On December 26, the Department of Earth and Space Sciences (ESS) took advantage of a partial solar eclipse to host a range of optical observations across two different sites on campus. ESS Professor Liu Kaijun went to one location with Associate Professors Yang Jian and Jing Zhicheng heading to the other site to run the activities and guide the SUSTech community through the safe use of the equipment and observation of the partial solar eclipse.

ESS Associate Professor Jing Zhicheng explained that because China is not located in an area known as the “eclipse belt,” China only gets to observe partial eclipses.

EEE Associate Professor went on to point out that Shenzhen would be able to see the partial eclipse for more than three hours, with the most substantial coverage of the sun by the moon being at nearly 2pm.

By 3pm, the partial solar eclipse had ended, as had the observation activity. Everyone that took the opportunity to take part felt that they had learned a lot and had become more interested in astronomy as a result.