The Great American Eclipse

SKAGIT VALLEY HERALD • SUNDAY, AUGUST 20, 2017

The Great American Eclipse

In Skagit County The sun will be about 90 percent covered by the moon as the two cross paths between about 9 and 11:30 a.m. Monday.

According to NASA projections, the moon will begin to overlap the sun shortly after 9 a.m.

— at 9:09 a.m. in Anacortes and 9:11 a.m. in Diablo.

The moon will reach its greatest coverage of the sun between 10:21 and 10:23 a.m., from west to east Skagit County.

More info To learn more about the eclipse: eclipse2017. nasa.gov To learn more about safely watching the eclipse: eclipse2017.nasa.gov/safety To find more precise times to see the eclipse at your location: eclipse2017.nasa.gov/sites/ default/files/interactive_map/index.html To watch NASA’s program and access images: nasa.gov/eclipselive

WHEN THE SUN GOES DARK

By SHANNON SCHMOLL Michigan State University

How do we know when an eclipse is going to happen? How do we know in advance where it will be visible?

Solar eclipses happen when our view of the sun is blocked by the moon. When the moon lines up between the sun and Earth, the moon will cast a shadow onto Earth. This is what we on the ground observe as a solar eclipse.

We know when they’ll happen because over centuries astronomers have measured very precisely the motions of the Earth, moon and sun, including their orbital shapes, how the orbits precess and other parameters. With those data about the moon – and similar information about the Earth’s orbit around the sun – we can make mathematical models of their movements in relation to each other. Using those equations, we can calculate tables of data that can predict what we will see on Earth, depending on location, during an eclipse as well as when they will happen and how long they last. (The next major solar eclipses over the U.S. will be in 2023 and 2024.)

Inside

◗ Omens in the ancient world ◗ The Pacific Northwest’s last total eclipse ◗ Scientific expeditions don’t always go as planned ◗ One meteorologist eagerly anticipating Monday ◗ Kid Scoop on the big event

See SUN, Page 2

Total solar eclipse Aug. 21 2017

10:18 am

10:21

11:30

Portland Salem

Ore.

Boise

Idaho

12:57

11:42

Neb.

Wyo.

Cheyenne

1:15 Lincoln

Kan.

Kansas City

Mo.

Ill.

1:27

St Louis

Jefferson City

2:33

2:42

Ky.

N.C.

S.C.

Nashville

Tenn.

Ga.

2:48

Columbia

SOURCES: Maps4News/HERE; NASA

AP

A total eclipse isn’t every day Quality journalism is 5452-001

Eclipse start times All times local

Arc shows the path of a total solar eclipse. As long as you stay within several miles of that central line you are almost certain to enjoy a view. Choose a cloud-free location.

2 - Sunday, August 20, 2017

Skagit Valley Herald

How eclipses were regarded as omens in the ancient world C

By GONZALO RUBIO Penn. State University

On Monday, people living in the continental United States will be able to see a total solar eclipse.

Humans have been alternatively amused, puzzled, bewildered and sometimes even terrified at the sight of this celestial phenomenon. A range of social and cultural reactions accompanies the observation of an eclipse.

In ancient Mesopotamia (roughly modern Iraq), eclipses were in fact regarded as omens, as signs of things to come.

For an eclipse to take place, three celestial bodies must find themselves in a straight line within their elliptic orbits. This is called a syzygy, from the Greek word “súzugos,” meaning yoked or paired.

From our viewpoint on Earth, there are two kinds of eclipses: solar and lunar. In a solar eclipse, the moon passes in between the sun and Earth, which results in blocking our view of the sun. In a lunar eclipse, it is the moon that crosses through the shadow of the Earth. A solar eclipse can completely block our view of the sun, but it is usually a brief event and can be observed only in certain areas of the Earth’s surface; what can be viewed as a total eclipse in one’s hometown may just be a partial eclipse a few hun-

dred miles away.

By contrast, a lunar eclipse can be viewed throughout an entire hemisphere of the Earth: the half of the surface of the planet that happens to be on the night side at the time.

