Nine-and-a-half-year-old Imogen Fulford received solar-eclipse glasses from her teacher down in the Front Range last week in class while learning about the upcoming annular solar eclipse. Luckily, the timing of the eclipse coincided with a weekend trip up to grandpa’s in Summit County. 

Imogen and her little brother Theo got to whip out the solar eclipse glasses this weekend in Frisco Historic Park where they got to learn more from Astro Mark, who also had a telescope handy to view it. 

Astro Mark, or Mark Laurin, was on scene Saturday with coworker Double Star Dave, or Dave Wagner, to walk hundreds of people through viewing the eclipse. Astro Mark said Double Star Dave has a deep knowledge base of the science regarding these events and a great ability to translate that into layman’s terms. Astro Mark is well versed in sky and constellations. The team was missing an integral member Saturday, Jupiter Jill, or Jill Abrell, who knows a lot about the mythology and cultural significance of the sky, but gatherers were still treated to an educational event.

The sun-gazzing party ran from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. At the event’s peak, which was around 10:30 a.m., there were around 130-150 people packed into Frisco Historic Park. 

Summit County was in a zone where 82% of the sun was covered up during the peak of the eclipse. Astro Mark says solar eclipses such as this one are not too rare. Yet, solar escapes that can be viewed by people don’t happen often.

“There are solar eclipses throughout life, pretty much all the time, but so often they are in the middle of the ocean because so much of earth is covered by water,” Astro Mark said.

Astro Mark and his group look to make sure that this generation and the next understand the cultural ties to the eclipse and the importance of the night sky throughout history. 

“In ancient Egypt, rulers came into power by astronomers predicting the night sky,” Astro Mark said. “It’s poetry, art, literature, history — dating back to the beginning of time. People look at the night sky for solace. For some religions, that’s where heaven lives.” 

Astro Mark hopes that if people understand the significance they will look to ensure that the viewing of the eclipse remains possible. If light pollution were to continue to increase, it would increase the haziness in the sky, making for less clear view. In turn, the chances of being able to view events like a solar eclipse would diminish.