While Monday’s total solar eclipse dazzled spectators across New England in Upstate New York, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire — Massachusetts was treated only to a partial solar eclipse. 

But the let-down of missing totality didn’t keep UMass Dartmouth students and others from donning their specialized glasses and staring at the sun. The watch party treated gatherers to live music as they awaited the astronomical event. 

For anyone in the Commonwealth who either had to work during the eclipse or didn’t feel like making the trip north to witness the miracle of totality, there’s a second chance.

Massachusetts will have its chance to experience totality. A total solar eclipse will be passing directly through Boston in the early morning hours of May, 1, 2079 — a mere 55 years from now, according to NASA. Anyone in the Commonwealth still alive at that time will be treated to a rare sunrise eclipse. 

Until then, anyone with eclipse glasses can donate them to an organization called Astronomers Without Borders, which will repurpose used glasses and donate them to children in Latin America for when a “ring of fire” solar eclipse passes through southern Chile and Argentina on October 2, 2024. 

Collection bins for used glasses can be found outside the library media center at the Dartmouth High School. The glasses can also be mailed to Eclipse Glasses USA, LLC

PO Box 50571, Provo, UT 84605.