had the event beginning about 1:23 p.m. and ending at 3:57 for North County, with the midpoint at 2:43.
Viewing through eclipse, or solar filter, glasses and similar filters, the sun was bright spot with a bite out of the bottom of it. But anyone out during the day probably wouldn't even have noticed anything happening.
Communities along the path of totality, which stretched from Oregon to South Carolina, saw the day turn completely to night as the moon's orbit crossed with the sun's. The last total eclipse over the contiguous United States was in 1979, but could only be viewed in the Northwest. The last time one followed a similar path across the mainland was in 1918.
However, another total eclipse will cross the United States in 2024 from south to north, coming much closer to New England and crossing over western New York and Burlington, Vt.
White said although it would have been great to view the eclipse in Tennessee, he was excited to share the experience with the children.
"I have been waiting for this eclipse for 25 years and I am from Tennessee originally and I thought I would be close to the family farm," he said. "But here I am in the Berkshires here at this wonderful school."
If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.
Your Comments
iBerkshires.com welcomes critical, respectful dialogue. Name-calling, personal attacks, libel, slander or foul language is not allowed. All comments are reviewed before posting and will be deleted or edited as necessary.
No Comments
Adams Welcomes New Officer; Appoints Housing Authority Board Member
By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
Officer Cole Desroches recently graduated from the Police Academy.
ADAMS, Mass. — The Selectmen welcomed the newest member of the Adams Police Department, Officer Cole Desroches, on Wednesday evening.
Desroches graduated from the Police Academy on March 22 in the top tier in his class. He's currently in the field training program and assigned to Sgt. Curtis Crane. He attended Hoosac Valley High School and Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.
"He's going to serve and protect the town of Adams very well," said Crane, who with Sgts. Matthew Wright and Gregory Onorato stepped in to introduce the new officer while Chief R. Scott Kelley was on vacation.
"We don't often get an opportunity to kind of talk about, frankly, some of the positive things that are happening in town and one of the many things that I feel are positive with are the Adams Police Department," said Town Administrator Jay Green. "We are right now at full staff. We have a full complement of officers. We have a chief who just resigned a three-year contract. ... We have four very capable sergeants (including Donna Malloy)."
The force consists of the chief, the four sergeants, a full-time detective and 11 patrol officers. It also has a new position in Cpl. Joshua Baker who is responsible for training and keeping staff equipped.
"We're on the cutting edge of ensuring that we have proper training in a very changing environment with law enforcement," continued Green. "And we have a nice complement of officers and we have a well-respected detective who handles some very complicated cases."
He called out the half-dozen officers who attended the meeting for the work they're doing as well as the K9 unit.
Desroches graduated from the Police Academy on March 22 in the top tier in his class. He's currently in the field training program and assigned to Sgt. Curtis Crane.
click for more
Michael Wynn, who was selected in January to run the center, submitted a level operating budget of $57,500 but said he could pull funding from different lines to ensure there was money for advertising this fall.
click for more
The Selectmen on Wednesday night voted to award the bid to Mackin Construction Co. Inc. of Greenfield, which plans to invest $11 million to build out 20 or more one- and two-bedroom apartments in the three-story classroom wing that parallels Columbia Street.
click for more
The Selectmen two weeks ago had requested the utility appear before the board after receiving numerous complaints over flickering lights, including in Town Hall.
click for more
Taylor Garabedian scored a team-high 22 points and grabbed five rebounds, and Abby Scialabba scored 16 points for the ‘Canes, who got 16 points, nine rebounds and four assists from Ashlyn Lesure. click for more