Solar Eclipse: From western Massachusetts to Vermont

the total solar eclipse is just a few hours away capturing the hearts and minds of the country and our Newsroom today we have live team coverage with the 22 News storm team in Vermont Melissa Torres is in Springfield and Duncan mlan is right here in the studio and we be with some student enthusiasm Duncan spoke with excited young people ahead of a field trip this morning Duncan Rich that's right three charter buses full of middle schoolers and a few high schoolers too from Hampshire Regional Schools are bound for the path of totality in Northern Vermont teachers tagging along told us they've been covering the eclipse in science classes for the last week and the students are excited to see it for real more than 150 students returned permission slips for the event well above the original limit of a 100 spots on the buses and before the morning me Bell the next day we uh we had 115 I think so we scrambled and we were able to add a third bus it's just amazing to see The Passion of the kids and and just how excited they've been and and the science teachers have been doing lessons with with them um and there's just such a buzz about it now traffic on 91 North as they left this morning was much heavier than usual as all of Southern New England makes their way up North to catch that path of totality it'll also make for a messy Rush Hour southbound today with the eclipse wrapping up around 4:30 those Hampshire Regional buses are headed for Fairbanks Museum and planetarium in St Johnsbury Vermont which I hear is the perfect place to be to catch the eclipse that's where we find members of the 22 News Storm Team Jack and Adam you guys are living the dream today what's it like out there we really are Duncan no question about it I'm here alongside Jack wo with the 22 new storm team and the excitement is definitely building here in St Johnsbury Vermont we got here around 10 o'l this morning and the crowd continues to grow and we're just actually seeing quite a few people actually from our local area Jack I know we got tons of people from Westfield East Hampton also Wilbraham and these people have been setting up all day you can see on the street now this is light in comparison to what we're expecting later in the day and this is the museum the planetarium actually that people were looking to see a show at lines around the corner this morning things have calm down since then but we're expecting way more people to start showing up again we got here at around 10:00 in the morning and it was much lighter just in the past couple hours that's right in fact they closed the road down and you can see a lot of people here in front of the Fairbanks Museum uh here in St Johnsbury uh the planetarium and Museum again as you mentioned having special programming of course A lot of people are set up here on the lawn behind us can see all these people a lot of telescopes cameras uh waiting for that Eclipse a little bit later on this afternoon and of course here is where we are going to be able to see the total eclipse so it will get dark the temperature will drop and the winds will get lighter although we don't have much of a wind right now but the one thing we're really benefiting with today is the fact that we have such gorgeous weather beautiful sunshine have no clouds in the sky as of yet Wonder so the weather is just ideal for this eclipse and again we've been running into local people from Westfield from wilam from East Hampton he long metal people have been coming up to us so a lot of people from Western Massachusetts venturing up here to Northeastern King the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont to view this uh total solar eclipse Adam you don't have to be in Vermont to view the solar eclipse 22 news reporter Melissa Torres is with the Springfield museums and she's going to talk to us about these out ofor festivities oh thank you so much for that warm introduction Jack Adam I hope you guys are having fun over there in Vermont but we're here in Springfield and we're over the moon for this special celebration as you can see families are here for all of the exhibits the educational resources and of course that Planetarium and as you know I am also ready to celebrate the eclipse we have a lot of fun here today in Springfield the eclipse begins at 2:13 p.m. and ends at 437 p.m. and throughout the whole day today the museum will offer a variety of activities to celebrate and educate starting with their Eclipse planetarium show that will guide visitors on what they can expect from the eclipse and learn how the Earth Sun and Moon interact to form this spectacular site they'll of course have a safe Eclipse viewing in the afternoon using filtered telescopes eclipse glasses like I was just wearing a moment ago and of course pinhole projectors on the North Lawn here in Springfield since part of the sun will always be visible in Southern New England during the event observers must use these filters that are specifically made for viewing the scent to prevent any eye damage and of course for the Blind and low vision Community the museum also offers a sonification box that translates the solar eclipse into sound using sensors to detect changes in the light and generate corresponding audio so for all of you guys who are looking to see this spectacular site you can come down to Springfield tickets are just $8 to get into the Science Museum and if you're a resident of Springfield you get in for free so come on and join in on the fun working for you Melissa Torres 22 News