Eclipse watch party brings out skygazers

The Rio Rancho Observatory was packed with people viewing the eclipse Saturday, Oct. 14.

“As we get closer to annularity, what i’m going to ask you guys to kind of take and take it in yourself, because this is one of the coolest things that nature does, is being able to have this lineup perfectly,” owner Melanie Templet said.

Templet says the observatory has been around for 10 years and the Rio Rancho Astronomical Society has been around since 1998.

While the eclipse was the main attraction, a local man was there to donate a meteorite to the society.

“It’s called a stony; it is magnetic,” Randall Bond said.

Rather than sell the meteorite, Bond said he thought it would be better if he gave it to someone who could use it.

“God gave it to me. So why not give it to someone that can look at it, besides myself, and i have plenty of them at home,” he added.

Bond was also there with his own telescope to view the eclipse.

A mix of telescopes and eclipse glasses users were staring at the sky, waiting for the eclipse to reach full phase at 10:36 a.m.

Among those people was Mayor Gregg Hull, who remembered his first eclipse experience in science class.

“When I was a kid, we used to make a little box with a pinhole in it and it would project through that pinhole and you could see the gradual progression of the eclipse,” Hull said.

As the eclipse reached full phase, the crowd cheered and all heads were tilted towards the sky.

The full parking lot emptied as the eclipse phased out.