A total solar eclipse is an extremely rare event, and the city of Bloomington gets a front row seat to watch it. On April 8th of 2024, the eclipse will pass mid-day and leave IU sitting in complete darkness for a total of around four minutes. Up to 300,000 people are expected to come to Bloomington on this day just to see this event. Catherine Pilachowski, an Astronomy Professor here at IU, is in charge of the majority of events that IU staff has planned leading up to the big day.
Unlike other solar eclipses that have passed through IU, this is different because the prior eclipses have all been partial eclipses. Bloomington has not seen a total eclipse since before the “Hail to Old IU” tribute song was established, which was written in the year 1892.
There are eclipse events starting as early as January, and they last all the way up to the week of the April eclipse. During the eclipse, there will be an attendance rate of about four times the amount of people that would show up to an Indiana University football game, so preparation will look extremely different compared to what IU has done for past eclipse events.
A total eclipse can have an impact on anyone who watches it, and it may even make some people emotional. People say that eclipses have a way with connecting us to nature and help show a perspective of the universe that we could not see before. Pilachowski told a story of a close friend of hers who saw the 2017 eclipse. She said,“It was so moving, so meaningful. A total eclipse connects us to nature, and not just to nature here on earth, but to the whole universe. It helps people see a perspective about being human on a planet, orbiting a star in a galaxy in the big wide universe in a way that nothing else does.”