Hillsdale College President Larry Arnn watches the eclipse with his wife, Penny, and daughter, Assistant Provost for K-12 Education Kathleen O’Toole.
Logan Washburn | Collegian

Students and professors traveled to Ohio and Indiana to observe the total solar eclipse on Monday, while others enjoyed the rare phenomenon on campus. 

“Words cannot describe the beauty and awe of such an event,” Assistant Professor of Physics Michael Tripepi said. “The nearly four minutes of totality are the closest thing I can imagine to what it was like to experience the miraculous visions of Isaiah or Daniel. For a brief moment, the ordinary world suddenly and dramatically passes away to a greater vision of the cosmos.”

While the path of totality did not cross Hillsdale, students on campus observed 98.6% coverage at 3:11 p.m.

This was the first total solar eclipse visible in the contiguous United States since August 2017. The next total eclipse in the United States will occur in August 2044, when the path of totality will pass through Montana and North Dakota. The next total solar eclipse visible across the country will occur in August 2045.

Sophomore Faith NieKamp said she viewed the total eclipse from an apple orchard in Lima, Ohio, which is 100 miles from Hillsdale. 

“The trip was very last-minute, but it was just so beautiful,” NieKamp said. 

A total solar eclipse is when the moon moves between the sun and the earth, completely blocking the sun’s light and casting a shadow over the surface.

Timothy Dolch, associate professor of physics, traveled to Indiana, while Tripepi went to Ohio with a group of students to observe the total eclipse. Dolch said the physics department set up telescopes in both states for the event.

“We wanted to spread out to ensure that we got a good set of images,” Dolch said. “Both places ended up with good weather, so we ended up with good pictures from both locations.”

Dolch said the department had also been building a radio telescope in Ohio since last fall to observe the rapid changes in the ionosphere during the eclipse.

“We had an online view of the radio sun,” Dolch said. “The radio sun does not get totally eclipsed because the corona outside the disk still produces radio emission.”

Dolch said the department also took data from its on-campus radio telescope, the Low-Frequency All-Sky Monitor, in Hayden Park.

“Even though we were outside the path of totality, we were still in a region where the ionosphere turns off,” Dolch said.

During a solar eclipse, the moon blocks solar radiation from ionizing the upper atmosphere. The ionization decreases as coverage increases.

Dolch said the groups witnessed a phenomenon called shadow bands. Both groups set up white pieces of cardboard to observe cast shadows.

“Just seconds before totality, when the sun was in the diamond ring phase, we saw these shimmering black and white bands on the cardboard,” Dolch said. “There is a brief moment where the sun is twinkling because it is only a point of light and is sensitive to atmospheric fluctuations.”

Tripepi took 17 students and a couple professors to Tiffin, Ohio, and the house of Visiting Lecturer in Biology Angela Pytel’s mother, about 110 miles from Hillsdale. He said the 98% view of the eclipse pales in comparison to 100%.

Sophomore Emerson Sigtryggsson joined Tripepi on the trip. She said participants got to see the eclipse in totality and took lots of pictures through the telescope.

“A lot of us that went on the trip are involved with Dr. Dolch’s pulsar research, where we look at patterns in gravitational waves to try and find black holes or other things out in space,” Sigtryggsson said. “We have radio telescopes in Hayden Park and in Ohio that collect data, and we’re really excited to see what the waves looked like during totality and how that can contribute to our research group.”

During totality, the sky became dark and eerie, she said. She said the experience was a testament to how amazing science, God, and his creation are. 

“Animals were confused, we saw a few bats come out and there was a huge breeze all of a sudden,” Sigtryggsson said. “Totality wasn’t more than a few minutes, but it was a really crazy experience to be able to see the corona and ‘the diamond ring.’”

Freshman Caesar Gombojav stayed on campus for the eclipse.

“It was convenient that you could see most of the eclipse from campus,” Gombojav said. “When you looked through the eclipse glasses, you could see it pretty well. Everything had a gray hue to it. It was really quiet like it was right before a storm.”

Freshmen Jackson Casey and Nikolas Nisidis traveled nearly 100 miles to Findlay, Ohio, where they could observe the total eclipse. 

“It was amazing to see the whole sky go from day to almost night in just a few seconds,” Casey said. “It was an incredible sight to see.”

Nisidis said he also enjoyed the opportunity to view the total eclipse.

“It was a great experience,” Nisidis said. “Well worth skipping a day of classes.”

Sophomore Anna Teply said seeing the full eclipse was worth traveling to Defiance, Ohio, about 50 miles from campus. 

“The full eclipse was uncanny, and it really made you feel how small human beings are in the grandeur of the universe,” she said. “Also the fact that solar eclipses even exist is incredible. The fact that the moon is just the right size to completely obscure the sun is an amazing coincidence that reminds me how amazing it is to be able see all the cool things in nature that God has set up for humans to observe.”