{"id":8,"date":"2018-01-09T09:51:42","date_gmt":"2018-01-09T17:51:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/fall-winter-2017\/?p=8"},"modified":"2022-01-10T10:39:29","modified_gmt":"2022-01-10T18:39:29","slug":"moon-shadow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/fall-winter-2017\/moon-shadow\/","title":{"rendered":"Moon Shadow"},"content":{"rendered":"

The crowd howled just as totality<\/strong> occurred. Over 80 Harvey Mudd alumni, family and friends expressed their frustration as the eclipsed sun disappeared behind a bank of clouds.<\/p>\n

The weather prediction for Charleston, South Carolina, on the day of the 2017 total solar eclipse had been upgraded to \u201cpartially cloudy\u201d from \u201clight rain.\u201d As the group gathered atop the Stars Rooftop and Grill Room, the sky was a brilliant blue threaded with puffy white clouds. During the early phases of the eclipse, the occasional cloud cover added both beauty and excitement to the event. Would the clouds fill the sky at totality? Or remain only partially obscuring the sun? Everyone was speculating. As the moon began to pass between the sun and Earth, a delicate swirled filigree of clouds was visible on the uncovered portion of the sun\u2019s surface.<\/p>\n

\"Illustration<\/a><\/figure>\n

When not staring at the sky with eclipse glasses pressed tightly to their faces, the attendees mingled and enjoyed sliders, crudites and numerous hors d\u2019oeuvres. Their motivations for attending were as varied as the Charleston weather predictions. Many came just for the eclipse. But one group\u2014 alumni who graduated in the mid-1960s and their spouses, all of whom have known each other since their college days\u2014came because they live on different coasts and don\u2019t get to hang out enough with each other. John Tiller \u201969 and his wife, Denise, stopped by on their way from Florida to Virginia, where they planned to do some genealogical research about their families.<\/p>\n

As 2:46 p.m. EDT neared, most of the group stood, holding their eclipse glasses over their eyes, necks craned to look up toward the southwest. The precise dark curve of the moon\u2019s edge nearly cut off the entire sun. The remaining crescent had turned from yellow to bright white. The air temperature dropped abruptly. The wind picked up. And just as the sun\u2019s crescent thinned to nothing, the clouds blocked the view.<\/p>\n

Fred Hollinger \u201965 remarked it was \u201cone of the coolest things I\u2019ve ever seen, and it took me until my mid-70s to see it.\u201d Hollinger felt that even reading up on the event didn\u2019t prepare him for what he experienced.<\/p>\n

\"Physics<\/a>
Physics professor Nicholas Breznay \u201902 and Jakim Johnson \u201919 watch the eclipse from Claremont.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bruce Worster \u201964 had a response which other attendees echoed: \u201cI thought it was great\u2014except for the clouds.\u201d Both he and Dan Nelson \u201964 were disappointed not to see either the corona or stars. Denis Moskowitz \u201995 was sorry to miss totality. \u201cBut seeing a crescent sun was really a unique experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Priya Donti \u201915 said, \u201cIt was really cool to have the 360 sunset and also lightning on one side.\u201d Natasha Parikh \u201914 agreed. Both alumni admitted to taking small peeks without their glasses just before totality when the sun was an amazing copper-colored crescent hemmed in by clouds on all sides and a bright contrast to the dark sky looming over the rooftop.<\/p>\n

As the event came to its end, it was clear that the attendees weren\u2019t letting the weather get the best of their experience. The group was unanimously thankful to the College for organizing the get-together. Caitlin Furjanic \u201908, one of a group of a dozen alumni and friends who came down from Washington D.C., spoke about how wonderful it was to have plans made in January, to the envy of her coworkers. Patrick Allen \u201977 appreciated the alumni association\u2019s attention to detail, especially having the ISO-approved glasses. Blane Howell \u201997, a Charleston resident who attended with five of his family members, summed up the afternoon\u2019s experience, \u201cIt was an amazing event. What was true when we were in school is still true: Mudders throw the best parties.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The crowd howled just as totality occurred. Over 80 Harvey Mudd alumni, family and friends expressed their frustration as the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":116,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/fall-winter-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/fall-winter-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/fall-winter-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/fall-winter-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/fall-winter-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/fall-winter-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":228,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/fall-winter-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8\/revisions\/228"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/fall-winter-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/fall-winter-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/fall-winter-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/fall-winter-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}