HASTINGS Neb. – Hundreds gathered at Hastings College Monday afternoon to see the first solar eclipse in Nebraska since 2017. 

Over the span of three hours, eclipse glasses went on, off, and back on again to see the moon creeping farther and further across the sun.

Hastings College Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy Dr. Brad Peterson organized the public event and gave out hundreds of solar eclipse glasses to attendees.

"Even if it's not a total solar eclipse, it is still pretty cool, and it is still something that we don't see all that often," said Peterson. "The next one we'll be able to see from here is in about five years."

Peterson's Optics class students helped everyone involved view the eclipse in multiple different ways, which included the trusty eclipse glasses, and technologies the college didn’t have during the last eclipse in 2017.

"In 2017, we just had those basic ones (eclipse glasses) but here we actually have a couple tripods set up with phone camera filters," said Hastings College Sophomore Physics Student Ashton Vukson. "You can take pictures of it safely, and it doesn't come out a blurry mess, which is nice."

Today was special for some, especially for those from out of country who had never seen a solar event like this before.

"It was a cool experience, I've never seen something like that before," said Scotland Native and Hastings College Student Lewis Bowes. "There much wasn't coverage of it back home (in 2017,) so this is the first time I've seen a solar eclipse, kind of cool."

According to experts, the next partial solar eclipse in the United States will be in 2029, and the next total solar eclipse will be in 2044.