Eclipse brightens first day of classes

With Willy as their wingman, hundreds of Rice students, staff and faculty poured onto the Academic Quad to view the partial eclipse of the sun Aug. 21. Members of Rice’s Department of Physics and Astronomy set up instruments and handed out special glasses so participants could safely view the eclipse, which reached its partial peak at 1:17 p.m. Above, physics and astronomy graduate student Jason Ling holds a shadow projection of the moon and sun shortly before peak.

Off campus, students at The Rice Schoo/La Escuela Rice, below, enjoyed views of the eclipse with the help of the Rice University School Mathematics Project, which brought them glasses and a “Sunspotter” device, courtesy of umbraphile Patricia Reiff, a Rice professor of physics and astronomy.