All around the neighborhood people were out looking at today’s solar eclipse. We visited the Memorial Branch Library a few hours ago where dozens of people were gathered viewing the eclipse with special glasses provided by the library, and/or through homemade pinhole viewers people made for the special day.
To accompany the viewing, library manager John Pitre curated a musical playlist of sun and eclipse-related music, which played on a portable sound system he brought outside for the occasion.
“Today is about sharing glasses, learning some science and hopefully being re-introduced to the library as a place where fun things can happen,” said Pitre. “We have movie night, every Tuesday at 5, for example.”
For Bronson Avenue residents Bennett and Bowie Graebner, it was about hanging out together and being part of a neighborhood.
“I love these kinds of community events, like when the Space Shuttle arrived,” said Bennett Graebner who changed his schedule this morning so he and his son, Bowie, who had not yet started school, could come over to the park with the viewer they made from a cereal box. “It also reminds me how small we are in the solar system and we are live here together.”
Graebner got some tips on how to improve his cereal box viewer from several people who’d made them as well. It turned out that the smaller the holes, the better the image…and several holes makes it easier to direct the light into the box.
Alvin Kim, a math instructor at West LA Community College, agreed that more holes would be an improvement on his design.
Not everyone was outside though. Dr. Steve Martinez shared some photos on the John Burroughs Middle School Facebook page of students watching NASA’s live feed of the eclipse in the school’s auditorium.
Other folks who were outside, though, hardly noticed the big event. One Buzz reader who was touring Universal Studios with out-of-town guests told us that “most people here don’t seem to care!” Â Oh well.
Please share your eclipse photos with us, we’ll add them to our gallery.
