Warren Skidmore with students and Jack Doran in the background (Photo – Staff)
PUSD’s Center for Independent Study (CIS Academy) and Pasadena Adult Living Skills (PALS) students and staff hosted an eclipse viewing event today for some 200-300 people at the former Wilson Middle School campus where both programs are located.
By Scott Phelps
Willard Elementary School, An IB World School and Willard Children’s Center students attended, and Pasadena High School Astronomy Club students helped the younger students view the eclipse through the Galileoscopes they built, which were funded by a Pasadena Educational Foundation Teacher Grant.
PUSD parent volunteer extraordinaire and ScienceFest founder and Thirty Meter Telescope Project Scientist Warren Skidmore brought a telescope that projected an enlarged eclipse view onto a screen, and it was big enough to show sunspots too. Mr. Doran, a retired PUSD staff member, brought Wilson’s former Celestron 8 Telescope too. Caltech Educational Outreach Director Mitch Aiken brought a colander to show many small eclipse views at the same time when the light passing through its holes was projected onto a surface. CIS and PALS students and staff also had table activities for the elementary students which included drawing the eclipse on black paper with white chalk, using pinhole cameras provided by PUSD Science Lead Ella Farinas, decorating their eclipse glasses with astronomy-related stickers, and creating the phases of the Moon using Oreo cookies.
To help complete the atmosphere, PALS and CIS’ famed security officer Marvin Hatchett and friends provided music with astronomy themes such as Bonnie Tyler’s Total Eclipse of the Heart, Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon and others.
2024 Eclipse: Members of the PHS Astronomy club were on hand along with community spectators, PUSD officials and students (Photos – Staff)
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