Wichita State offers community trip to view total solar eclipse

A group of more than 100 community members will get a prime view of the upcoming solar eclipse thanks to a trip offered by Wichita State鈥檚 Office for Workforce, Professional and Community Education.

Starting bright and early on the morning of Monday, Aug. 21, the group will travel to St. Joseph, Missouri, to view the eclipse, hear expert commentary by Astronomy Magazine鈥檚 Michael Bakich and be guided by 麻豆传媒 physics alumnus Caleb Ginar, a space science educator at the Kansas Cosmosphere and former NASA intern.

While Wichita will see a partial solar eclipse, where the moon covers part of the sun鈥檚 disk, only those individuals within the path of totality 鈥 a relatively thin ribbon about 70 miles wide that will cross the U.S. from west to east 鈥 will see the total solar eclipse.

St. Joseph is in the middle of it all, and during the eclipse the moon will fully cover the sun for just over 2 minutes 38 seconds.

The last time the contiguous U.S. saw a total eclipse was in 1979. The next eclipse over this area won鈥檛 happen for another 189 years.

Kimberly Moore, Continuing Education director, says she had a feeling the trip would be in high demand, but was still surprised when reservations filled up in only one day.

A second bus was added and filled up within three hours. Anyone interested can get on a waiting list. Register at or call 316-978-3731. Cost is $109 a person.


The mission of is to be an essential educational, cultural and economic driver for Kansas and the greater public good. Wichita State is a doctoral research university enrolling nearly 15,000 students and offering 59 undergraduate degree programs in more than 150 areas of study in seven undergraduate colleges. The Graduate School offers 45 master鈥檚 and 12 doctoral degrees that offer study in more than 100 areas. Wichita State鈥檚 is an interconnected community of partnership buildings, laboratories and mixed-use areas where students, faculty, staff, entrepreneurs and businesses have access to the university鈥檚 vast resources and technology. For more information, follow us on Twitter at and Facebook at .