Watch Live: The 2024 Total Solar Eclipse

e e e e e e e e f speee [Music] for fore spee spee for spee [Music] speee fore hey Robert Robert Robert you calling me I'm Jeffrey gluger editor at large for time thanks for watching as we trace the path of Today's total eclipse of the sun across 15 US states and hundreds of cities from Southwest Texas to Northeastern Maine we're making such a big deal about this Eclipse because eclipses are a big deal in part because they're so infrequent total eclipses occur when the moon passes directly between the Earth and the Sun blocking solar light since 1900 only 12 have touched the US Mainland most of them only glancingly on average a total solar eclipse will happen where you live only once every 375 years why are they so rare well the sun is about 400 times larger than the moon but the sun is also 400 times farther away so the two bodies appear about the same size to us on Earth the moon orbits the earth once each month so why doesn't its shadow touch the Earth causing an eclipse with each pass partly because the moon's orbit is tilted slightly which causes its shadow to miss the Earth most of the time but it's also because the moon's orbit is elliptical for much of its path the Moon is farther away from Earth and appears too small to block out the sun completely those eclipses are called anular [Music] only when the eclipse occurs at the moon's closest approach is a total eclipse possible even then the narrow band of totality usually tracks over water or away from population centers that's why this eclipse on April 8th is so special as it crosses the Texas border at about 1:27 p.m. local time cities closest to the center of the path like Waco Cleveland and buffalo could witness up to 4 minutes or more of darkness in all 31 million us residents live in the path of the eclipse even if you don't live in the path of totality most of the US will experience some level of Darkness it's a 2-hour spectacle that you don't want to miss because the next total solar eclipse to hit the US Mainland won't be until 2044 perhaps the most most important thing to remember about watching an eclipse is that you need to protect your eyes properly I have these glasses and I did a fair bit of research before buying them we asked Rick fineberg at the American Astronomical Society to explain what you should make sure you have ready to go we recommend that people equip themselves with Eclipse viewers they come as uh in the form of cardboard framed eyeglasses or plastic framed eyeglasses also uh little cardboard handheld viewers sometimes thick cardboard um and they have special filters in them that are supposed to meet a certain International standard called iso1 12312 D2 you'll often see that number printed on these products that's if if a product meets that standard then it is perfectly safe to use to look directly at the Sun the iso1 12312 D2 standard is both a standard of what makes a solar viewer safe but also what makes a solar viewer usable it specifies the maximum amount of light that can get through not just in visible light but also in ultraviolet and also in the infrared solar eclipse glasses a solar viewer is at least a thousand times darker than the even the dark orinary sunglasses so if you can see anything through it other than the sun you should be concerned so what I tell people is look around in the house if you can see things you see detail in the house your glasses aren't dark enough if they pass the indoor test take them outside don't look at the sun just look at the landscape again if you can see the landscape through the glasses they're not dark enough now if you pass that test you've looked inside the house you've looked outside the house and you don't basically see anything take a brief glance at the sun on a sunny day don't wait for April 8th if the sun looks round and sharp edged and comfortably bright your glasses are almost certainly safe the reason I say almost certainly is because genuinely safe eclipse glasses will also block most of the sun's ultraviolet and infrared radiation we only see the visible light but there is ultraviolet light which you know can damage your corn is it's one of the reasons we end up with um cataracts Too much exposure to solar ultraviolet and infrared radiation is heat radiation so the last thing you want to do is cook your retina the last thing I want anybody to do if they haven't been able to get their hands on eclipse glasses or other solar viewers is to decide that there's no safe way to view the eclipse so they have to skip it there are other safe ways to view a solar eclipse uh the most common one is what we call pinhole projection it's a bit of a misnomer because you can use holes that are bigger than the ones made by a pin um a very simple pinhole projector is just to take your hands and create a little Waffle pattern with your finger and then projection is done with the Sun at your back so you put the Sun at your back and you look at the shadow of your hands with the crossed fingers on the ground and you'll see little crescent suns in between the shadows of your fingers or you've created pin holes with your fingers another great pinhole projector is a colander from your kitchen or a perforated spoon that you would use to strain soup anything with a bunch of small holes in it makes a great pinhole projector the only time pinhole projection doesn't work is if you happen to be in the path of totality during the few minutes when the sun is completely blocked by the moon the sun in total eclipse is faint enough that it's not going to create U pinhole images through any of these projectors that I was describing but during the partial phases or even when there's no eclipse at all you can use PR hole projection to see an image of the Sun so it's important to know that during the total phase of a total solar eclipse when the moon is completely blocking the sun's bright face and this only happens if you're in the path of totality it is perfectly safe to look at the sun without any eye protection because the totally eclipsed sun when the sun's outer atmosphere the corona shines forth is only about as bright as a full moon so it's just to say to look at but at any other time during the partial phases that preced and follow totality and the entirety of a partial solar eclipse which is all you'll get if you're outside the path you must use some kind of safe eye protection because the sun even if it's only a thin sliver is so very bright that looking at it for more than a second or so is going to cause damage to your retina if you miss today's Eclipse you will need to wait another 20 years which is why a lot of people are seizing the day an estimated 31 million Americans will be able to see today's Eclipse if the clouds are willing of course it may not have the same economic impact as say a Taylor Swift concert but the sun can bring in big bucks too up to 4 million people are expected to have traveled to the towns within the band of totality those are the places where the moon will completely cover the Sun so if we add up airline tickets hotel accommodations me deals and other travel related expenses the event is expected to inject up to $1 billion into the US economy according to forbs we spoke with some Eclipse Hunters as they were planning their trips when I was in high school I was part of um the astronomy club in Columbus Ohio where I went school and they had a lecture one day on a group that went from Ohio to Africa to see an eclipse in I believe it was 2003 and at the end of the lecture they said that if you want to see one of these and not travel that far your first Chance is going to be in 2017 as there's one Crossing through the US so waited 14 years or so to see the one in 2017 and I would absolutely wait every second of that weight again if I had to Total Eclipse of the Sun every eclipse is different every Eclipse experience is different especially if you have to travel to so different countries my goal was not to go only to the US for the eclipse actually the challenge is to be on vacation for 2 weeks and see northern lights and the total eclipse and storm chasing in Texas maybe see a tornado those three things in two weeks vacation would be the that's the challenge actually I do check the weather I obsessively check the weather so the prospects in Upstate New York I'm hoping to see it around Rochester that kind of area it's not as good as it could be but hey if you're not there the chances are zero I'm I mean obviously there are factors around trying to choose places with good weather and all the rest of it but you know practicality terms if you've got a family there's a difference between taking a flight to Toronto that costs $400 or one that's going to be $3,000 to Texas and much longer time distance and it's just so for me that's what it was about but I would choose somewhere that has what works for me a balance of weather prospects practicality and affordability and things to do because I've got two kids and I work and it's just not possible to pay for that we started planning this trip probably about two maybe two and a half years ago or so and at the time we were initially looking in southern Texas at the time though even two years ago everything in the area was sold out so that was number one to make us consider looking at other places as well so we're going to be watching it from a city in Mexico called ton and it actually is based on our knowledge of the historical Cloud patterns the lowest chance of cloud cover for the entire Center Line of the eclipse path a lesson here is if you are really committed to see this one it should be good to be a bit mobile you know you may need to go to some other place I have a direct flight from Istanbul to Houston which is taking like 13 hours but I'm used to it you know here once once or twice a year maybe like it's not bad okay this is my vacation I'm normally a civil engineer so yeah I have my P check but I always save a few dollars Euros whatever for the eclipses and there are some people that just look at it and they go okay that was cool for me I'm not in any way religious at all but it's almost as close to a religious moment as I think you can get without being religious the world carries on but it's like something changes in you and I've seen it now you'll never forget it preparing for this kind of influx of visitors doesn't just earn money for a lot of small towns but costs money too Ohio is spending $1 million to boost first responder and Emergency Management capability in New York state the chiaka County Legislature is allocating $200,000 to boost the availability of EMS equipment as well as portable cell towers Highway message boards and traffic flares and Erie County is buying $100,000 worth of eclipse glasses to help protect visitors eyes the county is expecting a lot of Outsiders but also locals will be watching students have been given a day off from school to celebrate the sun we spoke with Jennifer dunmire supervisor of math and science for mil Creek Township School District in Pennsylvania the motivation behind canceling classes for that day really started with our student safety if we look at our area uh and when the eclipse is going to happen at that time it's right at our elementary dismissal and the projections of the number of folks who will be joining our area for that day we really want you know our our students and staff to be able to get to their homes to get to be safe and enjoy this once in a lifetime opportunity we've been afforded an opportunity um by a partnership with our uh local Penn State Branch Penn State Baron because of their planetarium that they have on their local campus uh I knew that they were going to be doing a lot of you know community outreach they've been able to give us eclipse glasses for all of our students and all of our staff we went ahead and we sent home a sheet on how to use them safely and how to view the eclipse safely uh teachers are modeling that and demonstrating that with their students these folks have taken time and energy to go ahead and put together resources from lesson plans activities um a playlist which I think is great um to be able to listen to while you're enjoying the eclipse uh and prepare so understanding the phases of the moon for example understanding uh the pinhole projectors we had a local Professor from a university come into one of our elementary schools and meet with the grade levels to show them the phases of the moon and give them the opportunity to ask one of the experts you know on on the eclipse um you know just just different questions and their questions oh my word they ranged from from everything from the distance that the Moon is from Earth to the distance to the Sun to you know uh what we're seeing right now about the you know the solar flares and the geostorms and all of those things that are happening we sparking this new generation of Learners who are going to go outside look up at the stars and be enamored you know and um ready to uh you know go forward and and make make changes and who knows what they'll go and experience I imagine seeing an eclipse is something those kids will remember for the rest of their lives they certainly have a place in the world shared history the ladans and the medes ended their war in 585 BC when a total eclipse darkened the sky and convinced the combatants that it was a sign of disapproval over the ongoing fighting the English saw an unhappy cause and effect between the eclipse of August 2nd 1133 and the death of King Henry I even though Henry Died more than 2 years later in the Odyssey Homer recounted the eclipse of 1177 BC writing and the sun has perished out of heaven and an evil Mist hovers over all over time of course humans became less superstitious and more scientific and an eclipse became not an occasion for fear but an opportunity to learn during the total eclipse of August 18th 1868 French astronomer Jules Janssen studied the prominences the flames and Flame lers that dance around the edges of the sun's blacked out disc looking through a spectroscopic prism he saw the signature of helium thus discovering the second lightest element in the universe even before it had been found on Earth much more significantly on May 29th 1919 British astronomer Arthur Edington used a total eclipse to prove one of the premises of Einstein's general theory of relativity that gravity will bend light by a pred predictable amount months before the event Edington measured the precise position of the hiat star cluster then on May 29th when the sun was blacked out and the Stars popped into view he measured it again and it was different by a factor perfectly consistent with the bending Einstein had predicted in his 1915 Theory the times of London announced the discovery with the headline revolution in science new theory of the universe Newtonian ideas overthrown that in some ways illustrates one more gift of the solar eclipse that it allows for two different kinds of vision the aesthetic and the insightful the glimpse of Beauty and the glimpse of the working of the cosmos itself the last time the continental US was cast under the glow of a total eclipse was in 2017 it was slightly different from today's in the sense that had traveled from the Northwestern us to Southeast rather than Southwest to Northeast but the mystery of an event like this doesn't change in 2017 I sat down with andran who is the Widow of Carl San and the co-creator of the TV series Cosmos she spoke to me then about how an eclipse is an opportunity for reflection and re-evaluation that sudden chill the motion of the birds the way that the rest of Life reacts to the blocking out of the sun is almost you know it has that kind of Mythic biblical power to it and it should have [Music] it for how many countless Generations we applied the kind of false pattern recognition so you know there's a Darkness at noon oh my God that means that the king is not in favor or gods are angry or we have committed some terrible sin by Sleeping with the wrong person or eating the wrong food on the wrong day things like that but it's also the beginning of figuring out the universe what I love so much about science is for me it is informed worship it's a high degree of humility to say we know nothing we're very young we're very new at this give us a machine that can faret out those misconceptions and enable us to see nature as she really is and to love her as she is that to me is defining in love I mean really when you love someone is it good if you just love the Illusions you have about them or is it really a deeper love to want to know them as they truly are to love them so much that you will not turn away and Flinch at reality that soaring spiritual joy that Goosebump raising feeling of being part of Nature and understanding it even a little is one of the greatest human [Music] experiences when an eclipse passes overhead it changes the atmosphere technically the ionosphere which is the band of atmosphere that ranges from an altitude of about 60 to 300 km or 37 to 190 Mi that may cause such problems as disrupting the transmission of radio signals although the interference is usually usually too brief and subtle for people to notice you might notice also that it gets cooler where you are falling temperatures near the Earth's surface Also may cause what's known as an eclipse wind or a slowing of the wind that's the result of low-level air becoming cooler than the higher level air what's known as a temperature inversion which makes it harder for that more elevated atmosphere to mix with the air closer to the ground eliminating the temperature and density differences that lead