More than 2,000 years ago, the Babylonians were able to calculate that there were 38 possible eclipses or syzygys within a period of 223 months: that is, about 18 years.

This period of 223 months is called a Saros cycle by modern astronomers, and a sequence of eclipses separated by a Saros cycle constitutes a Saros series.

Although scientists now know that the number of lunar and solar eclipses is not exactly the same in every Saros series, one cannot underplay the achievement of Babylonian scholars in understanding this astronomical phenomenon. Their realization of this cycle eventually allowed them to predict the occurrence of an eclipse.

The level of astronomical knowledge achieved in ancient Babylonia (southern Mesopotamia) cannot be separated from the astrological tradition that regarded eclipses as omens: Astronomy and astrology were then two sides of the same coin.

According to Babylonian scholars, eclipses could foretell the death of the king. The condi-

Total solar eclipse explained

When the moon passes between the sun and Earth, the sun is masked and the sky darkened for viewers directly behind the moon’s inner shadow or umbra.

SUN

MOON

EARTH

Sun’s rays

Umbra SOURCE: NASA

tions for an omen to be considered as such were not simple. For instance, according to a famous astronomical work known by its initial words, “En ma Anu Enlil” – “When (the gods) Anu and Enlil” – if Jupiter was visible during the eclipse, the king was safe. Lunar eclipses seem to have been of particular concern for the well-being and survival of the king.

In order to preempt the monarch’s fate, a mechanism was devised: the “substitute king ritual,” or “šar p hi.” There are over 30 mentions of this ritual in various letters from Assyria (northern Mesopotamia), dating to the first millennium B.C. Earlier references to a similar ritual have also been found in texts in Hittite, the Indo-European language for which we have the earliest written records, dating to secondmillennium Anatolia – modern-day Turkey.

In this ritual, a per-

AP

son would be chosen to replace the king. He would be dressed like the king and placed on the throne. To avoid confusion with a real coronation, all this would occur alongside the recitation of the negative omen triggered by the observation of the eclipse.

The real king would keep a low profile and avoid being seen. If no additional negative portents were observed, the substitute king was put to death, therefore fulfilling the prophetic reading of the celestial omen while saving the life of the real king. This ritual would take place when an eclipse was observed or even predicted, something that became possible to do in later periods.

The presence of this ritual among the corpus of Hittite texts in second-millennium Anatolia has led to the assumption that it must have existed already in Mesopotamia during the first half of the second

millennium B.C. Although omens predicting the death of the king are already known for this earlier period, the truth is that the main basis for such an assumption is an interesting story preserved only in a much later, first-millennium composition known by modern scholars as the “Chronicle of Early Kings.”

According to this late chronicle, a king of the city of Isin (about 125 miles to the southeast of Baghdad), Erra-imitti, was replaced by a gardener called Enlilbani as part of a substitute king ritual. Luckily for this gardener, the real king died while eating hot soup, so the gardener remained on the throne and became king for good.

The fact is that these two kings, Erra-imitti and Enlil-bani, did exist and reigned successively in Isin during the 19th century B.C. The story, however, as told in the late “Chronicle of Early Kings,” bears all the trademarks of a legend. The story was probably devised to explain a dynastic switch, in which the royal office passed from one family or lineage to another, instead of following the usual fatherson line of succession.

Mesopotamia was not unique in this regard. For instance, a chronicle of early China known as the “Bamboo Annals” refers to a total lunar eclipse that took place in 1059 B.C.,

during the reign of the last B king of the Shang dynasty. A This eclipse was regarded as a sign by a vassal king, Wen of the Zhou dynasty, D to challenge his Shang f overlord. e In the later account contained in the “Bamboo c Annals,” an eclipse would b have triggered the politi- f cal and military events a that marked the transition t e from the Shang to the Zhou dynasty in ancient f China. As in the case of i the Babylonian “Chron- c icle of Early Kings,” the p “Bamboo Annals” are a l history of earlier periods i compiled at a later time. s s The “Bamboo Annals” were allegedly found in a t tomb about A.D. 280, but i they purport to date to the reign of the King Xiang of Wei, who died in 296 B.C. The complexity of human events is rarely constrained and determined by one single factor. Nevertheless, whether in ancient Mesopotamia or in early China, eclipses and other omens provided contemporary justifications, or after-the-fact explanations, for an entangled set of variables that decided a specific course of history.

