the clouds cooperated and millions of new jerseyans were able to get the long-awaited partial solar eclipse View today the path moved across North America from Mexico to the US and Canada an epic phenomenon even for those of us here in the Garden State who weren't in the path of totality that's where the moon completely blocks the Sun but we did get to experience a stellar partial eclipse just a few minutes in time where roughly 90% of the sun was covered replaced with darkness and an all inspiring vision in New Jersey the event started a little after 2 p.m. and wrapped by about 4:30 a number of schools canceled class or let students out early to safely view the skies and as Ted Goldberg tells us some places were better than others to get the best Glimpse we don't see solar eclipses very often in New Jersey but thousands of people enjoyed the rare View at Liberty Science Center we won't see it again in our lifetime so pretty neat it's phenomenal and it's a beautiful day it's pretty cool because this is my first time actually looking at a clips and um my dad was just telling me stories about other people freaking out and it was really funny I was telling her about the ancient Mexicans the azcs the Mayans especially the Mayans that they follow very close the astronomy so they very like big events they these events gave a lot of signs for the people about things that may happen very awesome have you ever seen anything like this before no how where does this rank on the coolest things you've ever seen um top it's really cool it's been uh hard to getting through the crowds and having to break through my brothers because they're really annoying people safely saw the moon block out 91% of the sun through these special glasses telescopes and this Suns spotter it's kind of like a telescope that's been sort of Taken apart and rearranged so sunlight comes in through a lens here is bounced around through some mirrors inside and IT projects a real image of the sun right down here Liberty Science Center is a hot spot for seeing solar eclipses in New Jersey people also piled in here 7 years ago for the last visible eclipse in the Garden State jersey won't see another event like this until April 2024 that probably seemed a long way off in 2017 so people had time to make preparations and get a good look this time around well we wanted to see the eclipse because I don't think I ever seen it before but it looks really cool it kind of looks like a half a moon and it's very amazing it's 100 out of 100 I was the whole night thinking about it and I couldn't sleep cuz I was the whole night thinking I would missing and I didn't want to wait till I was 27 to see the next solate clubs oh and it's very cool very cool I wanted to see the solar eclipse have you ever seen a solar eclipse before no how excited are you to see it 10 out of 10 we have a nice view from where we are but we wanted to go see uh the show that explained the solar eclipse too and um I've got a three-year-old and a one-year-old he's not going to watch it obviously but um he's really interested in Space and Science so he wanted to check it out are you excited to see the sun me my wife and three of our three boys um 10 years old 8 years old and six years old uh and we are very much into science and astronomy that specialness and rareness of it is a big factor for folks coming down and joining us by the Thousand today Mike Shanahan is the planetarium director here at the Liberty Science Center where we have so many sort of things we can do with a screen a real experience like this seeing a real astronomy event in my experience the last 20 years nothing turns out people like a real astronomy event especially one that you don't see very often so knowing that it's a chance to take part in this Eclipse we're members of the science center and I said you know what this will be a great experience cuz it's a for us it's a Once and done the next total solar eclipse in New Jersey is in 55 years so if you have these solar eclipse glasses you can put him somewhere safe and kill some time before that at Liberty Science Center I'm Ted Goldberg Ted Goldberg NJ Spotlight News