to breathing es and gusts as totality ends the winds pick back up another effect falling temperatures may have will be the appearance of a fleeting thunderstorm as cooler air closer to the ground pushes warmer more humid air upward where moisture then condenses and rains out the process is similar to the way ocean breezes can cause brief storms in the summer you of course are expecting this and know why it's happening nonhuman animals are less prepared and today's eclipse is a Boon to scientists who study such things while most people will be looking up at the Sun during the April 8th total eclipse researchers at the Fort Worth Zoo in Texas will be looking at the animals animal behavior is only actually a small part of the research we do mostly we study skulls and we do dissections of Animals Adam harstone Rose is following up on studies done at a South Carolina Zoo that was in the path of total darkness in 2017 there was just this amazing opportunity where we were in 2017 to um to see these animals uh interesting animals and in this interesting phenomenon that was about to happen and so um we put together a study during that and I think I basically became hooked there is lots of anecdotal evidence of animals behaving bizarrely during eclipses but more rigorous scientific study is newer one of the animals we watched was the kodo dragon which are magnificent they're the biggest lizard they're amazing they're a little bit scary but they don't do anything like in general a Komodo dragon sits still for almost all hours of the day um and absorbs the Sun and maybe is digesting the kodo dragon we were watching before the 2017 Eclipse it literally didn't move at all we watched it all day Saturday we watched it all day Sunday then the eclipse was on Monday and just in those couple minutes during the eclipse it started running around and had a reaction some of the animals um behaved as if uh evening had come so they went into to their nighttime routine the gorillas um at and they spend their day outside and then at night they're moved into like an indoor enclosure where they get their final food and then they go to sleep and in the middle of the day the whole group of gorillas wandered over towards the the uh enclosure um as if to be to be l in at night there's also a call for citizen scientists to observe animals even your own pets this time around we're going to uh look at some of the same types of animals so we're going to going to look at a different group of gorillas and see if they behave the same way as previously we're going to look at another group of giraffe it sounds uh like a lot of what we know about animal behavior during eclipses is hard to believe and yes most of it is based on one person's observations of potentially one animal but the only way that we can confirm this stuff is to take every opportunity that we can to go out and um and witness it ourselves one of the most striking examples of animal behavior that I've read about involved a captive troop of chimpanzees at the yeres Primate Research Center on the campus of Emory University in Georgia during an annular eclipse on May 30th 1984 as researchers reported in the American Journal of primatology the animals moved to the highest point of a climbing structure in their enclosure and turned their faces upward in the direction of the Sun and the Moon one juvenile gestured toward the slowly Vanishing Sun The Chimps remained that way until the skies began to brighten when they descended from the structure no one can ever say with certainty how they were experiencing what they were seeing whether they felt their own form of curiosity or wonder or even reverence clearly though they were captivated by it all I can certainly relate I've seen two total eclipses in my life and it never gets old keep watching here to see a live stream of the eclipse as the sun Works its Way Northeast and if you are going outside to watch it yourself please remember to take care of your eyes make sure you are using a proper pair of solar filters enjoy the sky show spee spee speech for spe speee [Music] spee spee hey [Music] [Music] spe spee for spee spee speech [Music] spee [Music] [Music] hello happy day everyone otherwise known as April 8th 2024 I'm Justine Simons with time and I'm joined here in our offices in New York by uh Professor David heand who is a professor of astronomy at Columbia University and also chair of the American Institute of physics David welcome thank you pleasure to be here it's great to have you here uh we'll answer viewer questions we'll talk about eclipse's past present and future there's a lot to discuss right um we're looking right now at uh the live scene in Mazatlan Mexico as lots and lots of people are gathering to watch eclipses David you how many eclipses have you seen I've attempted to see three and seen all three of them which is why I've not traveling today figer three for three is a good record third times a charm and all of that tell me uh some of your favorite Eclipse memories well the first one was in February of 1998 I had gone to my 25th College reunion and one of my classmates came up to me and said David I have to talk to you I founded this company 10 years ago and we're going to celebrate its 10th anniversary the company's really a phenomenon so I wanted a phenomenon to go with it and I discovered there's an eclipse in the caran on the week we founded the company and so I said well clearly you need an astronomer he said that's why I'm telling you I need an astronomer to come with us on this I've got this this boat that's 500 ft long and holds 200 people and we're going to go so we we did and we positioned the ship off Moser where the suer volcano was erupting so there was a 60,000 ft plume of volcanic ash in One Direction and the solar eclipse Shadow sweeping across the Caribbean in the other C feel you're just showing off now it was a memorable first Eclipse wow that's amazing and and that was uh a total eclipse right the total eclipse lasted about 4 minutes so we had everyone with B ular with solar filters to watch the Ingress and egress but during the moment of eclipse we take the filters off so you can see the corona of the sun and the planets in the sky uh and one of the one of the company's lawyers was on the boat was very nervous that people had their filters off and I said we know we know how long it's going to take it's not going to be a problem well but that's a really good question we should talk a little bit about eye safety right cuz it's a serious thing oh it's a very serious thing um the sun is very bright and it's not just the light you can see our eyes are sensitive only to a single Octave of light the light spectrum but there's ultraviolet light and there's infrared light both of which can damage your eyes the ultraviolet light damage your damages your lenses and your cornea and the infrared light will just cook your retina both of which are bad and can happen in seconds so normally when we go outside we are wearing sunglasses or nothing at all but the difference is we're not staring at the sun because you just can't right I I hope not I hope not and sunglasses well they may seem dark to you make it comfortable to to uh be outside in a sunny day are 1 1,000th the level of density you need to block the sun's ultraviolet inred and visible radiation okay um that's good to know and so let's talk about eclipse glasses all right I have I these are my Eclipse Shades they're even called Eclipse Shades I mean there's some special technology that goes to these even though they look like pieces of cardboard with tin foil on they are pieces of cardboard but they have the lenses have been coated such that they screen out both the ultraviolet and the infrared Rays as well as the visible light if you can see anything looking through those glasses in your house or outside in the yard that means they're not good enough to look at the sun the only thing you should be able to see is the sun right okay so that's good to know and also there is um you want to make sure that you have actual legal St official stock uh eclipse glasses and they should have this information on them Right iso is this the number that I'm looking at David ISO that's right 12312 D two it's just 1 12312 is 1 2 312 okay and if you want a set of uh recommended places although it's a little late to buy them now uh eclipse. a.org has all of the uh official manufacturers listed okay that's good to know it is a little late now but there are alternatives right I mean you don't you don't if you're not going to look at the Sun or even if you decide that it's not safe to look at the sun which I I know some um you know Opthomologist say just don't ever risk it you can um make a sort of pinhole viewer a pinhole projector right so there's many ways to do this uh what you want to do is make a small aperture through which the light passes so you can take your fingers and overlap them per particular to each other in a Tic Tac Toe pattern and you'll see four little images of the sun of the Moon encroaching on it uh you can take a colander which could give you dozens of little images of the sun if you're in a place where the leaves have come out yet they haven't come out yet in New York you can sit under a tree and then you'll see hundreds of little images of the sun being eclipsed by the moon so anything with small holes in it you can just take a piece of white paper punch a hole in it and with a pen and project it onto the ground and you can see the eclipse in progress great and you put the sun behind you or the eclipsing sun yeah okay great um all right you've told us the story of your first Total Eclipse which was I can't decide if I'm more impressed by the volcano or the eclipse because they were simultaneously happening your second Eclipse second one was just the next year so I was on a research leave at the University of Cambridge and there was going to be an eclipse in France in Normandy just across the channel so of course we went rented this 15th century Farmhouse and the day of the the eclipse is not looking promising cuz it was pretty cloudy there were a few little breaks so we got in a car and frantically chased holes in the clouds until just 15 minutes before the eclipse we found this field full of cows where there was a bright blue patch of Sky we witnessed the whole eclipse and the dramatic part there was the cows as soon as the eclipse became total the clouds all started moving and went back to the barn to get milk cuz it was night time and that's when you get milked so that's a thing oh it's a real thing yeah the animals will get confused right well they don't know what's happening obviously it's getting dark it's time to go get milk and yes Birds stop singing at dusk they stop singing yeah we we ran a story earlier in the show about you know um scientists who are studying anal animal behavior I mean obviously this is not such a regular opportunity so there there is um probably a lot of work happening right about now yeah I read somewhere that some zo has a whole bunch of volunteers monitoring all the different animals to see how they respond yeah and actually there's a project to monitor your P pets as well mhm do you think they'll behave differently uh possibly I don't know if they if they're out outside they're inside they probably won't notice but it's possible that dogs and cats would react you would think my colleague went to get um Eclipse classes at the New York City Public Library cu the library was giving out has I think now given out all of them thousands and thousands of pairs of eclipse glasses and the woman in front of him was picking up a pair for her dog yeah well I think dogs are smart enough not to look at the Sun so I don't think that's really necessary it was the most New York City thing ever you got to love it though uh okay your third Eclipse third Eclipse was the last great American Eclipse which was in August of 2017 and we had cleverly arranged the high energy astrophysics division of the American Astronomical Society to hold a meeting simultaneously with Eclipse so we could gather several hundred astronomers together to share in the experience of the eclipse and we had rented a space hotel in Jackson Hall Wyoming uh being very clever 5 years in advance they did Co course didn't know there was an eclipse and so they didn't charge us extra money but then unfortunately the hotel got sold and turned into condos so we had a last minute frantic search and ended up at Sun Valley in Idaho which was equally nice so it was fun oh you had to downgrade to Sun Valley and I so I have heard people say it's total eclipse or bust is that true I mean I'm asking you know really here we are in New York City where it's a partial eclipse and I think people still seem excited I am well it's if you have the right glasses to watch it a partial eclipse is really interesting because this purely black shape moves over the surface of the Sun but the Sun never gets fully eclipsed and the difference yes it's 99% and 100% are completely different the 99% the sun is still a thousand times brighter than the full moon and you cannot look at it without the glasses on uh at 100% the sun is not bright at all it's less bright than the full moon all you see is the outer atmosphere of the sun called the corona uh and that's beautiful and spectacular and can only be viewed during an eclipse but the 99% eclipse is just not the same experience um so it's a bucket list thing for sure yes and there are places on Earth every year where there's an eclipse right it's just that a lot of them in somewhat remote places right we're we're spending so much time and giving so much attention to this particular one because it crosses you know our whole crosses the country yes and if you're lucky enough to be in Carbondale Illinois then you got to see the one in 2017 and the one in 2024 as a total eclipse double lucky yeah okay that's that's good to know um all right so should we talk a little bit about um the history of eclipses aside from your own personal history of having seen so many what we here in New York when is the last time this city saw a total eclipse which I should say we are not going to see today on April 8 no we're not only 90% today uh 1924 was the last total eclipse in New York and in 1925 we didn't know the orbits of the Moon and the Earth and the Sun sufficiently accurately to know exactly where the edge of totality was going to be uh and this was considered worthwhile finding out and so ConEd stationed observers on the rooftops of every building up Riverside Drive and what they determined was that the edge of the total eclipse pattern was 96 street so if you were above 96 Street then you get to see a total eclipse and if you were below 96 Street it was only a partial eclipse and are there there must be some fun Mentos and photographs and things from that there there are photographs of people standing on the roofs it was in January and it was 0 degrees Fahrenheit so it wasn't a pleasant experience but they did get to see the uh the total eclipse if they were above 96 ft does the do the seasons make a difference or is it just truly a weather pattern is a weather pattern no those Seasons don't aren't connected in any way the seasons are a consequence of the Earth's orbit around the Sun and of course the moon follows the Earth around the Sun sure but will they make a difference in what you see no not really uh in the winter time if it's very clear there's somewhat less water vapor in the atmosphere so it might be slightly sharper but you probably wouldn't notice it um and what about uh sort of opportunities for scientists historically maybe shall we speak about that well by far the most important scientific discovery made during an eclipse was in 1919 uh Albert Einstein had three years earlier published his radical new theory of gravity to transplant Newton's theory of gravity and it made a specific prediction that the light of any Star passing close to the sun should be deflected by twice the amount that Newton's Theory would have suggested now factor of two is a big effect uh but it's very hard to measure light from Stars near the sun because of course when the sun's up you can't see the stars so what Arthur Edington and Frank Dyson did was launch expeditions to Brazil and to pipe the island of Africa in the South Atlantic and they set up to measure the eclipse 6 months in advance so that then of course it was dark because it was 6 months earlier and then during the eclipse itself they again measured exactly the same stars and showed the shift in the position of the stars that was completely consistent with Einstein's new theory of gravity okay interesting I mean that's a big breakthrough right that's a major transformation of our understanding of one of the fundamental forces of nature yeah yeah um what are the experiments that are happening sort of today is there anything that you are keeping an eye on I mean I told you they're studying animals yes they are studying animals uh they're studying the Earth's atmosphere because of course the Earth's atmosphere responds to a sudden change in the insulation of the amount of energy coming from the Sun and so I know there's a a student project along the path of the eclipse they launching weather balloons to measure the temperature profile density profile of the atmosphere uh along the path of the eclipse U scientists are also studying the Corona That's the very hot region around the sun's surface that we normally can't see because it's so faint compared to the Sun um but is brilliantly visible the sun has an 11-year activity cycle and we're approaching the peak of that