Even if they mix astronomy and astrology, or history with legend, humans have been preoccupied with the inescapable anomaly embodied by an eclipse for as long as they have looked at the sky.

T e

How the Pacific Northwest celebrated the last total eclipse

By EVAN BUSH The Seattle Times

SEATTLE — Druids, offering edible sacrifices, chanted incantations at clouds in a tiny farming town. Air controllers scrambled to direct swarms of planes filling the skies. On a chartered Boeing 727, people swapped seats, for the briefest of views.

“It was like a square dance at 35,000 feet and 400 miles an hour,” The Associated Press reported.

The total solar eclipse on Feb. 26, 1979 — the most recent in the Northwest — stoked a strange, intrinsic curiosity in Washingtonians, left them agape with wonder and contemplating the mysteries of the cosmos.

“It was an emotional experience,” one person told a Seattle Times reporter. “I wasn’t prepared for that at all.

The thought that kept running through my mind was how people must have felt seeing it in the Middle Ages.”

“I think God’s up there having fun,” said another.

In rural Goldendale, Klickitat County, a town known for clear skies and its Stonehenge replica, eclipse viewing was a chance for a party.

“There was a carnival air as

◗ Sun Continued from Page 1

HOW OFTEN DO ECLIPSES HAPPEN?

A solar eclipse happens, on average, a couple times a year.

The moon passes between the Earth and sun every 29 days, a time we call the “new moon” – when the moon is not visible in Earth’s nighttime sky. However, the moon’s orbit and the sun’s path in our sky don’t match up exactly, so at most of those new moon events, the moon appears above or below the sun.

Twice a year, though, there is a period where the moon and the sun line up with Earth – astronomers call this an eclipse season.

It lasts about 34 days, long enough for the moon to complete a full orbit (and then some) of the Earth. During each eclipse season, there are at least two eclipses visible from some parts of the Earth. At the full moon, there will be a lunar eclipse,

many visitors happily sampled astronomical lectures, prowled the streets for what-will-theythink-of-next souvenirs or dropped down to the nearby replica of Stonehenge to converse with the disciples of neopagan religions who were led there, they said, by a vision,” wrote Don Duncan, a Seattle Times staffer reporting from the Columbia Gorge town.

Wearing robes and gowns, they “danced, chanted and offered up sacrifices of fruits, deer meat and seeds on the Stonehenge altar to celebrate a ‘new cycle’ in mankind’s relationship to Mother Earth” and attempted magic to dissuade clouds from foiling their view.

“You meet all kinds of people at an eclipse,” Duncan wrote.

Seattle Times reporters scattered throughout the state to mark the phenomenon.

Science reporter Hill Williams recounted passing encampments of people lined up alongside the roadway in old drifts of snow. He stopped at a school district building in Bickleton (also Klickitat County), where people were “huddled together to stay out of the biting wind.”

Clouds there drifted away just as the last glimpses of sun-

light shined through canyons on the moon, an effect referred to as Bailey’s Beads. It became so dark Williams couldn’t see the settings on his camera.

“The landscape had a dark, sickly pallor. Off to the south, across the Columbia River, the horizon was bright yellowish orange, apparently due to the sun shining beyond the moon’s shadow. Venus and a few stars were visible during totality,” Williams reported.

“As the moon moved away from the sun, a few sparkles appeared on the dark side of the moon. ‘Bailey’s Beads’ again,” Williams wrote. “Then as the moon slid further, the sparkles increased in intensity and it looked as if the whole right side of the moon had caught fire. Finally the thin crescent of the sun emerged.”

Much of the rest of the Northwest suffered from typical, sorrowful February weather. Clouds cleared in Olympia long enough to see the sun’s corona, briefly, during the totality, but Portland, Yakima, Spokane and even Walla Walla reported rain.

In Seattle, the “only evidence of the eclipse was a deep darkening of the sky shortly after 8:15 a.m.,” The Times reported.

