Earth Science and Astronomy teacher Ms. Robbins double-checks the telescope’s alignment during Sunday’s eclipse.
BRONX, NY – The sun, the Earth and the moon lined up on Sunday evening, creating a rare phenomenon in the skies over New York City. While the “Super Blood Moon” solar eclipse did not draw out any werewolves or other scary figures – it DID draw out several Truman High School students and alumni to the Baychester Avenue parking lot for some late-night observations.
Led by Astronomy and Earth Science teacher Ms. Robbins, the evening gave students the opportunity to witness the eclipse first-hand using both binoculars and a powerful telescope, which was a recent addition to the Astronomy program at the school.
Truman alum William Stamps gets a closer look at the moon during the eclipse.
“My students know, science can be a lot of fun,” according to Ms. Robbins. ” but there’s really nothing like seeing a student look up in the sky and witness it first hand. The looks on their faces is great!”
Several current students earned extra credit for showing up, and surprisingly several Truman Astronomy alumni came out for the chance to take one more lesson with Ms. Robbins.
“To me it was a very cool and unique experience,” said former Truman student Billy Marte. “It made me think about how close can we get to celestial objects.” Marte went on to say that the experience made him want to take additional courses in Astronomy or Earth Science.
According to CNN, this year’s eclipse was special for two reasons: First, the moon was at it’s closest spot in it’s orbit around earth – making it look particularly large in the sky. Second, this lunar eclipse was the last in a series of four over two years – a phenomenon known as a tetrad. The last supermoon total lunar eclipse happened 33 years ago.
A close-up look at Sunday’s lunar eclipse. (Photo: CNN)