LIFESTYLES
WEEKEND, AUGUST 19-20, 2017
This photo
provided by Bob
Baer and Sarah
Kovac, participants
in the Citizen CATE
Experiment, shows a
“diamond ring” shape
during the 2016 total
solar eclipse in Indone-
sia. For the 2017 eclipse
over the United States,
the National Science
Foundation-funded movie
project nicknamed Citizen
CATE will have more than
200 volunteers trained and
given special small tele-
scopes and tripods to observe
the sun at 68 locations in the
exact same way. The thousands of
images from the citizen-scientists
will be combined for a movie of the
usually hard-to-see sun’s edge.
R. Baer, S. Kovac/Citizen CATE Experiment via AP
More than spectacle: Eclipses
create science and so can you
By SETH BORENSTEIN
AP Science Writer
WASHINGTON — The
sun is about to spill some of
its secrets, maybe even reveal
a few hidden truths of the
cosmos. And you can get in
on the act next week if you
are in the right place for the
best solar eclipse in the U.S.
in nearly a century.
Astronomers are going
full blast to pry even more
science from the mysterious
ball of gas that’s vital to
Earth. They’ll look from the
ground, using telescopes,
cameras, binoculars and
whatever else works. They’ll
look from the International
Space Station and a fl eet of
11 satellites in space. And
in between, they’ll fl y three
planes and launch more than
70 high-altitude balloons.
“We expect a boatload of
science from this one,” said
Jay Pasachoff, a Williams
College astronomer who has
traveled to 65 eclipses of all
kinds.
Scientists will focus on
the sun, but they will also
examine what happens to
Earth’s weather, to space
weather, and to animals and
plants on Earth as the moon
totally blocks out the sun. The
moon’s shadow will sweep
along a narrow path, from
Oregon to South Carolina.
Between NASA and the
National Science Foundation,
the federal government is
spending about $7.7 million
on next Monday’s eclipse.
One of the NASA projects
has students launching the
high-altitude balloons to
provide “live footage from
the edge of space” during the
eclipse.
But it’s not just the profes-
sionals or students. NASA has
a list of various experiments
everyday people can do.
“Millions of people can
walk out on their porch in
their slippers and collect
world-class data,” said Matt
Penn, an astronomer at the
National Solar Observatory
in Tucson, Arizona.
See SCIENCE/4C
Total solar eclipse: how it happens
As the moon eclipses the sun, it produces two types of shadows on Earth. The umbral
shadow is cast when the sun is completely covered by the moon, producing a total solar
eclipse. The penumbral shadow is much larger where only a partial eclipse can be seen.
Sun
Partial eclipse
Total eclipse
Earth
Moon
Umbra
Penumbra
Scott G Winterton/The Deseret News via AP
In this Aug. 16 photo, Colton Hammer tries
out his new eclipse glasses he just bought
from the Clark Planetarium in Salt Lake City in
preparation for the eclipse.
Deities & dragons:
How ancient cultures
explained solar phenomenons
Moon’s
orbit
Earth’s
orbit
If drawn to scale, the moon would be approximately 238,900 miles
from Earth. The sun would be nearly 400 times that distance away.
Eclipse phases
First Contact
Second Contact
Totality
Third Contact
Fourth Contact
Edge of the
moon starts to
overlap the edge
of the sun.
Moon covers the
entire disk of the
Sun. Totality
begins.
The sun is
completely
covered.
Moon starts
moving away.
The sun’s disk
re-emerges.
Moon moves
away from the sun
as the eclipse
event ends.
Sources: NASA; www.timeanddate.com
Alan Kenaga/EO Media Group
AP Photo/Gillian Flaccus
In this Aug. 3 photo, amateur astronomer Mike Conley
practices with the telescope he will use to document the
Aug. 21 total solar eclipse, at his home in Salem. Conley
is part of a project led by the National Solar Observato-
ry to have dozens of citizen-scientists posted across the
U.S. photograph the celestial event in an effort to cre-
ate a live movie of its path that will help scientists learn
more about the sun’s corona.
“Who knows?
Maybe a great secret
will come of this,
the mysteries of the
sun will be revealed,
because we’re doing
something that’s nev-
er been done before
and we’re getting
data that’s never
been seen before.”
— Mike Conley,
Salem stock trader
whose back yard is
studded with telescopes
By ROGER CULVER
Colorado State University
O
n August 21, a total solar eclipse will be
visible across parts of the United States.
As the Earth and moon sweep through
space in their annual journey around the sun, the
three bodies align in such a way that the Earth
passes into the shadow of the moon. Observers
then witness a sun that is gradually covered and
uncovered by the moon’s disk — a spectacular
celestial event.
But until astronomers were able to explain this
phenomenon, a solar eclipse could be a terrifying
event. In many
cultures throughout
human history, the
sun was seen as an
entity of supreme
importance,
crucial to their
very existence.
It was regularly
worshipped as a
god — Amun-Ra to
the Egyptians and
Helios to the Greeks — or as a goddess, such as
Amaterasu for the Japanese and Saule for many
Baltic cultures.
One reason the sun served as a god or goddess
in so many cultures was its awesome power:
Looking directly at it would severely damages the
eyes, a sign of the sun diety’s wrath.
So the idea that the sun deity could be
temporarily extinguished in a total eclipse inspired
a number of imaginative explanations. Most
involve some sort of evil entity trying to devour
the sun. Such myths undoubtedly arose from the
fact that during the early stages of a solar eclipse,
the sun appears to have a bite taken out of it.
The various creatures include the Vikings’
sky wolves Skoll and Hati, a Chinese dragon, a
Vietnamese frog and assorted Roman demons. In
many cultures, it was believed that such creatures
could be driven off by creating as much loud noise
as possible: yelling, ringing bells, and banging
SOLAR
ECLIPSE
2017
See ECLIPSES/4C