cycle when there were most solar storms and so the corona should look a lot more active than it did in 2017 when we were near the minimum in the cycle um but the point is that now we have techniques to make artificial eclipses with an instrument called a coronograph uh that blocks out the sun it's not perfect it's not quite as good as the moon but we can study the sun all the time and then we also have satellites orbiting the Sun that can measure the corona so there will be some experiments on the Corona but they're not going to be of the Revolutionary nature that Einstein's theory of gravity was yeah yeah okay um let's uh let's first put a shout out to our audience that we um will be answering questions so if people want to pop their questions into the chat if you're watching on YouTube or Facebook uh David is kind enough to answer them now um so let's look here at some of the questions uh all right well here here's a really basic question which um how long will a solar eclipse last well that depends where you are of course if you're right on the center line of totality in this case it'll be 4 minutes and 30 seconds if you're on the Texas Mexico border and it'll be just under four minutes if you're in Vermont or Maine okay that ranges from just seconds if you're the Moon is in an unlucky place in its orbit to as much as 7 and 1/2 minutes as the long total eclipse that can happen oh 7 and a half minutes oh that is a long time wow okay um in this time around I think the longest place is four yeah four and a half okay uh all right someone asked um can you look and I guess this is if you don't have proper Eclipse classes again PSA do not look at the eclipse without proper Eclipse classes uh if you can you look at the reflection on another surface like a mirror or car window and still be safe you will be safe but I suspect you won't see very much because the mirror will reflect the bright point of light that is the Sun and you won't see it distributed with the moon covering it up so yes you can certainly safely do that but I don't think it'll be very rewarding MH um but one potentially rewarding alternative to not looking again with your eclipse glasses but not looking at the eclipse is to make a pinhole projector right exactly yeah okay uh oh here's a c question pets any tips as I said before I think pets are smart enough not to look at the Sun so you don't have to worry about that and it would be interesting I I don't know I've never seen my dog during an eclipse so I don't know if it reacts I I would suspect not because it's sort of no different than the sun being out and then a heavy Cloud coming and covering it up um but if would be interesting satisfaction of human curiosity to examine your path response yes I mean there we we don't we do know people are are monitoring this in zoos and in homes around the uh country right now and you told me the story about cows uh going inside when the eclipse happened right oh absolutely that if if the animals are outside and they respond to light cues see dogs and cats I don't think respond that much to light cues but cows do and birds do certainly mhm um then you'd expect to see a reaction and indeed I did see the reaction MH right birds will stop chirping right MH interesting all right here's another sad question that might be all too real for a lot of people in the path of the eclipse today what happens when it's cloudy you don't get to see the eclipse it depends how cloudy it is this is light whispy cirrus clouds then you can see it right through it because you can see the sun through those clouds if it's heavy and dark clouds you might notice the slight diminution of the light when the full eclipse is in progress but basically you are out of luck until 2025 2045 2045 right um all right and uh oh someone asked a question about the comet that might be seen during the total eclipse yeah so there is a comet it's 12p Pawns Brooks yeah uh that's up in the sky right now and seeing with a naked eye I think would be a little difficult but certainly with minimal binoculars you could see it if you knew where to look for it comets are giant dirty snowballs maybe 50 miles across that spend most of their time very very far from the Sun a thousand times as far as the Earth is from the Sun and out there it's really cold and so they stay frozen uh but occasionally they get bumped nuded and attracted by the planets and they fall into the inner solar system and as they approach the sun they heat up and the IES and gases on them shoot off into space giving them their beautiful tals and sometimes they crash into the Sun and are destroyed sometimes they orbit the Sun and go back out to their refrigerator out in the distant solar system interesting um during the total eclipse you can see planets planets and stars and stars right you can see the very brightest stars you won't see very many of those but the planets are easily visible because they form a perfectly straight line because of course they all orbit the Sun in roughly the same plane and so they're in a straight line on the sky and what's interesting about this eclipse is that all seven of the planets besides Earth of course are in the daylight part of the sky and so the ones you can see with the naked eye Saturn Jupiter Venus and Mars should all be easily visible Mercury is very close to the Sun so it's a little hard to see uh and then Uranus and Neptune are too faint to see with naked eye but they're all there so if you had a telescope or binoculars you could see all of them and that doesn't happen very often yeah I guess you could that's what that's significant because of the day it just happens that the orbits of all the planets have lined up so they're all in the daytime Sky now okay um all right well we're looking at a live stream from mazatan Mexico uh which actually Mexico is going to see the longest totality right the first landfall and you can see it's cloudy there but the clouds are pretty thin so they should be able to get a pretty good view they get four minutes and 28 seconds right apparently right right do you remember the eclipses you saw how long they last lasted they were roughly 4 minutes that's the sort of typical one as I say the shortest ones are under a minute and the longest ones are over 7 Minutes MH any other tips for folks who are getting ready I mean we're we we have a couple hours until totality right what what would you say people should be doing right about now well they can first of all look outside and see if it's cloudy and if it is they can go out whatever they were going to do with the no eclipse um they should make sure they have unscratched and certified glasses and if not that they have some object to use as a pinhole camera so a a colander or their fingers or a piece of paper with a hole punched in the middle of it uh maybe we should read through the totality Begins the duration and totality ends for different places people might appreciate that right yeah well we said that the eclipse lasts 4 minutes the eclipse lasts much longer than that of course because it takes a while for the moon to cover up the Sun and then it takes a while for it to uncover it again so in Mexico here where we are now the eclipse begins at 12:51 eastern time so it's a few minutes away totality doesn't begin until two hours two 2 o' 7 minutes past 2:00 the maximum is 2 minutes later the totality ends 2 minutes after that that's the form minute duration and then the partial eclipse ends at 3:32 in the afternoon so it's it's a 2hour phenomenon from when the moon first takes its little nibble out of the edge of the sun until it blocks it completely uh the pattern moves rather rapidly something like a th000 miles an hour uh so it'll only take a couple hours from Mexico to when it exits Maine and and the Canadian Maritime Provinces so at Eagle Pass Texas the totality begins at 227 eastern Time or 12 127 central time in mosquit Texas it's 240 Eastern Time 140 Central Time Arkansas Hot Springs is 249 Carbondale Illinois the lucky people who get to see two eclipses in the space of just seven years it's 259 in Trenton Ohio it's 309 in Cleveland it's 313 in Niagara Falls New York which looked prettyy cloudy when the feed came through uh it's 3:18 and it'll be all over by 3:30 in the northern reaches of prescy Maine yeah um I it's yeah it goes by it feels like it's going to take forever to get there but then it will go by quite quickly once it actually starts moving right um and the weather really could change and also an eclipse could change the weather right uh an eclipse can change the very local weather very slightly I mean what it does do is cause the temperature to fall because there's no more sunlight heating the atmosphere and it can fall by as much as 5 to 8° Fahrenheit so you notice it you notice it gets cooler uh and when air cools water vapor in it condenses and so that will produce clouds even if there weren't clouds there in the first place but unless it was very saturated with water in which case there probably already would have been clouds there then the clouds would be sufficiently thin that you can see the eclipse through it but it doesn't have any permanent effect on the weather right um all right so we're looking again we're looking at a live shot from maatan Mexico uh the data we have shows that 31.6 million people live in the path of totality for this uh Eclipse um compared to 12 million during the last solar eclipse that crossed the US which took a slightly different trajectory right almost perpendicular I came on on the west coast in Oregon and came across the middle of the country and exited in I believe South Carolina and this one goes from Mexico up sort of right so it goes through Texas which is very populated and then Ohio and Pennsylvania and New York New York and then Maine which is not that populated uh and a lot of people have traveled I mean I feel like we're hearing more about this Eclipse again I suppose it's in our sort of American Centric universe but do you think social media has made people people more excited about these things well I don't know them feel more uh attainable well it certainly provides a lot of useful information that's mostly true with social media provides a lot of unuseful disinformation and misinformation as well um but people were excited about these in the past as I said the 1925 eclipse in New York there were the total eclipse went over Queens the burough of queens and there were about a million people living in Queens then as there are now and that was in 1925 so when you made a telephone call you had to call a switchboard and a lady would plug one plug into your phone call and one plug into the person you're trying to reach and for the 15 minutes around totality there were precisely zero phone calls in Queens which suggests that all million people were outside looking at the eclipse so I think it was a big phenomenon then as well that's a great data point the mo the the minute uh that Queens went silent right completely silent yeah that's pretty great um so let's talk a little bit about the sun um when so during the eclipse the sun will be at near solar maximum correct and solar maximum means it's most active it's generating the most Magnetic storms on its surface and the most ejections of high energy particles towards the Earth that has follows an 11-year cycle and we're within about a year of the peak of the cycle and let's talk about what I think you were telling me earlier that is a a science we know less about maybe than we should well it's a really challenging problem first of all we don't know why it's 11 years uh we know what c the solar cycle is 11 years yeah why why the solar cycle lasts 11 years um the result of this is that the sun is rotating the sun rotates once around on its AIS in 26 days and beneath the surface is rotating even faster and the sun of course very hot so all the particles are charged and charged rotating particles generate magnetic fields so these magnetic fields are generated below the surface of the Sun and when they get strong enough they erupt through the surface of the Sun accelerating particles to very high energies and populating the corona that glow you'll see around the Sun if you get to see the total solar eclipse they also drive a solar wind which is a wind of particles that's like the wind outside that spreads out throughout the solar system and they are among other things responsible for the Northern Lights the Aurora Borealis because when those charged particles hit the Earth's magnetic field they spiral around the field and crash into the north magnetic pole and that excites the air molecules to glow red and green and other colors but the sun can in a particularly violent moment eject a very large number of these particles in an event called the coronal mass ejection so the corona again is the outer atmosphere of the sun mass ejection is what it sounds like it ejects Mass towards the solar towards the sun towards the Earth and this produces a bright flash of Light which arrives in just8 and a third minutes because that's how long it takes light to get from the Sun to the Earth but the particles take a little longer hours to maybe 12 hours but when they get here they can cause serious damage they can both interfere with the power grid and they can damage satellites in orbit around the Earth so in 1859 there was one of these events called the Carrington event which was quite noteworthy at that time of course we didn't have satellites and we didn't have telephones but we had Telegraph stations and the amount of high energy particles radiating the Earth was sufficient to induce currents in the cables of the of the uh of the system to actually set a few offices on fire where in in the US and and in Europe and so that kind of event today would be catastrophic because it would shut down likely our entire electric power grid and we're talking over the world not just in one place uh and it would severely damage if not destroy most of the satellites in orbit around the Earth Lloyds of London has estimated the cost of such an event would be between two and6 trillion dollar is this a kind of an event a certainty though well this event has happened every few hundred years in the past we have records of this going back from natural records not from Human records of course because they didn't have telegraphs in 1100 um but we know these events occur occasionally sometimes the particles are ejected in a direction that misses the Earth that happened recently actually a very strong event happened but it ejected things in the direction that wouldn't hit the earth so that's fine doesn't bother us at all then but the possibility of this happening is real and we don't know how to predict it because we don't understand these Magnetic storms sufficiently well and there's no way to redirect it no right I mean it's not like we see yeah it's bigger than us wow and who are the people uh on Earth then who are a studying this trying to solve for it and what are the protections that would be put into place well the this is called space weather because it is like weather it's changing conditions in the space and interplanetary space between the Sun and the planets uh and there are many people that study space weather now we have satellites orbiting the Sun rather than orbiting the Earth in order to study this um but it's a complex process which we can't fully understand or predict I mean some things are just not predictable earthquakes for example which we had one in New York a couple days ago uh they are just not predictable that's the way it is and we just have to learn to live with them what can we do well satellites of course are hardened against radiation to the extent they can be um but there's a tradeoff you can in case an entire satellites Electronics in lead but lead is very heavy that makes the satellite harder to put into orbit so there's always a trade-off there uh on the power grid we have a very old and not terribly welld designed power grid that's been built up over for 100 Years of electrification and if we had a more modern one Not only would it help protect us from this but it would also allow us to more readily add renewable sources of energy to the power grid right okay I'm just moving my microphone a little bit because I think um okay uh all right so that's a scary thing the Carrington event that we don't want to see again but is it does an eclipse offer an opportunity to study this during only moments of totality or yeah it's only during moments of important um of totality that you can see the Corona in its full Glory uh and the corona is where these events take place but unless an event is happening and they don't happen that often uh it's probably not something that an eclipse is going to provide a lot of deep insight into okay well so it's just another thing to put into the category of beyond our control right now maybe yes okay great thanks um okay oh you know we actually uh we have um some video that we could run I think um if uh Amy in our control room says it's ready um which is a NASA clip of the shadow that uh gets cast over Earth do you want to just talk us through what we're looking at here all right so in this case the sun is off to the right and so you see the Earth and the moon and you see the shadow and just a tiny strip of the Shadow reaches Earth and this is today's Eclipse so you see it's moving over the Pacific Ocean and it's about to enter Mexico right about now actually in real time and then we'll scoot along at 1500 miles an hour through Texas Arkansas Ohio Pennsylvania New York Vermont New Hampshire and Maine and off through Labrador right that's