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The sky goes dark above De Soto High School during peak totality of the solar eclipse on Aug. 21. Photo by Rylee Wilson.

De Soto High School students and teachers headed outside at 1 p.m on Aug. 21, protective glasses in tow, hoping to catch a glimpse of a rare total solar eclipse. However, students were disappointed as heavy cloud cover obscured the sun for all but a few seconds. While the sky went dark for a few minutes when the eclipse was at peak totality, the event was not visible under the clouds in De Soto.

Some students even resorted to watching a live stream of the event while outside.

While students who remained at De Soto missed out on the eclipse, some students traveled to get better views of the rare astrological event. Senior Jordan Mahnken traveled to a campsite in Smithville, Missouri, to get a look at the eclipse.

Mahnken chose to leave school for the event “because these eclipses only come once every few years, and don’t come close to us very often.”

The cloud cover was also an issue for eclipse viewing farther north.

“I got to see the total eclipse, but only for a few seconds at a time because of the clouds,” Mahnken said.

Despite the cloudy skies, Mahnken enjoyed her experience, especially encountering people who had traveled to see the eclipse.

“It was just a really good time meeting people and watching something so rare that people travel all around for,” Mahnken said. “We saw some people who had come all the way from California to watch the eclipse.”

DHS faculty also traveled to see the eclipse. Teacher Angela Sauerwein watched the eclipse from a handball court in Leavenworth, but the weather put a damper on her eclipse experience as well.

“Unfortunately, we were not able to see the eclipse because of the cloud cover,” Sauerwein said. “Despite the disappointment of not being able to see the total eclipse, people still cheered when it started and ended.”

Sauerwein felt the eclipse offered some lessons on life.

“Despite your effort, there are some things in life you can’t control, like clouds. How you react to those clouds is your choice,” Sauerwein said.