Melton Observatory holds eclipse watch party for USC students

COLUMBIA, SC (WOLO) — The Melton Observatory located on USC’s campus held a watch party for Monday’s solar eclipse, with plenty of students turning out for the fun.

Just off of USC’s Horseshoe, the observatory offered students a better view of the rare event and let them see the eclipse up close, through high powered telescopes with “hydrogen alpha filters” — giving the sun a red appearance.

Down below, folks without eclipse glasses were able to enjoy the sight through devices called “Sunspotters” — which use lenses and mirrors to show a projection of the sun’s image.

Physics Professor David Tedeschi says another easy way to enjoy an eclipse is by grabbing a colander from the kitchen.

“One of my favorite methods is just using a colander, I brought this from home, and it acts, with all the pinholes, and you can look at the image that the solar eclipse warrants by looking at all the images from each one of the holes. Each hole in the colander produces an image on the screen, this way we don’t have to look directly at the sun yet we get to enjoy many copies,” says Tedeschi.

Liam Van Syckle is the University’s Astronomy Club President.

“You know you kind of forget how awe inspiring it is, to know that we are in such an amazing and expansive, not just galaxy but universe, if you really extend it, and it’s really exploring everything that’s out there, it’s just really incredible to see what’s out there,” says Van Syckle.

Monday’s eclipse is extra special for Physics Grad Student Nibir Talukdar.

“Yea so actually my research kind of involves with the sun, so when the sun is glowing, it’s actually having the energy through nuclear fusion, and there are a lot of particles called neutrinos which are produced in the sun, so I mainly work with that, and now being able to see a solar eclipse, it feels really nice as well,” says Talukdar.

According to NASA, the next solar eclipse will take place in August, 2044.