Credit to Kylie Taliaferro

On April 8, 2024, a partial eclipse passed over North. For a few moments the moon partially blocked the sun’s path and the school was embraced by darkness. Students were let out of classes early in order to see this rare and exciting event.

“It was just as cool as I expected,” senior Liliana Beyer said. “I think it was even better than the one in 2017.”

Students were released to see the eclipse at 1:30 p.m. just in time to see the peak of the eclipse at 2 p.m. FHN was not directly in the path of the eclipse, but it was close enough for 98% of the sun to be blocked by the moon according to USAToday.

“At least I didn’t have to be in English class,” junior Christian Portell said.

UV-blocking glasses were provided to students so that they could look directly at the sun without getting substantial eye damage. A partial eclipse meant that there was no point where students could remove their glasses. North ran on a shortened schedule throughout the day in order to allow more time to watch the eclipse at the end of the day.

“It was pretty cool, it was really anticlimactic but still,” junior Riley Kloecker said.

There were many places in southeast Missouri, where there was a total eclipse for two to four minutes. Several students from FHN decided to miss school in order to see this total eclipse and traveled to other parts of the state to watch.

“I went to my family’s house south of Fredericktown,” Beyer said. “We decided to go down so we could have the total eclipse experience because if you are watching it not in totality, you can’t take your glasses off and it’s not as cool.”

Being able to see a solar eclipse is a very unusual experience. Even if it was only a partial eclipse, this is still a memorable event for students of FHN.