ScienceWorks eclipse viewing draws nearly 1000 people

Ashland, Ore. – ScienceWorks hosted an eclipse viewing event Monday morning.

The final headcount at the Ashland science museum was over 900 people. Prior to the event over 600 were registered. Over 200 walk-ins came to the viewing Monday as well. All of them coming to watch the moon cover the sun for the first time in Oregon since 1979.

Staff at ScienceWorks have been planning for the eclipse since January. They knew it would be a popular occasion. On normal Monday they would usually have around 100 people at the museum. But today was different.

Three of the additional hundreds of people who came are sisters Savannah, Madison and Mika Hauber.

The Hauber sisters came with their grandparents to watch the eclipse.

They were a little nervous about the historic event, concerned the darkness from it would be, “dark and scary.”

As the moon started to fully cover the sun they put on their glasses and were ready to go. And had their glasses not been the right kind, with the proper protections, the Hauber sisters and their grandparents brought backup.

“We’d take the paper plates we made at our Grandma and Pap’s house and we’d put it down and let the sun go in it,” Savannah says.

The Hauber’s weren’t the only ones who created a way to watch the historic event without glasses. Adam Kukuck made a full viewing system of his own with a pair of binoculars and a few pieces of paper.

Other eclipse viewers found creative ways to snap shots on their smartphones by covering their camera lens with their glasses.

“I just thought if it works for my eye it works for my camera right,” eclipse viewers Lisa Borok says.

Once the peak of the eclipse had passed viewers began to leave, but the excitement the event created still remains.

“It’s amazing and it’s awesome and I wanted to see it again,” Mika Hauber exclaimed.

© 2024 KOBI-TV NBC5. All rights reserved unless otherwise stated.

Skip to content