People took to the skies for a

when the moon passes directly behind the Earth, resulting in a darker, reddish-colored moon.

And at the new moon, there will be a solar eclipse, when the sun is blocked by the moon.

pictures. Eclipses give scientists opportunities to get more data to study the corona in depth.

We can also learn about Earth itself. In an area affected by an eclipse, the darkening of the sun leads to a sudden drop in temperature. NASA-funded studies during this eclipse will look at the effects from the eclipse on our atmosphere as well as what happens on land.

Previous studies observed animal behavior during an eclipse in 2001 and noted some animals went through their night routines as the sun disappeared while others became nervous.

And we can learn about the whole universe. Less than 100 years ago, an eclipse proved a prediction Albert Einstein had made about gravity. That success helped make him a household name. In his general theory of relativity, Einstein had predicted that gravity could bend the path of light.

The effect he predicted was very slight, so it would best be

CAN WE LEARN ANYTHING FROM ECLIPSE EVENTS, OR ARE THEY REALLY JUST ODDITIES THAT HAPPEN IN NATURE?

We can definitely learn things from eclipses. The outermost layer of the sun, known as the corona, is difficult to study because it’s less bright than the rest of the sun – so we have trouble seeing it amid the rest of the sun’s brightness.

When the moon blocks the sun, we can see the corona, the famous visual of the halo of light around the dark disk of the moon. Currently astronomers study this by creating an artificial eclipse with a mask built into special instruments on telescopes called coronagraphs. This is great, but doesn’t allow the best

SHUTTERSTOCK

better view.

The FAA reported more than 600 aircraft in the path of the eclipse, pushing the agency’s computer system to capacity.

The Pacific Science Center chartered a Boeing 727 to fly above the crowds, and allow 94 passengers a view of the totality. Passengers were allowed 25 seconds of time at the window before vacating for others.

The pilot “did all he could to chase the fading sun through the sky,” The Associated Press reported. “At one point the trijet shook as Perry (the pilot) hit 480 miles an hour, almost

breaking the sound barrier to make certain he was in the right place at the right time. He also banked steeply to give everyone the best view.”

Getting a view — by plane, car or lucky cloudbreak — was a badge of pride for many.

In Goldendale, motels were sold out within 50 miles. Roadways jammed. A day after the phenomenon, there was a run on eclipse souvenirs, Duncan reported.

“A van driving out of the town bore a hastily scribbled sign in the back window that spoke for everyone: ‘I saw it!’”

viewed as the light passed a very large celestial body as part of its travels across a very long distance of space.

Sir Arthur Eddington, an astronomer who helped further the study of general relativity and whose work is a major piece of our modern understanding of stars and black holes, used the darkness provided by a solar eclipse to look at the position of the stars’ light during the day, when it passed the sun. He then compared those positions to their known positions at night. He saw that the gravity of the sun had bent the path – exactly as, and in the precise amount that, Einstein had predicted.

the moon to perfectly block the sun’s disk, while also showing us the corona. Venus and Mercury, for instance, can also pass in front of the sun from our perspective. However, they appear as small specks moving across the sun.

HOW STRANGE IS IT THAT THE MOON CAN BASICALLY BLOCK OUT THE SUN?

It is very unusual that the moon and the sun just happen to be at the right distances and sizes to appear to have the same size in our sky. This allows

WHAT WOULD SOMEONE STANDING ON THE MOON SEE HAPPEN ON EARTH? WOULD EARTH GET DARK?

If you were on the moon, you would be able to see the effects of the solar eclipse on Earth only if you were standing on the moon’s night side, the side facing the Earth. You would see a round shadow cast onto the Earth. This particular eclipse will first hit the Pacific Ocean, then move into Oregon, cross the U.S. to South Carolina and end in the Atlantic Ocean. This path the shadow takes is called the path of totality.

■ Shannon Schmoll is the director of the Abrams Planetarium at Michigan State University

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Skagit Valley Herald

Can’t see the solar eclipse? Tune in online or on TV

By SANDY COHEN AP Entertainment Writer

LOS ANGELES — Ronald Dantowitz has been looking forward to Monday’s solar eclipse for nearly 40 years.

