Beaufort County residents — and the rest of the continental United States — took an hour or two to witness a historical event Monday.

A total solar eclipse was visible to some extent across the entire continental U.S., a phenomenon that hasn’t happened since June 1918. Beaufort County residents were able to see the stellar show starting at 1:30 p.m., with about 90-percent totality reached around 2:45 p.m.

Beaufort County Community College hosted a viewing party, complete with telescopes, behind Building 10. Faculty members were also on hand to answer questions about the phenomenon.

“We were able to use some of the resources of the college to give our students a special experience,” Dr. Jay Sullivan, vice president of research and institutional effectiveness, stated in a press release. “We hope that students learned something, and that we made astronomy a bit more tangible to them.”