Tarleton hosts eclipse viewing at Memorial Stadium along with other activities

BY JOLEE SKINNER / Editor-in-Chief

Tarleton State University hosted an eclipse viewing party at Memorial Stadium on April 8 2024.

The doors to Memorial Stadium opened to the public for the total solar eclipse viewing at 11a.m. Tarleton was kind enough to provide students and the public with the proper glasses to be used to look at the eclipse. 

The total solar eclipse started at about 12:23p.m. for Stephenville, full totality was seen at 1:39p.m. and lasted a little over a minute. The eclipse finally concluded at 3:02p.m. 

Tarleton also had a live telescope feed live on the big screen before the eclipse went into full totality. The live feed was being recorded right outside of the Texan Hall Parking garage.

Stephenville also partnered with Tarleton to create custom eclipse t-shirts for everyone. The t-shirts featured Oscar P and had the words “Dark Side of the Sun” on them, a parody of Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” studio album. The college of Science and Mathematics also had demonstrations set up that showed how a total solar eclipse happens.

The President of Tarleton, Dr. Hurley and First Lady Kindall Hurley also joined the crowd at Memorial Stadium with their two daughters to watch the celestial event. 

Families from all over Erath county came to the stadium as well as most of the entire student body of Tarleton. 

Adeline Alcala is a student at Tarleton and said the eclipse was an amazing experience. 

“I couldn't stop looking at it,” Alcala said. “It was way cooler than what people said it would be.”

The Tarleton Planetarium, located at the Lamar Johanson building, was showing a film called “Totality over Texas”. The film shows how the total solar eclipse happens and how Texas is the nexus for the 2024 eclipse. 

Avery Brown is a student at Tarleton and also works at The Car Wash at Bruner’s. Brown decided to watch the eclipse at her place of employment. 

“It was very unique and interesting to watch the whole process with my own two eyes,” Brown said. “It was such a beautiful experience.”