ROCHESTER, N.Y. — About 100 to 200 people arrived at Hamblin Beach early Thursday morning to watch the partial solar eclipse for the Rochester Museum and Science Center viewing event.

Steve Fentress, the director of the Strasenburgh Planetarium at the museum, explained what exactly everyone was seeing.

“There was this strange beautiful crescent rising out of the water of Lake Ontario, and over the next hour or so, the moon uncovered the sun," said Fentress.

He said it was important for everyone to be supplied with solar glasses to safely watch the eclipse.

The eclipse reached its peak at 5:38 a.m., when 78% of the sun was covered by the moon.

RIT student Elissa Smith’s sister, Juliana, convinced her to wake up and witness the natural event.

“So early, but definitely worth getting up in the morning and it was beautiful so yeah it was really fun,” said Elissa.

Juliana is a marketing intern for the museum and says this was one of the events she was looking forward to experiencing.

“We were scared it was cloudy,” said Juliana. “The weather turned out great which was awesome and then the turnout was amazing. I don’t even think we expected this many people but it turned out great.”

Rochester was one of the few lucky places to get to see this eclipse, also known as the "ring of fire," along with northeastern Canada, Greenland and Russia.

Fentress said there will be more eclipses for the Rochester area to see in the future.

“The next solar eclipse for Rochester is October 14, 2023," he said. Six months later, April 8, 2024, Rochester is in the path of totality."

RMSC is already planning events for those future eclipses.