Allan Noah of the Richmond Astronomical Society points out sunspots on his SunGun telescope to solar eclipse viewers on April 8 at the Science Museum of Virginia. (Photo by Jay Paul)
As the sun and moon came together on April 8 for a rare celestial meeting, so, too, did hundreds of people outside the Science Museum of Virginia.
While many relaxed on blankets and chairs on The Green, a park-like space that wasn’t there for the solar eclipse in 2017, what garnered the most attention and the longest lines were the telescopes owned by members of the Richmond Astronomical Society.
One of those volunteers, Allan Noah, assembled a so-called “SunGun” for the 2017 eclipse viewing at the museum, allowing multiple people to see a projection of the sun and requiring only minor adjustments based on the Earth’s rotation. “It has been in the attic of my garage for seven years, waiting for this day,” Noah said, “so it rises again.”
Another solar eclipse won’t be visible from the contiguous United States until Aug. 23, 2044. One 8-year-old Richmonder, Ellis Hickman, who was watching with his grandparents, called it a “one in a million” event. “There’s a chance we’ll be alive at the next eclipse, but we’ll be quite, quite old,” said his grandmother Beth Morrison. “Or,” added his grandfather Scott, “we could chase the eclipse and try and see it somewhere else in the world.”
While Richmond didn’t see a total solar eclipse, the decision to come to the museum event was an obvious one for Noah. “I could’ve gotten in a car and driven, and I could be enjoying this by myself in Ohio [or] Maine. But I’ve got to do this,” he said, acknowledging the crowd gazing in wonder all around him.
