No one thought to bring a pair of eclipse glasses for Tommy Trojan, but for students who didn’t have the glasses for themselves, they still got a chance to see the solar eclipse. Computer science master student Bingsong Tzeng even offered his personal telescope to anyone and everyone.
Bingsong Tzeng: “Just want to share this magnificent view with everybody else. Not many people have a telescope, right? So if I can just give them this opportunity to take a look. There’s no loss for me but it’s a big gain for them.”
Hundreds of students gathered at Hahn square, waiting to look through the telescopes and passing the dark glasses around. USC astronomy and physics professor Vahe Peroomian was one that brought many pairs of eclipse glasses to the square to lend out to students.
Vahe Peroomian: “I think making them share I think a good thing because that just brings the whole community together. You know, gives more kind of a friendship aspect to the to the event. You’re sharing the experience, you’re sharing glasses, you look through your telescopes together. So I think all of that is is is good for our community.”
As an astronomy student, it is actually the first time Lynn Wee had seen a solar eclipse. For her, what’s once in her textbook is now in front of her eyes.
Lynn Wee: “I live in Singapore. And a lot of the times eclipses are like only visible kind of like in the northern hemisphere. The Times never really worked out. I’m just like, really excited for this being my first one.”
The solar eclipse brought a great opportunity for education and community-building to USC Professor Peroomian.
Peroomian: “I think it’s important for students to connect to astronomical events to realize something special is going on. And to be able to, you know, experience once in a lifetime event the next solar eclipse is going to be in 2044 visible in the US. "
It was the rareness of the event and the mystery up above and all around us combined with the scarcity of an item on earth, namely the dark glasses, that brought students and others together today if only for a few hours. What if we had a solar eclipse every day?