A rush of excited people poured out of the lobby of the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center when Cameron Waller, who works behind the front desk, announced that it was just 15 minutes until the eclipse reached totality.

The center held a viewing party Monday afternoon, April 8, during the unique event, and anyone could park a chair on the lawn for free. But aside from the crowd outside, visitors also decided to see what the museum had to offer – 700 passes were sold by 3 p.m., easily surpassing the peak 400 passes sold daily during the center’s busiest time, February vacation.

Rae Duncan, who also works at the front desk, said that they saw their usual families and seniors, but today there were a lot more single adults.

The center was ready for the flood of viewers. The outside area was stocked with snacks and drinks. Near the entrance, there was a tent where attendees could get eclipse viewers since the center ran out of glasses. 

Viewers were virtually the same as the glasses but they had to be held in place. The center had been selling eclipse glasses for the last 18 months and ran out multiple times.

A Bow family was probably one of the most excited groups there. They stood together looking up with their eclipse glasses on. The kids and adults all wore big smiles, but grandmother Ellen Graham’s was the biggest.

“What a gorgeous day for it,” Graham said. “My last eclipse was in 1945 and we used pin boxes [to see it].”

For Maggie Howard, of Rhode Island, it was the first time she said she traveled to see an eclipse but not the first one she’s seen – there was one over Providence when she was 12, she said.

“We used the pinhole method and my dad put out a bucket, we didn’t have these [eclipse glasses],” she said.

Other than pulling up a chair and grabbing a snack, the center was prepared with multiple activities while visitors waited for totality.

The Boram family, from Seattle, was volunteering at the discovery center to be beside their daughter, Wallis Boram, who works as an education coordinator there, that day. Parents Carrie and Brian were running a table with Katie Marinoff-Silk, director of development. 

The table held supplies for visitors to make Cyanotype sun prints, where you could test out the different levels of a sunscreen SPF by drawing with them and seeing how much sun passes through. The activity aimed to provide education about staying safe in the sun.

Meanwhile, the younger Boram was helping to man the telescope display, where viewers of all heights could catch a glimpse. She said she and the rest of the team had been seriously planning for the eclipse for about a year and a half.

Also standing by to help with the telescopes was intern JJ DeVito, a high school senior. It happened to be DeVito’s first day.

Inside, Morgan and Colt Bertrand and their three children make solar eclipse drawings with chalk alongside their 81-year-old great-grandmother, Tara Van Meter. Morgan Bertrand and Van Meter made a drawing together, which Bertrand said would be a good way to remember the event.

“This is something we really wanted to do because we’re not sure she’s going to see another one,” Morgan Bertrand said.

The Capital Quilters Guild had an exhibit set up inside that displayed the quilters’ work. Attendees could vote on their favorite one. A sign noted that the quilters used the eclipse as inspiration, each interpreting the theme via different fabrics and techniques.

Hayley Steiber brought her two young daughters from Kittery, Maine. She said going to the center to see the eclipse was a no-brainer.

“They both really love space,” Steiber said. “I was trying to explain to them the concept of an eclipse and it just went right over their heads.”

As the moon slowly made its way toward covering the sun, the environment began to change.

It wasn’t dark out, but it got noticeably dimmer, and chillier, than the 66 degrees and sunny day that it was two hours prior. People chatted about the sky toward the north getting much darker. 

After totality was over, some people began packing up their things, but no one was in a rush.

From Concord, Cole and Mackenzie Padula sat on a blanket in the grass with their son, who snacked on two different apples. They’d been to the Discovery Center before and were happy to be back.

“We had his first birthday here, he loves spaceships,” Mackenzie said. “[The eclipse] was great, it was awesome.”