By Tate Luckey and Vinny Porco

Where were you this solar eclipse?

Those who went eclipsin’ — “‘clipsed up”, so to speak — had varying opinions here in Louisville.

Some say it was underwhelming. One U of L senior called it “overrated”. Sophomore Rosie Sparks disagreed. She instead said it “slayed”. Some just flat out didn’t like the circles (“It [made it] a 6/10,” Louisville native Caden Seraphine replied).

“Kinda weird how serious people take it. I get the interest, because it doesn’t happen often, but it’s for 15 minutes. Why revolve your whole day around it?” Kevin Nguyen, a junior Business major, thought.

He admitted though, it was “pretty cool to see darkness at 3 p.m. on a Monday.”

The images above show students across campus taking a moment to take it all in. U of L’s School of Public Health and Information Sciences (SPHIS) handed out glasses across campus in preparation. At approximately 1:49 p.m., the eclipse began over the Louisville area, reaching the peak of its totality around 3:07 p.m. You couldn’t see complete darkness unless you were in the path of its totality, which meant some traveled to southern Indiana, like those in Gerard Williger’s eclipse class.

Ethan Rutter, a political science and history double major who was in the path of totality as a highschooler in Bowling Green during the last total eclipse in 2017, says that compared to this one “the totality [visually] was much more interesting, but it was still cool to see this year’s get that close.” The telescope he brought to the balcony of Cardinal Towne, unfortunately, had too high of magnification to get a good view.

Kyra Johnson, a recent U of L alum and social media manager for the Brownsboro Park Retirement Community hosted a watch party for her residents. Though they enjoyed it, they “kept harping on the fact that they will never see the next one”.

And we likely won’t either: the next total solar eclipse crosses over Louisville in 2153, so see you this time, next (129) year(s)?

Photo Courtesy // Vinny Porco, The Louisville Cardinal; Kyra Johnson, Brownsboro Park Retirement Community