This April, many were excited about having the luck of witnessing a total solar eclipse without traveling faraway. This is no exception for students in geodetic science. The totality belt of the April 8, 2024 total solar eclipse was just next to Columbus, and the center of the belt is about 70 miles apart. Students made a plan to drive to Indian Lake, located at the center of the totality belt. Although the total solar eclipse was to happen at 3:10-3:15PM, we left at around 10:00AM to avoid the expected heavy traffic, arriving at the destination at around noon. Students chatted and had fun while waiting, which was a relax from the heavy course load. The culmination was certainly the moment of perfection of the eclipse when people all around, including our students, began to scream. Although everyone was delighted, Shengdao Wang, who just successively defended his PhD degree three days earlier, appeared to be the most thrilled, screaming the loudest and shouting out cheerfully: “Magnificent, never ever could I imagine something so magnificent!” Everyone shared his joy.

- contributed by Professor Junyi Guo

When a part of the Sun is visibly hidden by the Moon (Photo by Kevin Chen, from left to right: Kevin Chen, Kasun Dampegama, Patrick Smith, Thunendran Periyandy, Shengdao Wang, Melody Pan, Ying Zuo, and Junyi Guo)