pretty great so that was the path of totality that we just looked at right and the path of totality is about 100 miles wide that's not a general rule that's just for this specific Eclipse because it represents the ratio of the size of the Moon compared to the size of the sun which is constant at 400 to the changing ratio of the distance of the moon from the earth and the distance of the Earth from the sun uhhuh uhhuh interesting um overwater I mean did you say that your first Eclipse was from a boat yeah yeah I mean is that a very different look or well what's nice is you can see the shadow racing across the ocean oh what see because the ocean's flat obviously there's nothing in the way and when you're on land you get there trees and buildings the ocean's flat until in the further distance you know well yeah you have to wait for the shadow to come but the shadow shadow moves pretty quickly as I say it's moving 1500 miles an hour so wow oh that's amazing I suppose would you get the same effect over like a field or something well it's not as big not as big right I mean 1500 miles an hour in a second it goes half a mile so you need a very big field to see W that's fantastic see nobody talks about that because you have to be I guess special to be invited to see an eclipse from a boat right well actually 71% of the Earth is covered with oceans so most Eclipse expeditions that people go on actually are on ships because oh good point okay well maybe I should just add that to my bucket list all right let's talk about what happens um during the moment of totality um what are you seeing from the Corona and can you describe the streamers coming off of the Sun what are the things people should be looking for if you are again if you are in a place where you will experience totality that's the only place you can take your eclipse glasses off nowhere else correct but just before you take the eclipse glasses off as the Moon is just about perfectly matched up with the sun you'll see what's called Bailey veeds which are a consequence of the Topography of the Moon there are mountains and valleys on the moon and so where there's a mountain the sun doesn't shine through it and where there's a valley the sun does and so you get this little speckled pattern around the edge of the Moon where the lights coming through the valleys and being blocked by the mountains I've heard people yell Bailey's bees but I didn't realize it's that's from a mountain on the moon that's causing the irregular shape wow okay and but during that moment you got to leave your glasses on right but but just when they appear then you're okay because that means the Moon is really covered up I see the bulk of the Sun and then what that's your clue uh so you might see the diamond ring effect which is called which is you just see one of those shines through brightly um but then you'll see the corona so the corona is thousands of times fainter but it's always there and it's represents the upper atmosphere of the sun which curiously is hotter than the surface interestingly the surface of the Sun that we see with our eyes is the coolest layer of the sun if you go deeper into the sun it gets much hotter the surface we see is 5,780 De uh the center of the sun is 14 and a. half million degrees so it's much much hotter and as you go in it gets steadily hotter but also as you go out it gets steadily hotter and so the temperature that we see again is 5800 de but as you go out the temperature rises to thousand many thousands then tens of thousands and then up to a million degrees which means it emits X-rays and ultraviolet light okay great oh and look we're looking oh we're looking at a live stream of Niagara Falls and that is Governor Kathy hok right who's just clearly showed up to meet and greet um but the sky looked pretty Grim there I know it's too bad but there's time right yeah they have they have a while before totality gets to them so maybe they'll be lucky and it'll clear totality there begins 318 right 318 eastern time yes mhm eastern time and Max totality 320 and it will end at 3:21 right so they're a little under four minutes there yeah so they have some time maybe for the the weather to change what do you think if you a betting man I from what it looked like earlier it looks pretty thick and gray to me oh no um okay so let's um let's talk about this phenomenon the 360° Sunset oh here we're we're uh we're back now in um in Mazon so let's see they should be just about there a couple minutes so why isn't everyone looking up well they're starting oh some of them are looking up I think we have a little bit of time right yeah they're starting looks like a warm sunny day 12:51 so they should see the moon just being able to take a little bite out of the edge of the sun MH um okay let's talk about a 360° Sunset David what can you explain oh and um I should just uh remind people that you that who I'm talking to because that's important um I'm talking with David helland who is a h professor of astronomy at Columbia University and we are super grateful to you for all of your expertise um you've seen three total eclipses so far and you've taken this opportunity instead of chasing it um to come into our offices and talk to us about how magical they are so the 360° Sunset is what well so normally when you see the sunset obviously the sun goes down in the west and the sky is bright there sometimes yellowy red or whatever if there are clouds uh but on the opposite direction it's dark already right because the sun's not there anymore so you see a definite gradient going around the Horizon of light where the sun just went down to dark on the other side but here of course the sun's high up in the sky it gets covered up by the moon and so you get that effect all the way around it's completely symmetrical and so you see that beautiful sunset kind of colors and everything all the way around 360° oh it's like being inside a marble or something right wow okay that's interesting um which is another thing I think to think about uh we we got a lot of um questions and there were several reports out there about how to take photographs of the eclipse and several people said oh just pay attention to the eclipse don't bother trying to document it there'll be so many professional photographs which is true but another interesting point was take the pictures that are around you you know some in the opposite direction or pictures of people looking upward and try and document the moment uh yeah the few minutes of the totality go by very quickly and they are very special and so I've never even attempted to take a photograph as was noted there are many professional photographs that don't come close to evoking the experience itself you've never you've never T taken photographs no interesting okay um all right should we go back to some uh reader questions sure just a just a reminder you can catch this on um time.com you can ask questions uh in YouTube or on Facebook just drop your questions in the chat um David will answer them and um all right let's just see what we've got here um when was the last total eclipse and what path did it take and I guess that's sort of a complicated question because they happen all the time they happen once or twice a year uh usually I believe the last one was off the northwest coast of Australia there was an island off the northwest coast you could actually see it and that was a very unusual Eclipse it's called a hybrid eclipse because for part of the path it's a total eclipse and for part of the path it's an anular eclipse in other words the Moon is just on the edge of being big enough to cover the Sun and over the course of half an hour as it moves across the surface of the Earth it gets too small to cover up the sun in other words it gets too far away from the Earth to cover up the Sun so that was a that was a unusual hybrid Eclipse but there's an eclipse roughly once a year uh around the Earth in any given location the average and the average has a very broad range but the average is 375 to 400 years if you sit in any one Cas so any given human life will not see an eclipse unless they travel right oh interesting but there's a very but New York keeps there's a lot of variation yes exactly and New York is in a lucky period it won't continue but it's in a lucky period now because we had one in 1925 we'll have another one in 2079 which is only 150 years or something like that and then there'll be another one after that in 2144 which is only another 120 years but our poor friends in Los Angeles are much less lucky they had one in 1724 and the next one won't be until 3290 or other words 1500 years between the next eclipse and the last one in Los Angeles okay wow that's a big difference um all right another question here does the eclipse have any effect on the Earth's gravity no the well if yes no well I was going to say the the atmosphere in the path of totality will cool suddenly because it's not getting solar radiation anymore and that will condense it a little bit and that can produce what's called a gravity wave but it's not a gravity wave of the gravity that keeps you in your seat it's an atmospheric phenomenon uh that's that's of minor significance but but detectable but the Earth's gravity is determined strictly by its total mass and its radius and neither of those Chang as a consequence of the Moon covering up the sun someone asked do the corona flare flares affect Earth yes well that's what we were talking about the Carrington event earlier uh the main effect we get most of the time from the standard sort of modes size solar flares uh is the Northern Lights the Aurora Borealis and the Southern Lights the Aurora Australis which most people in the northern hemisphere don't even know about uh which are the colorful Dancing Lights you see if you're in Far northern Alaska or Canada or seeland I saw the Northern Lights from Massachusetts when I was a kid uh because there was a particularly violent solar storm in the 1950s and this Northern Lights came as far south as New England in the Carrington event in 1859 the northern lights were seen in the Caribbean which was another indication of the extreme nature of that event wow that's incredible um okay and then here's another question oh what will the eclipse look like from space Ah that's interesting if you're in the space station for example orbiting the Earth you can see the shadow of the moon on the earth as we saw in the animations here and you can actually see that shadow racing along at 1500 mil hour uh as the Moon Sun and Earth change their relative positions I guess will you see I guess it depends where you are well you'll see it whether it's cloudy or not too because the shadow will project onto the clouds as well as it projects onto the ground so if you're above the clouds oh that's a good point you can see the shadow oh yes and there there are people in an airplane actually traveling the path of totality this this is another kind of rather expensive way you can see an eclipse and you can make it last longer because of course the plane flies along at 600 mil hour uh and so you can chase the eclipse and make totality last longer okay what does it look like from an airplane cuz you could be above the cloud so that really be above the cloud so that solves that problem well the eclipse looks exactly the same just there's no clouds in the way uh so when you're looking at the sun you see the uh you see the sun covered up in the that's got to be quite dramatic right oh here let's take a pause here we are this is um actually cville Texas I think right and this is the NASA live stream not not Mazon right so you can see the clouds drifting across the surface of the Sun there so kille Texas I think is still got a little way to go I don't know where kville is but probably another 10 or 15 minutes until the moon takes a bite out of the SE yeah that's pretty cool I wonder if that's a um a telescope feed from NASA this is certainly a telescope feed in the black spot you see there yeah in the where is that tell me up here just in the center of the sun above the little above the center uhhuh that's probably a uh a sunspot which is a consequence of this eruption of the Magnetic storms through the surface of the Sun interesting so it's where the flares would arise where the flares arise and there's just one is that or one that's a little surprising there's one I mean that's a big one there's another one down here you can see oh yeah on the left side about 3/4 of the way towards the edge uh I can't see any others at the moment but there there are probably fainter ones that are there okay right that's pretty incredible and is that um in kville that hasn't I guess the partial hasn't begun so we're just oh that's a cloud that's the cloud we wanted those to go away yeah yeah but still it's quite pretty isn't it now see you can see it changes the color and the reason oh this is not good at all the reason it changes the color is because the light is being scattered and absorbed by the air molecules and the water molecules in in the atmosphere in the clouds and they scatter the blue light most effectively which is why the sky is blue and they scatter the red light least effectively so the red light gets through and that's what changes the color from yellow to Red okay explain why the sky is blue always sky is blue the sky is blue because the wavelengths of light that come from the Sun range from that our eyes can see range from 360 nanometers or billions of a meter to 720 or so nanometers so a single factor of two all the little waves that come in and the red waves are longer wavelengths slower lazier waves I mean they travel at the same speed but they wave up and down slower uh and they can get right through the atmosphere to the ground just fine as can the orange ones and the yellow ones and the green ones but the shorter in wavelength you go the more likely it is that they're going to be bouncing off some ear molecule or other particle in the atmosphere and being scattered off in some other random Direction so all the light you see from the blue sky is sunlight it's all sunlight coming from all directions but the blue light is scattered around and so can come at you from any direction whereas the other light comes directly to your eyes okay thanks for answering that parents everywhere are grateful for that um okay I think let's queue up another clip um we have uh 2017 satellite clip that uh shows the shadow over the US uh via Sou satellite and I guess this is sort of um what what you were talking about what we were talking about see zap right through in terms of what you would see from space is that right there you go so you you see here that the shadow looks very wide and that's because you're seeing partial and total eclipses together but it's right through the center of that that it's blackest okay and this was the 2017 2017 so it came on the coast in Oregon and went through and went off in Carolina uhhuh uhhuh and I was up here in Idaho right there oh right the the Sun Valley step down right where you had to drive to oh look at this there you go so we said the what are we looking at here this is mazatan and this is um what do you call this moment well when they first touch it's called First Contact but it's clearly gone past first touching about 10 minutes ago and so it's gradually moving over the surface of the Sun and by the time we get to 207 eastern time so another hour hour or so it'll be directly aligned you can still see that big Sunspot there and this little one down here all right and again this is the NASA feed but this is so exciting right now I don't know if this is from a plane which is why there's no clouds good question cuz there were just just before there were some wispy clouds they were fairly thin but well no the the other CL we saw were from uh somewhere else right oh yeah you're right that was Texas that was Texas oh so yeah maybe it's just clear could be and so this changing it's looks like it's maybe Frozen a little bit um this is what you would see you had your oops that's not what you would see just lost that Fe okay um now we're back with the Cloudy place no this is kville Texas there's still time though don't don't lose all hope well there's still holes too clearly yeah I mean oh and that's the other question I was going to ask right the clouds are moving right so it could could sort of EB and flow if you're absolutely if you're not entirely lucky to get a full clear well that was my story about France right we drove around looking for hole in the clouds yes right tell that story again just to give people some hope and actually that is my question if you so well see this is a big traffic nightmare you don't I mean I imagine people are jocking about and trying to find a better position but could you how uh how far in either direction could you move and how do you know sort of where to go oh well you typically don't know where to go it's pretty random looking for holes in the clouds I mean the eclipse path is about 100 miles wide so if you were planning on being at the center of the path you can't go more than 50 mies in either direction you can go along the path of course but not across and yes it's a traffic Nightmare and I suspect practically speaking it wouldn't work we were in rural France and there were a bunch of people out looking for the eclipse but it wasn't a traffic nightmare yeah I heard several stories about traffic nightmares and including a crucial piece of advice to make sure you have all the essentials including lots of snacks should you get stuck in traffic that's absolutely right I told several people that who were one of my colleagues