- With the 2024 solar eclipse taking place on Monday, April 8, the Iberia Parish Main Library Branch (New Iberia) is handing out solar viewing *glasses, and eclipse 'projectors' to make at home.
- According to KATC's Bradley Benoit, the next solar eclipse will not take place again until 2044 (20 years from now).
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
It's a phenomenon that you won't be able to see again until 2044. At the Iberia Parish Library's Main Branch in New Iberia, staff worked to give people an interactive experience of Monday's solar eclipse.
Hoping to get people excited about the eclipse, and to help promote safety, Coordinator for Community Relations & Programming Erica Romero said that for a limited time, the library was giving away solar eclipse glasses for free.
“We had 1,000 glasses; we used about half for the eclipse in October,” said Romero.
With an opportunity to hand out the rest, Romero let people know about the free glasses via an announcement on Facebook.
She said the response was overwhelming. “So, we opened up at 8:30 the phone started at 8:30 and, hasn’t stopped [since].”
Without any glasses to spare, the library came up with another solution. "So, the instructions are written here at the top. It’s basically a safe way to view the eclipse without the need of glasses," Romero explained.
Using two pieces of paper, a thumbtack, and of course, the sun….this low-budget eclipse projector offers a similar experience to the glasses.
