An opportunity to watch a spectacular eclipse of the moon in Bermuda brought neighbours, students, parents and teachers together at Victor Scott School and has laid the foundations for what is hoped will be future projects to teach young Bermudians about the wonders of space and astronomy.

Sean McCabe, an analyst with reinsurer RenaissanceRe, shared his knowledge of astronomy with students at the school in a pilot project that was supported by his employer RenRe.

During Wednesday he talked about the eclipse event and other space-related subjects.

Then in the evening he returned to the school to assist youngsters in viewing the total eclipse as it happened between 9 p.m. and 11.30 p.m.

Around 60 of the more senior students came along, but there were others who were fascinated by what was going on and joined in as telescopes pointed skyward.

"We had a lot of people from the community who came along. Everyone enjoyed it," said Mr. McCabe, who hails from Ireland.

He was encouraged and supported by RenRe to share his knowledge with the school children to promote the global Universal Awareness project.

Four of his colleagues; Kelly Regal, Calvin Thomas, Graham Dick and Eimear Holohan provided extra help.

Eddie McGonagle, president of the Bermuda Astronomy Society, also played a big role on the night guiding the youngsters as they used telescopes to view the moon as it was eclipsed by the Earth's shadow.

"Mr. McGonagle was brilliant with the telescope," said Mr. McCabe.

Another fun part of the day was hosting a live Internet call with students in South Africa during the eclipse to compare notes. Mr. McCabe said: "The call went on until midnight and it was as though the students had grown up in the same street, they were talking about the moon and football and other things."

It is hoped the success of the trial project will see a widening of the initiative to other Bermuda schools in the future.

Next year has been designated Year of Astronomy by UNESCO, and the Universal Awareness project is one of the selected projects being promoted.

After turning teacher for a day, Mr. McCabe is keen to do more to teach youngsters about the wonders of space.

"We are hoping to get the Ministry of Education involved. It would be great to push this project out to more schools.

"There seems to be the enthusiasm there and it has been highly successful," he said. "We are very grateful to RenRe and Victor Scott for their support."