saying oh yeah we're going to drive up to platsburg uh Monday morning I said no you're not the throughway is going to be a parking lot yeah yeah yeah um right which is why uh in an earlier report we had a story about a school district um in Pennsylvania that just gave the kids the day off because they knew it was going to be so crowed but that's pretty special that will be something you won't forget I imagine to see total eclipse right as we say they don't happen very often so right right not in your own backyard that's for sure exactly okay let's make our PSA again about um making sure you not looking at the eclipse without proper solar eclipse glasses correct and if you don't have proper solar eclipse glasses right about now you make a pinhole camera by using your fingers in a Tic-Tac toe pattern by taking out a slotted spoon or I mean a colander colander or just a piece of paper with a hole punch in the middle of it you put the sun over your shoulder so it comes down through the pole and it'll project onto the surface of the ground or the sidewalk or another piece of paper you put there uh the image of the Sun ah I think they've zoomed in on the Sunspot I suspect that's what it is because sunspots have a North Pole and a South Pole because they're magnetic just like the Earth has a north and south magnetic pole and so there's usually two imprints are you kidding mhm no right no um wow okay well that's a sunspot as seen from a NASA telescope in Junction Texas right I guess and is that moving about the surface of the Sun or it's in one place it's in one place the the sun is rotating but I said it takes 26 days so it takes 13 days for the sun to SP to cross the surface of the Sun the the Jitter you see is the Jitter of the telescope it's I see okay and those are the and those are the solar flares oh what's this this is probably picture in some wavelength your eyes can't see that's showing some of the consequences of this magnetic eruption through the surface of the sun right and let's talk again about the magnetic eruptions through the surface of the Sun just because I think people are are interested in that and you had oh wow that's a pretty good image there we go see so that that was that one I don't know where these came from I don't know that that's a current picture actually yeah maybe not San Diego huh it says live oh it says live yeah so the solar flares are what just to explain and you see this oh yeah that's what they're saying oh yeah now they're only going to get something like what 50% or something in California in California right and it looks very different than what we just looked at from Maan right right cuz you're looking from a different geometry right yeah that's kind of amazing it would be cool contrast to see all the different places right the angles of Earth um uh oh the solar flare you want to go yeah tell me more about the solar flares so again the surface of the Sun that we see is the coolest part of the Sun and above that cool surface there's a pretty violent atmosphere that's threaded with magnetic fields and they accelerate particles to very high energies which means instead of emitting visible light that our eyes can see they emit ultraviolet light and x-rays so while the sunspots look dark here and you might think well that must be their cooler or they're not emitting light they are emitting light they're just emitting light that your eyes can't see and in fact when there are lots of sunspots when the sun is active it's when the sun puts out most of its energy more energy than when it's passive it does this in an 11year cycle and the change is about one tenth of 1% or one part in a thousand where are we in that cycle we're we're about a year from the peak of that cycle so the sun is in other words brightening in the sense that its total energy output not the part we can see but the total energy output is slightly Higher by close to a tenth of a percent than it was 5 years ago um tell me about something that I read about the moon uh moving further and further away oh yeah Earth and what that will mean for events like this of course not an hour or anyone we knows lifetime but no so the Moon is orbiting the Earth and the Earth is spinning on its axis the current configuration where the Moon is 238,000 miles from Earth is not static the Moon is currently moving away from the earth and we know this both because we understand gravity but also because we've made the measurements the Apollo Astronauts in 1969 and 1970 left little reflectors little mirrors on the surface of the Moon and we now shoot lasers from telescopes on Earth to those reflectors the light bounces off them just like it's a mirror and comes back and by timing the time it takes to get there and back we can measure the distance of the Moon to about a quarter of an inch and what we see is that the Moon is systematically moving away from the earth at about 1 and2 Ines per year which is about the rate at which your fingernails grow if you don't cut them for a whole year they'll be about an inch and a half long so that's the rate at which the Moon is receding from the earth the reason for this is that the moon's gravity interacts with Earth in particular the oceans on the earth and raises Tides as you know there are two Tides a day the Earth spinning on its axis under those Tides produces a friction and that slows down the rotation rate of the earth so the rotation rate of the earth is actually systematically slowing down and to compensate for that the Moon is moving slightly farther away now we know this is true from the fossil record as well because 300 million years ago we have fossils of corals and corals show bands like trees show rings that are annual but they also show Daily fluctuations as a consequence of the tides because of course they live in the ocean and we can see that 300 million years ago the day was only 22 hours long and there were 390 days per year because of course the time it takes us to go around the Sun hasn't changed um and so days were shorter and because the Earth has been systematically slowing over that time since the dinosaurs came into being um and the Moon is moving farther away the Earth slowing and the Moon is moving further and as a consequence in a long time hundreds of millions of years the moon will have moved sufficiently far away that there'll never be a total solar eclipse because the moon of course is not going to change size the sun's not going to change size and as you get farther away from the earth the shadow will never reach the Earth you can't Eclipse it it can't Eclipse it right so there'll be annular eclipses where the moon covers up the center of the sun would you see the sun All Around The Edge does it mean the days will get longer too and the days are getting longer they are getting longer they are yes it's not just my own weariness no not such that you've noticed they're getting longer but they are getting longer by tiny fractions of a second per year yes wow interesting so what does that I mean wow that has some longterm well the really long term is fascinating because eventually we'll get to the point where as today the moon has one face towards the Earth and we never see the back side of the moon it's not the Dark Side of the Moon Pink Floyd not standing it's the back side of the moon right which is fully illuminated at the new moon like today right it's the other side of the moon is illuminated looks black the side we see looks black because the sun's on the other side of it right okay and then as it goes around two weeks from now we'll have a full moon and that's our side of the moon is illuminated but that same face of the Moon stays facing the Earth all the time and we don't see the back we don't see the back side the Earth of course is spinning once a day underneath it so the moon gets to see all of the earth however as this process goes on and the Earth slows down and the moon moves farther and farther away eventually will lock such that the Earth and the moon will only see one face as they go around and as a consequence the notion of a honeymoon will have a New Concept because you'll have to go all the way around the earth to see the moon at all oh because the moon won't be visible from half the Earth wow but sufficiently long in the future that we won't be here billions billions yes billions of years shall we not worry about that today yeah that's that's one thing we don't have to worry about okay um should we talk a little bit about um insulation which is different from insulation but what is insolation we I think we actually even have a video clip of sort of what the insolation will look like um which we could show but what I mean I must admit that's not a word that was in my repertoire well the only difference between the two words is soul s o in the middle which means son yes so insolation is the amount of energy we receive from the Sun okay that's what we're looking at here this is a the uh expected I suppose oh this is today's I guess I see okay there goes the sun here you see the shadow yeah and the insulation moving across so insulation is just the total energy reaching the Earth from the Sun at any given time which just means it gets cooler or what well as the insulation goes down it gets cooler which is why it's cooler at night than it is in the daytime because we're not getting any energy from the Sun on our side of the Earth at night but this affects the seasons as well of course because the Earth's rotation axis is tilted by 23 and a half degrees with respect to the plane of its orbit around the sun in the winter time the sun is directly overhead in the Southern Hemisphere and comes in at a very slanting angle in the northern hemisphere so each square meter of ground gets much less energy right whereas in the summertime not at our latitudes but say in Florida the sun is directly overhead and as a consequence gets the full solar insulation so it's just depends on the angle of the Sun in the sky as to how much energy is received by each square meter of Earth and that is what determines globally with storms and things like that taking into account uh what the temperature is but a an eclipse is just a matter of hours so in an eclipse a matter of minutes minutes really yeah uh that the insulation drops to zero close enough to zero uh and that's why you literally feel it get cold outside I mean and temperature can drop by five or even 10 degrees but that's not a huge effect on any life form or no um it as I said it cooling air is denser and so that will change the pressure across the eclipse path so you might get a little breeze that blows in from warmer areas to fill in the colder areas but as soon as the sun comes back again four minutes later it's receiving the full amount of energy right and what about the grid what about solar panels that would you know lose sort of the sun's panel power completely lose power yes is that a concern I don't think so um the again the time scales are very short uh the solar panel array will reduce down to close to zero at the moment of totality and then gradually build up again over the hour when the moon moves away um but most people's systems have batteries that allow them to smooth out those things because clouds drifting overhead do the same thing I was going to say right what's the difference oh a cloudy day you only get about 10% of what you get on a on a sunny day yeah out of your solar p and during an eclipse with the four minutes let's just say of totality aside uh when it's partial it's a CL it's a sort of a kin to a cloudy day exactly exactly I mean if that much of the sun is covered up you're going to get 90 some perc of the energy you normally get where are we now oh this is still in Texas oh so that's good the clouds are gone yeah that is good oh no they're still there but but still I think it adds to the drama I like it yeah how how did you um become an astronomer what led to your career choice oh well I guess it's a testament to Liberal Arts education really I went to college convinced I was going to be a theater major no yes and I actually attribute 70% of My Success in life to my theater major since most scientists aren't great at public lecturing and I have some skills at that and also when you're a theater major of course you have to write a lot of papers which have to be succinct trenchant analyses that are persuasive of your point of view and when you're a scientist those are called proposals which gets your money and Telescope time and so those two skills have been extremely important to me but I don't actually remember why I took a course in astronomy because I had no interest whatsoever when I was a kid 95% of my astrophysical colleagues had built telescopes by the time they were 10 years old you know they were really into it I had no interest whatsoever so I probably took it as a consequence of a distribution requirement in a liberal arts college and the professor was not very good in fact he was so bad he was fired for being a bad teacher doesn't happen anymore but it used to happen then um but I became fascinated by eclipsing binary Stars so it turns out our sun is very typical in terms of its age its temperature its size its mass its chemical composition but there's one difference and that is most stars have companions most stars are in pairs or triplets or even quadruplets or quintuplets and they orbit around each other uh many stars also have planets like our sun has but they usually have another star so when two stars are orbiting each other if you're aligned appropriately one star will pass in front of the other and as is happening here with the moon block that star's light and then half an Orbit later the first star will block the second star's light right uhhuh now you can't see two stars because they're far too close together we're so far away that that you see a single point of light but that light gets dimmer and then brighter again and then dimmer and then brighter again just like the eclipse is going to make the Sun get dimmer and then brighter again right and as this as each Stars beinged by the other it twin okay and as a consequence from just looking at that dimming and brightening and dimming and brightening you can determine to fractions of a percent Precision the masses of the Stars the radi the diameters of the Stars the structure of their atmospheres their departure from spherical symmetry the chemical composition of the Stars the origins of the Stars the fade of the Stars you can determine everything about the life story of these two stars and I found this fascinating uh so we had to WR a paper at the end of this again liberal arts college right write a paper in a science class so we had to write a paper it was supposed to be eight pages long and mine was like 38 pages long cuz I became so obsessed with these eclipsing binaries St oh my goodness you tapped into an overachieve herself yes and then so I guess I was sufficiently captivated I thought well I'll take one more course in astronomy it can't hurt me and there I had a spectacular teacher uh she was from Germany she was the first female professor in the physical sciences in Germany so she was about 5'1 but she was tough and she made us actually do astronomy now this was way before CCD cameras so you needed photographic glass plates and photographic film and you had to develop the film and do the measurements and all this other stuff and the last day of class when we had done all this just a class of eight people she said zo I think this time we take you where astronomy is done and she passed out eight plain tickets for all of us to go from Massachusetts to Arizona for the month of January to see all the telescopes and meet all the astronomers and observe and all this other stuff and the last day that's a field trip that was a field trip I never did find out if she paid for that herself or she actually got money from the college to do it but anyway she was wonderful and the last day we were driving out to the observatory at night with the director of The Observatory and I was in the back seat and he said so is anyone here thinking you becoming a professional astronomer and I'm thinking this is pretty good I said well I I maybe consider it you know and uh so he said okay so suppose you're called to testify before Congress which is ironic because as president of theas I was called to testify for congress 40 years later um and you have to justify spending public money on this completely useless profession because I mean what of the Practical applications zero right and so I it was during the Apollo program and I said well you know there's miniaturization of computers that's going to be important which turned out to be true uh and there's Tang you know there's powdered orange juice yeah that's probably important important and he cut me off and he said no this may be spin-offs it may not be spin-offs but that's not a justification the justification should be the same as that for supporting symphony orchestras and opera companies and Poets because it distinguishes us as human and I thought gee I like that I could do a profession that distinguishes us as human and so I became an astronomer in the backseat of the car that night I might cry because I feel that is so full circle everything I read about witnessing an eclipse is a reminder of our shared humanity and our place in the universe yes I think human curiosity is one of the most important attributes of our species unfortunately our education system is not ideally suited to Foster it rather it usually suppresses it um but people can still be sparked by things like eclipses to recognize their place in the