DANVILLE — “It’s getting darker!”
“I can’t see anything.”
“I got a photo.”
“That’s cool.”
North Ridge Middle School seventh- and eighth-graders were vocal during their social eclipse viewing Monday, and even yelled a countdown to 2:06 p.m., the maximum darkness for the Danville area.
Science teacher Dawn Brock said this time, compared to Aug. 2017, was more special for her and her North Ridge students.
In 2017 Danville experienced a 92 percent eclipse of the sun, reaching the midpoint of the eclipse, or maximum darkness, at 1:21 p.m.
Brock said it was the first day of school in Aug. 2017 and she didn’t know the students yet.
“We still made it a big deal and everything else..,” she said.
“I think this one (2024) for me is more exciting strictly because of (more coverage),” Brock continued about the approximately 98.6 percent coverage.
“Also, I know my kids better,” she said about enjoying the solar eclipse with them.
During the viewing event, Brock got a phone call from her dad, a retired science teacher who lives outside Effingham, who asked if she was looking up at the sun. He told her they were doing it together.
“But I don’t get to see totality dad, and you do,” she told him. “I’m kind of sad, dad. Can you take a picture of it for me?”
Brock had live coverage of the total solar eclipse on in the classroom on Monday since it started in Mexico and Texas.
She talked to her students about how rare of an occurrence it is.
“You can tell which ones are into it and which ones are not,” she said of her students.
Brock said she wanted to go out and enjoy this one. Everyone was having a good time taking a break for being in the classroom and viewing the eclipse safely from eclipse viewing glasses provided by the Danville Public School Foundation. The students were seeing how dark it would get and were trying to get photos of the eclipse on their phones.