In 2017, Nadia Qutob’s family piled into a minivan and drove to South Carolina to see the total solar eclipse from the side of the road.
She remembers the caravan of cars all coming from Georgia. Strangers pulled over to watch together as the moon slotted in between the Earth and the sun.
“It really is a surreal experience,” she said. “It had been explained to me like, ‘Oh, you’re not going to believe it. The birds are going to be confused; they’ll think it’s nighttime. The crickets are going to come out.’ And as a 17-year old, I kind of just imagined, ‘Oh, people are being dramatic. It can’t possibly be that cool. And then actually experiencing it, it was true. It felt like being transported into another world.”
On Monday, when another total solar eclipse carves a path across much of the United States, Qutob will be gazing up once again. This time, she’ll be alongside fellow Georgia Tech students traveling hundreds of miles to witness the rare event at its peak.
Credit: Miguel Martinez
Credit: Miguel Martinez
While some Georgia colleges and universities have planned events to view the partial eclipse on their campuses or watch a NASA livestream, roughly 100 students from the science-focused Atlanta school will embark on hours-long road trips to see the minutes-long eclipse from within the path of totality.
A 55-seat passenger bus chartered by the School of Physics is headed to Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge in southern Illinois for the total eclipse. The Georgia Tech Astronomy Club quickly filled 55 more seats on another bus bound for a campground near Eminence, Missouri. Other students and professors are carpooling or making their own travel plans.
“My school is actually going to pay to send me out to see the eclipse, so as a broke undergrad, this was the most exciting thing in the world to me,” said Qutob, a senior from rural Harris County who will be on the physics school’s bus.
The astronomy club started planning its trip about two years ago, said president Ethan Atkinson. To cover the cost, expected to be roughly $6,000-$7,000, the club increased dues a bit, recruited more members and sought support from the Student Government Association.
They also sold T-shirts and held bake sales. On “Pi Day,” or March 14, they held a fundraiser showcasing club leaders getting smacked in the face with a paper plate full of whipped cream.
Credit: Miguel Martinez
Credit: Miguel Martinez
Club members will camp in tents the night before the eclipse and return to the Atlanta campus before sunrise Tuesday. Atkinson, a senior physics major from Richmond Hill, will miss his fraternity’s formal for the occasion.
For students who will also miss classes, he’s working to get their absences excused. “But I was going to skip anyway,” Atkinson said. He’s bringing his astrophotography gear to capture images of the sky. The club also plans to have an 8-inch Celestron telescope with a solar filter for members to use.
When the eclipse happens, Atkinson wants to sit back and take it in. For the 2017 eclipse, his high school planned to give students glasses and let everyone go outside to watch. The weather didn’t cooperate.
“It was super cloudy and rainy, so I missed it. I didn’t get to see it; that’s why I’m so excited for this one,” he said.
Faculty members are just as enthusiastic. Physics professor Dragomir Davidovic said his school’s bus will be filled mostly by graduate students who don’t always get chances to spend time together socially. He helped coordinate the trip, in part, to build camaraderie.
The group will have some flexibility to detour elsewhere if there’s poor weather at their chosen site near Marion, Illinois, where totality will last just over four minutes.
Davidovic thought he might be underwhelmed when he watched the 2017 eclipse from North Georgia. Instead, he was struck by the phenomenon.
“As soon as that eclipse took place, I immediately checked when is the next one,” Davidovic said.
Jim Sowell, an astronomer at Georgia Tech and adviser to the astronomy club, also began making plans for this year’s eclipse years ago. He’s joining longtime college friends in Texas to see the eclipse.
Before her bus leaves, Qutob plans to meet with him to brush up on her telescope skills so she can help operate the equipment for her group.
Qutob has wanted to be an astrophysicist since she was a 6-year-old watching Jodie Foster in the movie “Contact.” She’s looking forward to making another core memory like the one from 2017. On Monday, she’ll be surrounded by fellow “nerds” who also enjoy cracking jokes about physics and turning their eyes skyward.
Sowell hopes students, especially those about to see their second total eclipse in less than seven years, will be hooked on the experience.
Qutob agrees the fleeting eclipse can have a lasting impact. She thinks it can inspire the next generation of scientists.
“...(H)opefully, more kids are going to look up during the eclipse and be interested in science and want to pursue a career in science,” she said.