world and their connection to it right wow how interesting I wonder how many young people will experience this eclipse and have a career change as well you chose um the bright lights of the solar system instead of those of Broadway yes and I must confess that my wife who started on Broadway when she was 6 years old and worked for 35 years in television and Broadway uh assures me I would still be waiting tables if I had stopped with my theater career so probably just as well I made the switch well we should all be so lucky to have a professor who is so both entertained by his chosen subject and entertaining in explaining it to us um okay so just back to what we are looking at this is oh this is um a feed from Sky show which is also has a special telescope and they um it's uh they actually provide um services to NASA for launches and such and they have offered us this feed um from Arkansas which is pretty great looking it's got some clouds but it's not too [Music] bad yeah thank you to ska for that oh no my goodness um they're going to be in in Vermont as well I think later in the day yeah these are their special uh telescopes and tracking system which they developed for um NASA launches and re-entry imagery I see this this is a different place though cu the moon's already yeah you're right making progress here this is a different feed the Moon is making proog oh my gosh it's so dramatic so if you were on the ground I mean this must be Mason right don't you think uh I think that's not the direction the moon was coming from at M actually I think the feed is in and out because of the clouds right here we are back to Sky show and again that's a telescope feed so should we talk about some of the uh historical eclipses that can we made an impact yeah you tell me well the first record we have is from a Petroglyph in Ireland did one of the megalithic mon uh things in Ireland built roughly the same time as Stonehenge maybe a little earlier even and it's from November 30th 3,340 BC so that's a long time ago there's no of course written record but there is a Petroglyph that appears to show this Moon covering up the sun in 2334 BC there was a famous eclipse in China but the two court astrologers she and and hoe uh had a little too much M tie and so they failed to predict this eclipse and the emperor promptly beheaded both of them okay so it was pretty tough job to be an astrologer in the Chinese Court I guess in 1178 BC April 16th it's probably the eclipse that Homer wrote about in The Odyssey it would have been four and a half minutes just like this Eclipse here in ancient Greece in 585 BC the ladans and the medians were in the midst of a 5-year War slaughtering each other and during one of the battles an full total eclipse occurred which so addded them that the fighting stopped and they forged a peace treaty as a consequence so Eclipse can be peacemakers and then in August of 1868 which is one of the first times the corona was studied in detail uh it was recognized by both a Frenchman and an Englishman that there was a particular um uh signal of a we call them lines of the spectrum of the sun which didn't correspond to any of the known elements in the periodic table most of which have been filled in by then uh and in fact they gave it a name and they called it helium after Helios in Greece and of course helium is the second most abundant element in the universe and we never recognize it on Earth it was first discovered in the sun it during an eclipse during Eclipse amazing amazing um those are great stories okay let's um David I have a few more questions for you from our viewers um okay uh a lot of these are about glasses which makes sense because people are getting ready to go outside and we want to remind you you must use proper eclipse glasses right um are paper or plastic glasses better it doesn't matter all that really matters is the material that you're going to look through that's what's critical doesn't matter if they're paper plastic or metal metal or whatever they are um and you must make sure that you can't see anything else except the sun through those filters and if that's true then you're okay yeah so you really want to use proper eclipse glasses and not sunglasses not sunglasses not sunglasses oh definitely not sunglasses in five to S seconds you'll destroy your vision don't do that please um okay uh why is it we we talked about this a little earlier but let's do it again because I think it's important why is it more dangerous to look at the Sun during an eclipse well it's not more dangerous to look at the Sun during an eclipse it's just that you wouldn't bother look at the sun any other time your eyes won't really let you look at the sun because your brain has a shut off out that's right but the point is that even when the moon is covering 90% of the Sun the amount of energy the sun is putting out and is entering your eyes is too great for your eyes to withstand yeah I did read a story actually about it uh drct who saw a burned uh cornea that had like the crescent shape in it from someone I know it's terrifying so don't mess around with this stuff people don't mess around okay um and then appropo of that I suppose can you use a colander to look at the eclipse we should explain how and what and a colander for looking at the eclipse really means a colander is great because you can see 20 or 30 eclipses what you have to do is hold the colander up with the sun over your shoulder you hold it in front of you hold it out to the Sun side well not in front of you the Sun get to but to the side and have it project onto some clean surface a sidewalk or a deck or a piece of paper you can put on the ground and each of the little holes will act like a pinhole camera and provide you a a photographic view if you will of the eclipse great uh okay this is our last question and then we're actually going to cut to a a live feed from from Mazatlan um Can my three-year-old watch it using the regular Eclipse class gles as long as you make sure I mean the the spacing of the glasses isn't too wide for their eyes that and you must make sure the filters cover the eyes but then it's perfectly fine I did see a really cute little um thing on YouTube a crafts project where you could Mount the eclipse glasses onto a paper plate to cover more of their face which is something to think about that might add protection well the main thing is the spacing if if their eyes are closer together than your eyes which I think little kids eyes are closer then the the adult classes might not fit the important point is to make sure the filters that you look black uh are covering her eyes and then it's fine okay great um I am so grateful to you for your time Professor David hellan from Columbia University your Insight and your personal stories have really made this so fun for me I hope uh I hope you'll come back um for our next big uh Sol event Celestial event Celestial event thank you well it's been my pleasure entirely thank you yeah great e other solar systems who knows what else is happening out there but this is the only one that we know of and so I think that just makes everyone so thrilled uh and just like really quickly what are some of the next total e eclipses that people can uh look forward to well um in 26 and 27 um U we're going to have to cross the Atlantic uh everyone's going to have to be on the uh either um Greenland Iceland parts of Spain Northern Africa those are um going to be some really good ones coming up so that's in 2026 isn't it yeah 26 followed by 27 in Northern Africa Morocco um Egypt if you want to catch the pyramids at the same time uh so those are really going to be good wins but the next Coast to Coast us Eclipse you're going to have to wait to 2045 all right well thank you so much Mara that is all the time that we have for now because we have an exciting uh guest to speak to over in Canada so we're going to throw it over for a with a Canadian astronaut3 time to join us um just uh tell me a little about what we could hopefully expect to see today so obviously we'd love to be able to see the Sun and the Moon passing in front of the sun looks like the clouds are going to stop us from seeing that but we are going to experience totality here regardless it's going to become nighttime I've never seen a total solar eclipse so I'm excited to experience it myself but speaking with other people I think we're still going to see some of the cool effects where the lighting is going to change here it's going to get very dark but as we approach and get into a totality look at the colors different colors are going to show up differently we may see different lighting effects on the ground observe the environment see what nature does how does nature react In This Moment it's going of throw them off a little bit so these are the things I'll be watching for even if we can't can't see the sun because of the clouds uh that's going to be pretty exciting you're an astronaut and you are looking for this that that that says something about us H oh it's a unique experience in my lifetime first time I see it for sure I think it's just a fun experience to get outside together have some Community talk about science how it affects our lives I think it's a really important conversation today for people to understand that science is nothing more than us just trying to understand what is fact what is fiction we don't have all the answers yet part of science is asking the question and then trying to finally get to a conclusion science is something to be embraced it's important for our future here on the planet and science is a big part of what happens next year for you talk talk about what what happen for you next year so I feel very fortunate about a year ago I was assigned uh with the Artemis 2 crew we're going to fly a new rocket the space launch system the uran capsule first time we put humans on this and the crew and I it's Reed wisman Christina cook Victor Glover we're going to three Americans one Canadian and uh we're going to take that capsule fly it around the moon and uh bring it back and get it ready for future aremis missions where Humanity will walk on the moon once again and we're doing this as an international collaboration which is an extraordinary example for the world right now you mentioned that that uh that hope eventually we go we go back to the Moon every little bit counts in this oh yeah right this is it takes public support you see behind you this is public support right talk about how important that is that that people kind of get behind uh going back to exploring uh to space the overall sentiment that the crew and I have felt since uh we announced the Artemis 2 mission has just been overwhelmingly positive people are inspired by exploration I meet young Canadians and Americans all the time and they are fired up they want to know how they're going to be able to participate in exploration in the future and I think there is a more of a common understanding now that when we push ourselves in places like space exploration the the benefits do Ripple back down to our lives here on the planet even today with this Eclipse you know we're going to leverage this opportunity NASA Canadian space agency to study this we'll learn new things about space weather which affects how we're communicating right now and so there's just science is something to be embraced but also just to remind our children that we as a global population can do extraordinary things when we set big goals and we come together to accomplish them I'm going to throw to our colleague Kyle down uh down south bu hopefully he has a a better view of these uh these clouds and maybe you get to see it entirely but I appreciate you taking the time to talk to us um and uh we'll go back to uh back to Texas yes wonderful happy Eclipse everyone so there are so many exciting things happening happening today not just for the people across the path of totality that's just a narrow band you know across North America so much of North America is actually experiencing a partial eclipse right now and you know what there's so many experiments like for example if you have household items like a colander or a cheese grader you can if you're underneath some partial eclipses take a look how how strange the the Shadows are at the moment so here in mus it's kind of hard to see but here in musan all right up up above us you know as the clouds are clearing up we're starting to see the partiality and it's impacting you know the way that Shadows are being cast on the ground and it's kind of hard to see here but if you take a look at the shadow cast by the cheese grater that I've got on my hand um it's actually reflecting the eclipse it looks like a shadow you know the Moon is taking a bite out of the Sun so you know there's so much to do here we're not just waiting for um totality we're really being excited about all the things that everybody around the country can do at home safely and enjoy it with our friends families and so much more all right um and with that let's uh we we're also at the moment the this is this is a testament to how fast weather moves in Texas for example uh just this morning it was completely clouded over with low hanging clouds you know sort of not the ideal thing just a few a few meters behind us a couple of blocks behind us clouds are covering but then the Sun keeps peing out so you know we are just there's just so much High Hopes here and we'll see we'll see how it goes and that's probably happening all across North America right now lots of Positive Vibes um and so with that let's take a look at how the rest of North America is preparing for their moment with the solar eclipse [Music] [Music] spe [Music] for for e e [Music] e spe hello and welcome back here in mosqu Texas uh joining me now to dive into solar eclipse 101 is Leslie Barnhill science educator at the MS planetarium welcome Leslie thank you nice to be here nice to nice to have you um so tell us first you know about the four phases of the eclipse that what are people looking forward to what can they pay attention to okay well there are four to five phases of the eclipse we actually call them contacts uh the first Contact is when the moon comes in contact with the sun that's when you start to see the moon's black disc come in front of the Sun and it's actually happening right now here in mosquite um the second contact or the second phase is right before totality and that's when the moon moon is almost completely in front of the Sun and you can see some really fantastic things like Bailey's beads which are little beads of light coming from the mo from outside of the Moon as well as a diamond ring and these are all little pieces of light that are coming from the Sun through the moon's uneven surface with all the craters so wherever the sun's coming in we've got craters on the moon and they are they are creating these beads or the this diamond and that happens right at during second second contact then is totality when it it's completely dark hopefully if skies are are are clear um and that here is going to last a little bit over four minutes and then our third contact is when it's similar to the second contact it's when the moon starts to move away from the Sun and you may have the opportunity to see those Bailey beads in that diamond ring um and then finally the last fourth contact is when the moon is completely away from the Sun and it's over it's over that and we're expecting that to be about 3 hours total for most places right correct correct yes and we've got some clear skies and we've already seen first Contact so I'm fingers crossed um for those in the path of totality where there's a break and cloud cover or are lucky enough to have clearer Skies what can they expect of their experience in totality if we have completely clear skies we can see some amazing things um first of all the whole sky is going to darken darken to not just cloud cover but completely night um with the a cool thing that I have yet to see is a 360 degree Sunset so where usually we see a sunset on one side of the Earth when the Sun goes down since the eclipse happens we should see a sunset around the whole Horizon wherever you're at that's if Cloud clouds are clear skies um if we do have clear skies we should be able to see some of the Sun Corona which is the atmosphere around the Sun um and that's right at totality um we should be able to see two of the seven other planets in the sky uh most of the planets will be Vis will be out but two should be visible and that's going to be Jupiter that's going to be to the left of the solar eclipse and then Venus which is going to be to the right of the solar eclipse um also we should be able to see the comet um well if you have uh magnified view filter ED view like binoculars with a proper filter on it you'll see a comet that's going to be close to Jupiter it's called 12p um and some people are calling it The Devil's Comet or the Mother of Dragons exciting um and then also there's some stars and some um constellations that clear skies you might be able to see um the Orion main stars Beetle Juice and Riel um you might be able to see Al debron which is part of the Taurus constellation as well as uh capella which is is part of the orri constellation which is the goat herder which I think is kind of cool oh my God that's phenomenal I feel like you'd be really lucky if you were stood next to an amateur as you know astronomer or any educator near you so if you're in a place where you're watching um with a watch party go find the scientists in the space the Educators they've got a lot to share uh now I know that there's a lot of like scientific words being