PHOTOS: Georgians watch solar eclipse — some already planning for the next one in 20 years

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Ryan Washington uses the Fernbank Science Center eclipse viewers to take a picture of the sun on her phone in Atlanta, Ga., on April 8, 2024.

Credit: Amanda Andrews / GPB News

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Visitors line up to use the telescope at Fernbank Science Center on April 8, 2024 to view the solar eclipse.

Credit: Amanda Andrews / GPB News

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Crowds gather in a Macon, Ga., park on April 8, 2024 to view the solar eclipse.

Credit: Sofi Gratas / GPB News

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Crowds gather in a Macon, Ga., park on April 8, 2024, to view the solar eclipse.

Credit: Josephine Bennett / GPB News

Credit: Fuzzy shadows appear on the ground during the partial solar eclipse in Macon, Ga., on April 8, 2024.

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Josephine Bennett / GPB News

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An image of the partial solar eclipse as it appeared through special solar glasses in Atlanta, Ga., on April 8, 2024.

Georgia was not in the path of totality for the solar eclipse on April 8, but people still gathered outside with special glasses and lenses to watch the celestial event.

More than 1,000 people, young and old, gathered at Fernbank Science Center for Solar Eclipse Fest on Monday.

The event included food trucks, a DJ, free planetarium shows and activities. DeKalb County Schools created the event to engage students and the public in science and build excitement around the celestial event.

Families filled the science center and set up blankets on the grass out front in preparation for the eclipse, the first in Georgia since Aug. 21, 2017.

Erin Wales attended the festival with her children. Wales said missed the last eclipse in Atlanta, but she plans this make this a family tradition going forward.

“I am already planning with my family to go to Morocco for 2045 and see it on the beach,” she said. “This is such an amazing experience. I'm a little upset that I didn't know to plan more for this, but it's a great experience.”

Fernbank is home to the Ralph L. Buice Jr. Observatory, the largest telescope in the southeastern United States. A limited number of viewers received free access to the observatory and the rooftop of the science center, but everyone received free eclipse glasses to view the partial eclipse. Georgia was not in the path of totality, so viewers were only able to see 85% coverage.

Sean Atitsogbe, 9 years old, attended the eclipse festival. He said people need to know even partial sun can still cause real eye damage.

“The sun doesn't only emit visible light,” he said. “It emits things in other ranges of the electromagnetic spectrum like radio waves, infrared waves, and also UV rays, which are very harmful to skin, eyes, retinas, all that stuff.”

Atitsogbe also goes by Sean the Science Kid and has his own YouTube channel. He loves physics and he says he’s already making plans to view the next solar eclipse if he’s not too busy.

“I'll probably be in med school,” he said. “Well, maybe out of med school being a doctor or something, but I'll still be excited, and I'll try to go if I don't have a workday scheduled.”

The next total solar eclipse in Georgia will be Aug. 12, 2045.