PRESQUE ISLE, Maine – More than 200 people packed the University of Maine at Presque Isle’s lawn Monday morning for a “solarbration” and unveiling of the newest addition to the Maine Solar System Model: a 23-foot tall, bright yellow representation of the sun.
Since the solar system’s inception 20 years ago, the painting of the sun was located inside Folsom Hall on campus. Campus President Ray Rice said one of the most common questions visitors have is “Where is the sun?”
To mark the 20th anniversary of the popular solar system model, Kevin McCartney, a retired professor who devised the whole idea for the project, undertook fundraising and logistics to create a model of the sun that would be visible to everyone on the campus grounds.
On Monday, McCartney credited the entire Aroostook County community for getting behind this new project as they did for the original model.
“It takes a community who can embrace wild ideas, from maybe a kind of wild person, to make something like this happen,” he said.
Rice addressed the crowd, as did former campus president Nancy Hensel and alumna Trisha House of U.S. Sen. Susan Collins’ office.
Campus officials then pulled the ropes to drop the veil covering the openwork metal sun, located on the lawn in front of Preble Hall.
Among those enjoying the festivities were Becca Roe and her husband, Peter Michael, of Tulsa, Oklahoma. The couple had originally planned to view the eclipse in Texas, but the forecast wasn’t good.
“When we heard it was going to be cloudy in Texas, we thought why not go to Maine,” Roe said. “We decided on Friday.”
Roe and Michael were chatting with Kat Allen and her husband, Aaron Putnam of Orono, who also came north for eclipse day to join father-in-law, David Putnam, an associate professor of science at UMPI.
“We came up here because Dave is here — and it’s on the path of totality,” Allen said.
Correction: The story has been amended to correct the name of the solar system model and the spelling of Trisha House’s first name.