thrown around can you just share what is the difference between what is called a penumbra and the Umbra okay the penumbra and the Umbra they are different parts of a shadow and since uh the solar eclipse is dealing with three spheres you've got the Sun the Moon and the Earth all of them are rotating all of them are orbiting um we're pretty much Min primarily looking at the moon and the sun orbiting um the the shadow cast the darkest shadow cast is called the Umbra and that's the the shadow that will give you a total solar eclipse a penumbra is a little bit more diffused got a little bit of light but it is still a dark shadow and that'll give you a partial solar eclipse um what's cool about this a total solar eclipse is the Umbra has to actually the tip of the Shadow has to hit the earth and that usually only happens when the moon is close enough to the Earth because the moon's orbit is is not a complete circle sometimes it's a little bit closer to it sometimes a little bit a little bit further so that's why we're going to see a total solar eclipse and it's going to be longer so I've also heard that because the Moon is closer is it because it's closer to the planet or further away from the planet that we're getting a longer time than of totality than in 2017 yes it's it's because it's a little bit closer to it it's called it's it's in its Pary which means it's closer it's apogee means it's further and an Apache will give you an annular Eclipse which we had back in October um but it is just it's close enough for that tip to hit Earth and it's even a little bit more closer to have our path wider and giving us the longer totality and now any last words about safety because I know everyone's been talking about how important safety when viewing the eclipse is not just during totality but especially when wherever you are where you're seeing partial eclipses so any words yes please please please wear your glasses when it is not a total solar eclipse I tend to be on the safe side just CU I have some older eyes and I want to save my eyes um you have the opt uh the potential to have temporary or permanent blindness if you stare at the sun even during the partial part of the eclipse um and it it could cause things like blindness it could cause things like distorted view or even color changes if you have any of those during a the c clips please go see your eye doctor because it's very important um you can look at you can take your glasses off during totality but I kind of air on the side of caution um wait until it is compl completely totality if you're in the path of totality you know the time so go by your watch wait a couple of seconds after it starts and uh plenty of seconds before put your glasses back on so you don't run that risk great thank you so much for joining us Leslie Kyle appreciate it all right folks um there we've got some we we are we have a lot of people already looking up at the eclipse because the sun is peeking out seriously the weather here is is just changing Moment by moment so we really we really don't know what's going to happen next um there's a lot of things to look forward to but especially right now on Mazatlan they're really closing in on the moment of totality and you know what it's the very first spot on North America on the continent where the Umbra the Moon Shadow is touching down so we want to give you a special chance to take a look at it just listen to the experience of uh folks watching on the ground um so we'll be we'll we'll come back after that but for now please enjoy the view from mazat L Mexico for [Music] moment [Music] spe fore spee okay foree [Music] spee spee spe spee e all right folks the weather might be iffy in many parts of North America today but if you're lucky to have clear skies or a break in the clouds there are some fun activities you can do at home to safely experience the partial and total solar eclipse now here with me is juli Greer one of mosquit volunteer Educators to show us ways we can view the eclipse if you don't have eclipse glasses so welcome Julie hi thank you so why don't you show us a little bit of the demos that we can people can do at home okay so one of the fun things if you happen to be able to stand under a tree you can look through the branches and you'll see the Shadow and the different phases of the eclipse through the branch in so that's an easy one and we're lucky enough that the sun is coming out um one of the other things that we've put together is a punch card and you can hold it with the Sun at your back on a shadow and you can see the phases of the eclipse even though you see a square a circle and a triangle when the sun is actually signing through it with the phases you'll see the phases on the ground or on your even on your hand so you can it's really neat to see the different phases through that so these are really handy especially for young kids who you know can't really wear the glasses perfectly on their faces right yeah so that's one of the main things is you don't want to look into the Sun so even most houses have a colander so you can even show a colander on the ground again with the Sun at your back and you can see yeah you can see the phases through the uh the holes in the colander so one of the fun things that we've been doing at our booth is actually making a pinhole uh viewer and it's super simple with cardboard foil so you've cut the The View part of it and you fold the foil over it this is so easy and then you take a toothpick sorry it's live TV folks and then you just poke a hole in through the foil just a small hole just a small hole a round hole and again you'll see the shadow of the eclipse on the on the paper on the the cardboard that's fantastic um is what are like things that um you know like this is one of my favorite activities like looking at the Shadows what gadgets at home like at home can people like pull out of of their kitchen or anything else so a cereal box you can make a pinhole a viewer out of a cereal box um I actually pulled this one off my refrigerator this morning so um and again you do it the same way with poking a hole in it and holding it up to the Sun so you can see the shadow on the ground um we've got the the tree branches is a good one um and the colander is an easy one to pull out of your kitchen okay how are you feeling about the weather here in Texas today I am so excited that the sun is coming out it's a little bit humid but we're used to that in Texas we have every little you know phase of the of the weather but the sun is out so people are starting to look up it's really fun to see the different faces already and as an educator how are you feeling about people's reactions to the eclipse to to the science to to the things that they can do it's really fun we've been talking about how the animals are going to react and is it safe to leave your dogs outside and how the birds are going to quit chirping because they think it's nighttime and so it's been it's been fun to to to Google and and research some of that um what have been what has been like the biggest question people typically ask of you a lot of them are why can't I just look up the sun why can't they you know and so you you get a sunburn if you sit out in the sun too long so imagine looking directly at the sun with your eyes and and the Damage that it can do to retinas and it's not even something that you'll notice right away it may be something that you notice a day or two later that you sunburned your eyes okay all right well thank you so much Julie for joining us we really appreciate it um and now I think we're going to throw it back to the views in mazan and maybe elsewhere around the country so w help fore forign spee [Applause] [Music] okay fore [Applause] [Applause] woe wooo [Applause] [Applause] good [Applause] [Applause] put your m [Applause] spe for spee spee spee [Music] spee spee spee spee spee spe [Music] [Music] fore foree fore speee [Applause] [Laughter] for [Applause] [Applause] spe [Applause] okay [Music] [Applause] for all right oh my gosh folks have you seen that did you see you know the eclipse touching down on mazan all day today this morning just the early uh the earliest um forecasts were cloudy and potentially rainy and just then you could see just how quickly the weather changes you know just in time for that moment of totality and even after totality that moment when when you know the diamond effect came in through the Bailey beads were peeking through like it just is so so exciting and I am living vicariously through them right now as the clouds start to cast a shadow on us instead of the moon but you know what there's just so much more excitement to be had because we're going to head over to Carbondale Illinois again the weather's been so changeable throughout the path of totality but sometimes look you just you just never know right total solar eclipses happen every few years or so especially like where um you know it's usually on somewhere else like the South Pacific so this is a really special thing that we are hitting so many people um around this this North America this continent um so you know what we're gonna head over to hear more from a citizen scientists setting up their solar eclipse experiments out in Carbondale Illinois let's take a look broadcasting initiative and it's a joint venture between NASA and Southern Illinois University here in Carbondale Illinois and what is your role in this in the study what are you doing as a citizen scientist well you said it I'm a citizen scientist I was recruited I'm an alumni here from Southern Illinois University and they contacted me prior to the annular Eclipse which we had last October uh and asked me to record that for my home in Santa Fe New Mexico I kept the equipment and then they asked if I might join them here in Carbondale so I drove 2 and 1 half days from Santa Fe and ended up here with all of this gear that you see in front of me to capture data of the solar eclipse that's happening today your background is in the motion picture industry you do not have a background as a scientist how did you end up doing this that's correct I worked in the the motion picture business for about 25 years and so I know cameras but I don't know telescopes so when they sent all of this to me I had never operated a telescope I had never operated a mount like this certainly I've used a computer but all of the software was new to me as well so there was a bit of a learning curve however I think that my experience and boy the crowd is really getting into it right now I hope you can hear me there's a countdown going on but all of my experience in the movie business did help and it prepared me to really figure out how to work this gear and and get the data that NASA needed what is it about your experience capturing the annular eclipse in October that caught your imagination and made you want to continue well it really was something else I didn't know what to expect I had never been through a total eclipse totality or annular annular of course is when the moon only covers a portion of the Sun not quite the entirety of the disc and it still was a very interesting some people say it's a magical time uh the sky gets dark obviously but there in Santa Fe a breeze came up it got remarkably cooler had to put on a sweater it was October anyway but still when the sun was covered up it's amazing how much energy we lose here on the earth when it's darkened like that and we saw the effect of that so I'm really looking forward to experiencing that here when the entire disc is is obscured by the moon this should be really cool to see in another half an hour 45 minutes from now what exactly are you doing here you're on the football Sidelines um you got a bunch of cameras and telescopes what exactly are you measuring well NASA's going to have to tell me what they're using my data for I really don't quite know what they're doing with the uh special files that I'm catering using this material here this small telescope there's a mono camera here that records in black and white I do have my other gear here my DSLR over here I've got one behind me that's shooting a wide angle I've got the stadium in the background for that and I'm capturing different phases of the eclipse as it happens to that camera so when I get home I'm going to take my images here and from the other camera and I'm going to put them through Photoshop and I'm going to make a nice collage of that and in addition to that I'm going to download the data for NASA send it back here to Bob bear at SIU who's overseeing the project for the University and I'm going to have to rely on them to tell me what they find in the data that I collect I'm not that smart what do you expect to experience during totality I mean this is new for all of us yeah it really is it's I I know it's gon to get cold I hope I can see my equipment to be able to operate it cuz it's going to get very very dark very quickly for 4 minutes we're going to be be experiencing that I hope that we can hear the environment around us I hope that we can hear the birds come out and start chirping and behaving differently that happened when I was in Santa Fe with the annular Eclipse a little bit um so I'm expecting more of that only amped up because of the totality event today great thank you so much Robert and let's enjoy some more pictures from the eclipse very good thank [Music] you e hello everyone uh we're excited to be joined by Javin Gonzalez MOS representative to tell us a bit about thing how things are feeling here in Texas um jvin welcome hi thanks for having me yeah and um tell us a little bit about msk Texas so in msk we're known as the rodeo capital of Texas uh so we sit just right outside of Dallas okay yeah um and how has being on the path of totality affected the community local businesses what were you feeling here so there's a lot of energy here in msit um just from like a lot of local businesses the volunteers downtown they were really excited uh we started playing it for this a year ago um so you know we felt like the community is really well prepared for what's happening and all the visitors that we have uh and M and many other communities along the path of totality uh hosted full weekend long Eclipse festivities and you guys were among those how did you roll out the red carpet for you know the local folks and the visitors sure so we actually kicked it off in the most mosquite way we could so it's the 66 annual Rodeo Parade uh happened here in MOS we have it every year but this year it was solar eclipse themed so that's kind of what kicked off the festivities uh we met with all of our hotels we offered them glasses uh we had a lot of international visitors who reached out to us in advance so we kind of prepared their uh vacation plans and where to go while they're here and where were some of the people coming in from oh we have people from um Copenhagen uh we have people from Spain England uh Mexico several different states so I just talked to some people from California Arizona so all over the place that's fantastic uh so I've heard like you said that MSY is really well known for the rodeo I'm wondering how are you hoping to keep the momentum up the energy and you know the excitement up after the eclipse well and one of the reasons why we called our Eclipse weekend the solar Rodeo was to kind of go back into that because we want this to have a positive impact on our community not just for this weekend but for the future uh I know a lot of people who have been here have been talking about oh we want to go to the rodeo now that we found out you guys are the rodeo capital and they've driven past the arena so we're really hoping to to capture those we've been doing a lot of incentives to follow us on social media and come back and any uh like things that you're doing with Ed like the schools or the students and things like that yeah so we've been working with our local school district here uh since the very beginning they're one of our big Partners on this so they have prepared all schools so all staff all students will have classes for today uh they have lesson plans ready for today and so all the kids are going out and observing I'm sure they're out right now taking a look were the schools closed today it's Monday or where are they going on schools are in session yeah schools are in session here in Ms um any last thoughts the weather the keep it keeps changing minute by minute you're seeing it live there clouds are coming in clouds are parting we don't know what we're going to expect in 20 minutes any any thoughts or any uh words of encouragement for everybody else who are also on the path of totality possibly experiencing the same thing Good Vibes uh it's been blowing here off and on the clouds have broken away it gets really sunny and the clubs come back so we're hoping that here in the next 20 minutes it's clear fantastic thank you so much jav and I hope you you know things look up thank you um so we are going to have a look at all of the events that are still going on across uh Mexico the US and Canada um so stay tuned take a look at our feed if you need to find out about the latest updates and stories from around the country you got to go to AP news.com um check it out we have a live blog telling folks you know everything that's happening and all the weather updates traffic updates um earlier today I saw there was already a standstill um up to for folks heading up towards um the North New England so the northeast of the US um so if you want the latest updates go to apnews.com um and we're going to continue taking a look around the country to see what's going on how people are Fairing