Students, faculty, and the public lounging on the turf of McConnell Family Stadium, opened to view a rare total solar eclipse that will pass over all of Erie.

Worries of cloudy skies during the eclipse begin to dissipate as the cloud cover starts to clear up when the moon makes first contact with the sun around 2pm.

Gannon’s Science department provided telescopes to watch the eclipse and commentary by Physics Professor Dr. Horne.

Students taking advantage of the eclipse glasses provided by Gannon, watching the moon slowly pass over the sun’s warm rays without damaging their eyesight.

The sky begins to darken, and temperatures start to drop while mere minutes away from totality.

The sounds of awe and cheers fill the stadium as the sun is completely engulfed by the moon’s path starting at 3:16pm. Only at this time of the eclipse, the sun is able to be looked at without eye protection.

360° sunset lines the horizon caused by the light of areas that are outside of the eclipse’s totality. Temperatures are significantly colder, and birds frantically fly in the sky as it becomes nighttime in mid-afternoon for 4 minutes.

A close of the moon’s silhouette that is backlit with the bright corona (Outer atmosphere) of the sun. A red spot on the bottom of the sun is made visible by the naked eye, it is an intense burst of radiation near a sunspot called a solar flare.