A large audience of NIU students and local residents gathered behind NIU’s Davis Hall Thursday to view the partial eclipse of the sun.

NIU Astronomical Society President Laura Kelly and Treasurer Dave Munday provided those curious about the eclipse with the opportunity to view it with the aid of a reflecting telescope. The telescope was pointed toward the eclipse and then reflected the image of it onto a projection screen.

Kelly and Munday began the display at the outset of the eclipse at about 1:30 p.m. local time. The eclipse reached its peak coverage of the sun (about 22 percent) at 2:16 p.m. and ended at about 3:02 p.m.

People in other portions of the United States saw more of an eclipse than did those in the midwest. Some of the southwestern states and Hawaii experienced the spectacle of a total eclipse.

The midwest is not expected to see another total eclipse until sometime in the early 21st century, but Kelly said in three years there will be an annular eclipse.

“An annular eclipse is when the moon is directly in front of the sun but is further away than normal so a sliver of the sun’s disc can still be seen around the outside of the moon,” she explained to onlookers.

Kelly and Munday took turns answering questions for the crowd which had turned out to observe the eclipse. Kelly also pointed out several sunspots which could be seen on the projection screen.

Munday said they had expected a good turnout despite partially cloudy skies. “I’d say a couple hundred people have already passed through,” he said. Several orientation groups also stopped to watch the display.