and uh maybe we'll be lucky just like mazan where the clouds will part just at the right moment so we'll see we've got high hopes here e e e you [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] w [Music] folks uh we're looking at Eagle Pass Texas right now the Border City uh on the border of Mexico and the US and you know what it's been cloudy but people people are experiencing totality and and they're excited and they're so they're they're just having such a phenomenal time you can just hear you can hear the excitement um in our feed we're seeing a live view also of uh the eclipse um feed from NASA um looking at the view from Russellville Arkansas uh there's just so much excitement and hope so you know what even if it's cloudy you might just get to experience it anyway the darkness and totality is just absolutely palpable and even here where we are in mosqu Texas everyone's just waiting it's waiting the the clouds keep popping in and out so you know there's just nothing quite like [Music] it [Music] use w e see you spe [Music] is [Music] w spe e e e folks here in mosqu Texas it is incredible the the skies have have cleared up a little bit the clouds have parted just in time for you know we have three four minutes left to totality everyone around us have Ed down all of the solar eclipse glasses are on faces uh we we're just here waiting we are waiting for the moment I think I think we'll actually get to experience this it is so close we have two minutes left now is the time if you can start looking down on the ground if you're experiencing totality notice what the shadow banding look like um we've got clouds peeking through but but you never know you never know if you'll get the chance to experience um the weird Shadow patterns take a look at trees near you um as totality is closing in it's almost time you guys this is incredible just slivers slivers of the Sun and just in time peeking behind the clouds there there is still a bit of cloud cover here and it just so happens this one cloud is just choosing to to obscure a little bit of the Sun but it keeps through which adds to so much excitement on the ground I got to say I you know this is kind of reminding me of the the the final moments of the Super Bowl here just the tension is palpable people people are just waiting on edge to see an experience totality if it can happen but the fact that through the clouds and despite the weather forecasts we are experiencing this it is something else you guys e e we are moments away away from totality here in mosqu Texas everyone is just looking straight up um if you happen to be looking uh on the screen at everybody else who's wearing Reds Blues greens and colorful clothes now is the time to notice the pinji effect when colors are just changing the temperature here on the ground is much cooler all of a sudden we are seeing the tiniest liver of the sun peeking behind the moon I am actually getting emotional you guys this is incredible 5 4 3 2 [Applause] [Music] 1 it is totality here everybody just counted down together cameras are up everybody's looking up just experiencing this together there are children their grandparents here all together I am emotional I can see a planet on the sky this is I am crying and I can't help it you guys this is phenomenal um I wish Laura our VJ behind us could actually take a look because this is you got to come out from behind the camera Laura please but but we can see a planet just to the side and even though it's peeking straight behind uh the clouds we are seeing it so clearly we are lucky that we had high clouds here today just as this moment um if it's absolutely Darkness out here it is it is incredible um you know there are folks taking photos with their cameras they're not really going to get the ideal thing but like now during totality I mean we're going to get four whole minutes of this four minutes and 8 seconds people can take selfies safely um just at this moment of totality and it is incredible look the solar the solar activity right now is near its peak and just from the ground we are seeing how how powerful the corona is peeking through from behind the the moon um it is just something else you guys and I got to say for all of the drama of the weather forecast today the clouds have made it absolutely spectacular it's just something else I hope you all get a chance to experience it at home um in the future if you're lucky enough uh to afford it for it to to come to you directly um uh but it is just nothing I've ever experienced before um yeah let me grab somebody hold on we're we're GNA try and get an interview with people out here um because this is something else you guys so we're just waiting to see if we can chat with somebody briefly um right now I'm looking around it is Darkness it is so cool the the temperature has definitely dropped um we're not hearing much when it comes to crickets or anything there weren't a lot of bugs near us probably because it's so busy uh but oh my gosh um and we have someone here joining us who is part of totality and um smartly enough War green against my red so you can see and test out the Peri effect for yourself uh please tell me your name Melody Melody and where were you coming from are you a local or no Oklahoma City Oklahoma City how is this experience for you this is very exciting my husband went to the one uh that was in Kansas I didn't go so I came with him this time and it's uh once in a lifetime kind of thing is it's very um different than what I had anticipated yeah anything that stood out for you right now in this moment I mean the clouds are just in and out all day that made it more of a community thing we were all cheering for the clouds to move and every time there was a gap in the clouds you know there was a cheer but just when it got to totality it was very um it was all inspiring the ring around it and how it kind of had gaseous features around it it was just very interesting um was it anything like you expected how is it different from what other people have told you about it um I the I had the correct expectation as far as when it the eclipse was occurring but with the actual total eclipse that was different for me I hadn't anticipated um the the ring and the gaseous effect of the ring around it the corona the sun's Corona um tell me your name one more time Melody Melody thank you so much and please keep enjoying the rest of our two minutes it's pe oh it's already peeking out folks it looks like the the Diamond effect might be coming through or there's a little bit of light um it's a little confusing because of the cloud ever but it's starting to get bright you can see the difference right now um in the light it's just complete darkness earlier it just felt like it was night time and even with the clouds even with the clouds you still feel it and so you know for everyone else still waiting for the totality to come to them hold out hope it could still be this good can I can I interview you we've got one more person to interview here um who's the worker are we good all right um tell me your name I'm Britney Britany wara Britney welcome and tell us how how are you feeling right now I I'm feeling super I mean this is cool like I have no words honestly I've never seen this before like I've never experience in Eclipse before and the fact that I'm working and I am able to be out here and with my family and you know actually getting to see this in person it's crazy yes like I couldn't I couldn't miss out on this how long did you know that this was happening you're from Texas you're from from M I'm from M yes well I'm from Dallas I was I actually went to school here in msk so I I didn't know that you know msk was going to be one of the best views of the eclipse from the whole I was just like oh my God I can't believe it and then I I saw that people were traveling out here and I'm like dang like I I've never expected this to happen in MOS you know because we're a small town I mean we're growing right but like we're small town outside of Dallas and I mean it's crazy we had people come out and get coffee and they're like yeah we're from the UK like people were coming from all over like just to see the eclipse so how did you feel emotionally at that moment of totality I felt like this was so I mean I I had my kids with me so then I was like Hey guys like look up and then they were like wow this actually exists like we never we see it on the books we see it you know and in TV and everything but we never see it live so that yeah that was crazy like I felt I felt yeah that's that's God's create you know I I creation I I love it I love it what's your name thank you so much thank you so much folks gracias all right folks uh totality is here we are heading over to keep chasing the Umbra keep chasing that Moon Shadow and now we're going to toss it over to Hot Springs Arkansas to see how things are fairing they've had good forecast this morning so crossing fingers for them e for e e e e e e [Music] [Music] already [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] name this is with anything it's got [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] aord [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Music] you to rect a e look three my Illinois [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] w [Music] [Music] go [Music] [Music] to the [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] together [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] W oh my God [Applause] [Music] up [Applause] guys mom look at the pict [Music] the hi there hi Robert hello spe off the solar flar in about 5 [Music] Seconds you don't want to go [Applause] [Music] away [Music] [Applause] [Music] yeah on C here Cong [Applause] [Music] aw [Music] joining me now to talk about some eclipses and exoplanets and the universe's NASA JPL Ambassador welcome thank you so much Kyle so excited to be here with you and see totality together uh we just experienced totality together and you were here with your parents um tell us how did that feel it's amazing to get to see the whole world change and to get to see the corona which you never get to do otherwise yeah it was really strong today and we even got to see a few planets nearby you could see Venus bright and clear amazing um so tell us how your research has to do with exoplanets how does tonight today's phenomena uh have anything to do with that I mean in the same way that you can watch the Sun get dark we can watch other stars get dark when objects pass in front of them and it turns out when planets like Mercury Venus make the Sun a little dimmer we can see this for distant stars and use it to find the planets that are around them and so we found thousands of exoplanets or planets outside the solar system using this method so so actually you bring up a really good point in that total solar eclipses present an incredible moment for science experiments as a matter of fact didn't a 1919 eclipse make uh Albert Einstein famous in 1919 looking at the total solar eclipse they were actually able to look at stars near the Sun that you otherwise wouldn't see when there's sunlight and actually check Einstein's theory of general relativity so it's amazing the science you can do both to study our atmosphere the Sun and understanding all of space and final takeaway before we head out to see more of the eclipse uh what do you want people to pay attention to as they're viewing it today how do you feel right all of the changes it's not just what you see the temperature the people around you the animals around you and really sense everything even if you have a magic bracelet with UV beads thank you so much and we will throw it back to the our views across North America of the total solar eclipse thanks for joining us thanks for having me did you have a good time sh real they were speed up it's to e it's look [Music] at [Music] [Applause] w [Music] Hey look [Music] USA e go let go go let e e [Applause] look [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] oh [Applause] [Applause] all [Music] you see anything [Music] [Applause] out e [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] w [Applause] 201 [Music] knew also it's over it's over e see e spe spe spe e e e all right folks we're back with maybe one of my favorite topics of the day animals and eclipses we're being joined now um or we will be shortly from Fort Worth Zoo with uh Adam hearstone Rose of North Carolina State University uh so we're just waiting to get a chance to talk to them about what things look like uh at the Fort Worth Zoo uh hello Adam how's it going it's going great this has been an amazing day at the so um it looks like there it's a little bit sunnier now it's kind of the same here in mset Texas we're kind of on the opposite ends of Dallas how was the weather earlier during totality for you the weather was pretty good so there were scattered clouds but during totality I think that uh we most of us had a magical view of the um so tell us uh people react to solar eclipses with oo and O's and I mean I cried um what do we know about how animals react during the total solar eclipse we don't honestly know very much about how animals react during a total eclipse but we know a little bit more now than we did an hour ago um the animals here did great things uh in previous uh especially our did a research in had a different to and most of the animals move towards where they're put away for the even um but some of the animals seem very anxious during fality he actually had kind of a different response here while most of the animals did go their evening the some of them a little somebody forget to put us inside but in general like everybody was really well adjusted nobody was was doing sort of Bonkers Behavior the most amazing Behavior was some of the animals that really didn't move very much at all during totality they definitely looked around for their gifts and thinking like I really need to go inside now so um were there animals that were the same in your 2017 study and this one or were they all kind of different can you tell us a little bit about you know what what was the same and what was different with your experiment this time we watched a lot of the same Seas for instance we watched a great group of girls in 2017 and we watched a fantastic group here in for at the Fort Worth do um and uh and they had a relatively similar um experience in 2017 they all moved towards the ship store as they did here in Fort Worth but also in 2017 one of the animals got a little bit worked up and here none of the animals got worked up some of them seem to be a little extra vigilant but uh but not really stressed out the biggest difference was um in our uh experience fire experiences all everybody who watched giraffes during totality saw them Galloping and here at Fort Worth the giraffe herd remained relatively calm maybe they sort of gathered together a little bit more they gathered towards their evening shift area but nobody seemed super stressed out how did you decide to start studying This research question about animals and their their reactions to totality it was really an accidental thing uh I was a professor at the University of South Carolina and affiliated with the Riverbank Zoo both of which were on the path of totality in 2017 and we kept getting questions from the public about what do animals do during eclipses and the truth is that we didn't know very much we still don't know that much but because of this lack of of data we decided to do a big study and it turns out our study in 2017 was the largest study of animal behavior during an eclipse in almost 100 years the previous study was done during an eclipse in 1932 and in basically all of those intervening years there was sort of an observation of one speci here and one speci here but nothing really comprehensive so we did that comprehensive study in 2017 and here we came credit turn a lot of these findings and discover new stuff as well so what is next for you and your team any other Eclipse chasing uh plans coming up prior to 2017 I actually wasn't interested in eclipses at all I was kind of almost Jed and 2017 was mindblowing it was so cool coming here to Fort Worth especially the Fort Worth doew has been so welcoming and such an amazing uh organization to work with I'm totally hooked now I'm in Twi sper for sure uh so we're we're planning to go to Spain in 2026 maybe we'll go to Iceland that Samy FP passes through Iceland um and then we're really excited about an eclipse in 2030 that's going through Africa and Australia and then we'll be able to watch in the wild a lot of the animals that we've observed activity that's so great to hear um Adam thank you so much for joining us I'm so glad that the sun Peak through and gave you a little something I we were we were also on edge here waiting for that so you know Kudos and um good luck with all of your research thanks for joining us thank you it was an extraordinary day at the do so we are going to take one more look across North America to see what's going on people are the people's reactions are they still waiting to see the eclipse has the weather changed there's so many questions um but no matter what we are all just non-stop excitement about Today's total solar eclipse so let's take a look around the country nice toet e

Channel: TIME

Views: 2,781,169

Keywords: TIME, BREAKING NEWS, LIVE, LIVESTREAM, 2024, 2024 ELECTION, POLITICS, NEWS, TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE, SUN, MOON, SPACE, ASTRONOMY, SCIENCE, COSMOS, UMBRA, DAYLIGHT, ANIMALS

Id: 7B74-teYM2g

Length: 238min 5sec (14285 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 08 2024