An astronomer who specializes in solar imaging, he’s been photographing eclipses for more than three decades, and will be using 14 cameras to capture Monday’s celestial event. The cameras have solar filters to capture the eclipse in its partial phases, along with custom modifications that can photograph the corona and light wavelengths that are invisible to the human eye, allowing scientists to view and study the sun’s temperature and composition in a way only possible during a total eclipse, he said.

Dantowitz, who is based at

Dexter Southfield School in Brookline, Massachusetts, is lending his expertise to NOVA’s “Eclipse Over America,” airing Monday night on PBS (check local listings for time).

That hourlong special, which will incorporate his images, is among extensive coverage planned on TV and online of the first solar eclipse to cross the United States in 99 years.

Still, witnessing totality — when the sun is completely obscured by the moon — is best done with the naked eye, not a camera, Dantowitz said, adding that the total eclipse is safe to view without special lenses.

“Enjoying totality by eye is more rewarding,” he said.

“There is much to see: stars during the daytime, the milliondegree solar corona, and seeing the sun blacked out during the

daytime.

“I have been waiting almost 40 years for this eclipse, and although I will be operating 14 cameras during totality, I will certainly take a moment to gaze at the eclipse the same way people have done for thousands of years: with wonder.”

For those not in the 14 states comprising the eclipse’s “path of totality,” here’s a look at some of the viewing opportunities online and on TV: ■ “Eclipse of the Century”: CNN plans two hours of livestreaming, 360-degree coverage accessible in virtual reality through Oculus headsets beginning at 10 a.m. PDT. Accompanying television coverage will include reporting from Oregon, Missouri, Tennessee and South Carolina.

■ “Eclipse Over America”:

The PBS science series NOVA is planning a quick turnaround on its eclipse documentary premiering Monday. Senior executive producer Paula S. Apsell said “Eclipse Over America,” which delves into why eclipses occur and what scientists can learn from them, will incorporate images of the event from across the country shot earlier that day with Dantowitz’s hightech cameras.

■ “Great American Eclipse”: The Science Channel will broadcast its live coverage from Madras, Oregon, with commentary from educators and astronomers from the Lowell Observatory from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

■ “The Great American Eclipse”: David Muir will anchor ABC’s two hours of live coverage, with correspondents

Total eclipse, partial failure: Scientific expeditions don’t always go as planned

By BARBARA RYDEN The Ohio State University

For centuries, astronomers have realized that total solar eclipses offer a valuable scientific opportunity. During what’s called totality, the opaque moon completely hides the bright photosphere of the sun – its thin surface layer that emits most of the sun’s light. An eclipse allows astronomers to study the sun’s colorful outer atmosphere and its delicate extended corona, ordinarily invisible in the dazzling light of the photosphere.

But total solar eclipses are infrequent, and are visible only from a narrow path of totality. So eclipse expeditions require meticulous advance planning to ensure that astronomers and their equipment wind up in the right place at the right time. As the history of astronomy shows, things don’t always go according to plan for even the most prepared eclipse hunters.

Samuel Williams, the newly appointed professor of mathematics and natural philosophy at Harvard College, was eager to observe a total solar eclipse. He’d seen a transit of Venus in 1769, but had never had the chance to study the sun’s corona during an eclipse. According to his calculations, a total solar eclipse would be visible from Maine’s Penobscot Bay on Oct. 27, 1780.

But reaching Maine from Massachusetts would be something of a problem; the Revolutionary War was raging, and Maine was held by the British Army. The Massachusetts legislature came to Williams’ assistance; it directed the state’s Board of War to fit out a ship to convey the eclipse hunters. Speaker of the House John Hancock wrote to the British commander in Maine, requesting permission for the men of science to make their observations. When the astronomer-laden ship arrived at Penobscot Bay, Williams and his team were permitted to land but restricted to the island of Isleboro, three miles offshore from the mainland.

The morning of the big day was cloudless. As the calculated moment of totality approached, at half past noon, the excitement built. The sliver of uneclipsed sun became narrower and narrower.

