'Wick Science Team Travels to Witness Total Eclipse

Three Brunswick students — rising junior classmates Nico Apostolides, Benjamin Burns, and Jonathan Wiener — and two members of the science-teaching faculty traveled to Salem, Oregon, to view the total eclipse on August 21.
 
The team made strategic stops as the day of totality approached, visiting Crater Lake Park, hiking Garfield Peak, and taking a historic tour of Salem before meeting with a group of scientists to discuss their work before and after the eclipse.
 
Physics teacher Rob Follansbee, who organized the trip, described the moment everyone had been waiting for since setting out for Oregon:
 
“As we approached totality, cool became an understatement,” he said. “As the light got low, our shadows more distinct, and the images of the crescent sun appearing as light through the leaves of trees, we kept watching the clock inch towards 10:17 a.m. Then the crescent was all but gone through our glasses, and we whipped them off just in time to see the diamond ring effect.
 
“None of us were prepared for totality. Now I know why people who have been before just describe it as something indescribable and say they'll never settle for a partial again. 
 
“You cannot get pictures that are the same as the eye can see. There is too much gradation in the light from the corona as it stretches away from the sun. The description of a firefly buzzing and blinking madly (spotted by Ben), confused that night had come early, doesn't compare to seeing it.”
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    • Nico Apostolides, Benjamin Burns, and Jonathan Wiener stand atop Garfield Peak on Crater Lake

    • Rob Follansbee, Kristina Norrgard, Jonathan Wiener, Benjamin Burns, and Nico Apostolides watched the eclipse from Willamette University in Salem, Oregon.

    • A Brunswick photograph of the corona, which is visible only during totality

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