Besser Museum Celebrates the Solar Eclipse Alpena Style

In Alpena, visitors enjoyed a day of fun at the Besser Museum to witness the solar eclipse. A solar eclipse takes place when the new moon aligns between earth and the sun, briefly creating a shadow on our planet. This shadow, known as the umbra, either partially or fully blocks our view of the sun.

Tensions were running somewhat high at the Besser Museum in the lead up to this event. “We started out with 900 pair of glasses and within two weeks we sold 400,” said Christine Witulski, executive director. “We ordered a few more so that we could have a good stash of glasses for the people that we expected to be here.”

The moon’s relative size, combined with its distance from earth, allows it to cover the sun’s disk during this celestial event. “The eclipse mania has definitely hit Alpena, Michigan, and we are going to have a large crowd at the Besser Museum,” said Witulski.

There was a large crowd that filled the back lot entirely with food, music, good company, and don’t forget your solar eclipse glasses. “We gave our guests a pair of solar glasses while the supply lasted. We gave a planetarium show and those coupons are good through June 30 because we knew everybody would not fit into the planetarium,” said Witulski. “Today, we live streamed footage from NASA so that they can watch the eclipse on the path of totality, and the food wagon from the Smoking Trolls was here for any of our hungry guests.”

Alpena jumped on the solar eclipse bandwagon and experienced, together, a very special event that will not happen again for many years to come.