Then, at 12:31 p.m., it started becoming wider and wider. Williams realized, to his frustration, that he wasn’t in the path of totality after all. They were 30 miles too far south.

After a subdued voyage back to Massachusetts, Williams tried to determine what had gone

While watching the narrow sliver of sun visible at 12:31, (Samuel Williams) noted it became “broken or separated into drops.” These bright drops, known today as Baily’s Beads, are the result of the sun’s light shining through valleys and depressions along the moon’s visible edge. wrong. Some astronomers, at the time and in following centuries, suggested his calculations of the path of totality were inaccurate.

Williams, however, had a different explanation.

In his report to the newly founded American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he blamed bad maps: “The longitude of our place of observation agrees very well with what we had supposed in our calculations. But the latitude is near half a degree less than what the maps of that country had led us to expect.”

Since half a degree of longitude corresponds to 30 nautical miles, this could explain why Williams ended up too far south.

Although Samuel Williams missed seeing a total eclipse, his expedition was not a total failure. While watching the narrow sliver of sun visible at 12:31, he noted it became “broken or separated into drops.”

These bright drops, known today as Baily’s Beads, are the result of the sun’s light shining through valleys and depressions along the moon’s visible edge.

They’re named in honor of astronomer Francis Baily; however, Baily saw and described the beads in 1836, nearly 56 years after Williams observed them.

Almost a century later, in 1871, English astronomer Norman Lockyer was eager to observe a total solar eclipse.

Three years earlier, he and French astronomer Jules Janssen had independently measured the spectrum of the sun’s chromosphere; to their surprise, they found an emission line in the yellow range of the spectrum, not corresponding to any known element.

Lockyer boldly claimed that the emission line was from a new element that he named “helium,” after the sun god Helios. Realizing that eclipses offered a helpful opportunity to search for more undiscovered elements, Lockyer became a strong advocate of eclipse expeditions.

Pinhole projector

With your back facing the sun, raise a paper plate with a small hole punched in it.

A safe way to view the solar eclipse Aim the beam from the hole onto another piece of cardboard.

The farther away you hold your pinhole, the bigger the projected image will be.

SOURCE: NASA

He knew the total solar eclipse of Dec. 12, 1871, would pass across southern India and persuaded the British Association for the Advancement of Science to sponsor an expedition. Wishing to show that British rule in India was linked to scientific progress, the British government chipped in £2,000, and the P&O steamship company offered reduced fares to India for the eclipse hunters.

Lockyer’s voyage to India went smoothly. (This could not be taken for granted; in 1870, on his way to view an eclipse from Italy, Lockyer was aboard a ship that ran aground off the east coast of Sicily.) The team set up their instruments on a tower at Bekal Fort, on the southwest Indian coast. The morning of Dec. 12, 1871, was cloudless. Although Lockyer was suffering from a fever (and from the effects of the opium he was taking to treat it), he was ready.

Then, during the initial phases of the eclipse, he noted odd activity in the region below the fort.

Local inhabitants were gathering a huge pile of brushwood to fuel a bonfire; apparently, by creating a bright fire on Earth, they hoped to encourage the darkening sun to become bright again.

Lockyer was alarmed; the column of smoke would have risen directly between him and the eclipsed sun, ruining his observations.

Fortunately, the local superintendent of police happened to be present; he summoned a squadron of policemen who put out the fire and dispersed the crowd. During the now smoke-free eclipse, Lockyer made valuable observations of the structure of the sun’s corona.

Jump ahead to the early 20th century. The English astronomer Royal Sir Frank Dyson was eager to view a total solar eclipse.

He didn’t have to travel far, since the eclipse of June 29, 1927, had a path of totality cutting across northern England, from Blackpool in the west to Hartlepool in the east. As an eminent figure in the scientific establishment and a renowned expert on eclipses, Dyson had no trouble in commanding

AP

financial support for his eclipse observations.

What he could not command, however, was the famously fickle English weather. During the month of June, northern England averages about seven hours of direct sunlight per day; however, this comes from a mix of weather that includes completely overcast days and completely cloudless days. Dyson didn’t know what to expect.

