ODU Contingent Helps Bring Eclipse into View
November 06, 2013
A group of Old Dominion University faculty and students took Pretlow Planetarium telescopes on the road Sunday morning to help about two dozen early risers at the Virginia Beach oceanfront see the partial solar eclipse visible in the mid-Atlantic region.
ODU astronomy graduate teaching assistant Filis Coba, graduate research assistant Mladen Dordevic, undergraduate teaching fellow Josh Frechem, and geophysics professor Declan De Paor set up solar filtered telescopes at the King Neptune Statue on 31st Street so that passersby and ODU students could take a close and safe look at the moon blocking a portion of the rising sun.
This eclipse was a rare hybrid variety that started off the East Coast of the United States as an annular eclipse, in which the sun is partially visible, before becoming a total solar eclipse in Africa.
"By the time of sunrise at Virginia Beach, the eclipse was past peak but nevertheless the bite out of the sun's lower half was very easy too see with the projecting scopes," said De Paor, who is the director of ODU's Pretlow Planetarium.