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During a partial solar eclipse, the Moon covers only parts of the Sun. The partial eclipse will be visible on Aug. 21 from the university campus.
University astronomers wait in anticipation for solar eclipse
KATIEWALKER
Contributor
kwalker6@unca.edu
The first time Bill Willard, adjunct lec
turer in physics at UNC Asheville, saw.a
solar eclipse with his own eyes, it made
his hair stand up on its ends.
“As it began to get darker, it was not
like how it gets dark in the evening. It
was like someone was blocking the light.
It was eerie because the animals reacted
differendy,” Willard said. “It was almost
Like they went to sleep, like they thought
it was night time so they stopped making
their noise They disappeared, then they
came back out once it was over.”
Willard attended Clemson University
in 1984 when the solar eclipse occurred.
A solar eclipse will pass over most of
North America on Aug. 21, according to
the National Aeronautics and Space Ad
ministration. Asheville will not see a to
tal solar ecUpse but will see a 99 percent
eclipse. Because the eclipse over UNC
Asheville wiU not be total, a full blackout
win not occur.
According to NASA, the partial
eclipse at UNCA wiU last from 1:08 to
4:01 p.m. The maximum eclipse wUl be
visible at 2:37 p.m.
Judy Beck, physics lecturer at UNCA,
said the path of totality wUl travel right
over Western Carolina University.
The total eclipse over WCU wUl last
from 2:35 to 2:37 p.m. -
Beck said the provost office has al
ready ordered. solar eclipse glasses for
students and faculty at UNCA to use
during the eclipse.
The glasses wUl have a cardboard
frame and material over the eyes to filter
out t^e sun’s light.
“I think the university is definitely try
ing to make an effort to engage people in
the eclipse,” Beck said.
Beck has seen two total solar eclipses.
The first one. Beck said, occurred while
she attended Williams CoUege as an un
dergraduate. She and an astronomy pro
fessor traveled to Brandon, Manitoba,
Canada.
“During the partial phases we watched
the eclipse with our special glasses and
recorded some data with some instru
ments we had,” Beck said. “Then as to
tality neared, we got extremely excited.
You could see the shadow coming across
the land approaching us. At the moment
of totality, we were able to take off our
glasses and look at the total eclipse sun.”
The second time Beck witnessed a
total ecUpse she was living in Ecuador.
She said the total eclipse followed a path
over Colombia, which borders Ecuador.
Beck traveled to Colombia to be in
the path of the total eclipse, where she
met a local astronomy club who gave her
eclipse glasses, and watched the eclipse
on a hUlside with a group of people.
Brian Dennison, professor of physics
at UNCA, has seen a total of two total
solar eclipses in his lifetime as weU.
Dennison said his first experience see
ing a total solar eclipse happened while
he attended the University of Louis-
viUe. He, along with a group of students
from the university, traveled to Currituck
for the oppormnity to see a total solar
eclipse on March 7,1970.
“At that time, I was an undergraduate
at the University of Louisville. There
was a bunch of us who worked on cam
pus at the planetarium and we decided
to go to see the solar eclipse,” Dennison
said.
The group camped on an island right
CONTINUED ON PAGE 10
Community Police Action Committee clashes with Asheville police force
6RETCHEN LEDFORD
Contributor
gledford@unca.edu
In the meeting room of the Commu
nity Police Action Committee, people
gathered to discuss a heated agenda.
According to members, the recent
upswing in community involvement di
vided the committee on how best to be
effective, causing Chairman Larry Holt
to make the decision to exclude pohce
from the March meeting altogether.
Holt said he alone made the choice
to change the traditional format. There
were no police officers present and no
formal table, just a circle of chairs lining
the room at the Grant Center.
“Let’s just see how this goes without
the police,” Holt said. “But a number of
folks said the only reason we came is to
holler at the police.”
The minutes from March note the
committee’s desire to discuss the power
of the chairman to make such a deci
sion, as well as the possibility to have the
police at every other meeting. No deci
sion was reached.
“Some community members want the.
police to be at every meeting, but with
out guns,” Holt said. “But a sworn of
ficer of the law cannot just not carry a
firearm.”
Holt said the greatest participation
from the public tends to occur when
people get angry. When things get fiery,
he said, CPAC takes the heat.
For example, on Jan. 30, a cellphone
video showed an Asheville police officer
approaching three teens with an AR-15.
The call to APD said the teens had a
gun, which turned out to be a BB gun
with the orange tip broken off.
At the next CPAC meeting in Febru
ary, the public became angered and in
creasingly critical. It became so intense
the clash continued. Holt said.
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