After checking the weather records along the predicted eclipse path, Dyson decided to observe from the Yorkshire village of Giggleswick. As he and his team prepared for the eclipse, the location choice initially seemed dubious; for two weeks before the eclipse, the sky was completely cloudy every afternoon, at the time of day when totality would occur on June 29.

Despite the grimly unpromising weather, crowds of hopeful people converged on the widely publicized eclipse path.

Railway companies ran special excursion trains, towns along the path of totality sponsored “eclipse dances” and newspapers offered “ecliptoglasses” to subscribers.

In the end, unfortunately, most viewers along the eclipse path were disappointed. From the errant cloud that blocked the totally eclipsed sun from Blackpool Tower to the unbroken overcast sky at Hartlepool, the weather did not cooperate.

Happily for Frank Dyson, however, the town of Giggleswick was nearly the only location along the eclipse path that had clear skies during totality. The estimated 70,000 people who converged there, following the lead of the astronomer royal, also benefited from Dyson’s good luck.

After the eclipse, Dyson’s public statement was, by British standards, positively bubbly: “The photographs have come out extremely well.

A very clear and striking eclipse. Our observations went off very well indeed.”

Despite the difficulties posed by weather… and smoky bonfires… and dodgy maps… astronomers have always persevered in their quest to view eclipses.

reporting from viewing parties across the country. NBC also plans live coverage, with Lester Holt hosting special reports at 10 and 11 a.m. featuring correspondents reporting from Oregon, Illinois, Wyoming and South Carolina. Shepard Smith will breaking into typical broadcasting on Fox News Channel from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. to update viewers on the eclipse and introduce footage from NASA and observatories around the country.

■ “Solar Eclipse: Through the Eyes of NASA”: NASA will offer hours of coverage online and on NASA Television beginning at 9 a.m. It plans livestreaming of the eclipse beginning at 10 a.m. with images from satellites, research aircraft, high-altitude balloons and specially modified telescopes.

Why this meteorologist is eager for the eclipse

By APRIL HISCOX University of South Carolina

By many accounts a total solar eclipse is a life-changing event.

I wouldn’t know, I’ve never seen one. Fortunately for me and millions across the U.S., that will change Monday.

I’m not really an eclipse expert; I’m actually a meteorologist, and a fairly specialized one at that. Six months ago, I didn’t know the difference between an umbra and penumbra. What I did know is that the sun provides energy for everything that happens on our planet, and that the daily cycle of sun rising and setting is a key component of what happens in the atmosphere, and how air circulates locally and globally.

So why is someone who worries about subsecond- and submeterscale winds interested in this astronomical-scale event? Because any change in incoming sun – such as the complete blackout during a total solar eclipse – will affect the energy received by the land, and in turn the energy transferred back to the atmosphere. And because the total eclipse period is short, those changes will be small. It’s both an exciting event and an interesting challenge: a scientist’s dream.

Coupled with advances in observational techniques, every eclipse offers a new chance to prove meteorological theories. This one even more so because coordination across the entire length of the continental U.S. almost guarantees that someone will have ideal observing conditions. We’re prepping our weather balloons and weather stations to take advantage of that opportunity – to see exactly what a short blackout does to atmospheric motion.

From how pollutants are formed and transported, to how plants exchange carbon using photosynthesis, to what direction the wind blows, daytime processes are different from nighttime processes. Without energy input from the sun, the lower atmosphere slowly flips itself at night.

During the day, it’s warm near the ground and cooler up above; at night it’s just the opposite. This “stable” (warmer over cooler) air inhibits vertical motion of the air and anything suspended in it. So pollutants can stay closer to the ground, clouds form differently, air flows faster down valleys and at the coasts wind blows offshore instead of on.

While those generalities are known, the nuances and timings aren’t fully understood, and thus they are not

completely predictable. That’s my sphere of science – turbulence.

I’m interested in the atmospheric changes in short times and small spaces that can eventually influence the larger “weather” most people are familiar with.

The total solar eclipse is a mini-night experience, so we will use it as a natural experiment. Is a brief period without solar radiation enough to cause detectable changes in turbulence and stability, or is it the slower interactions of land and atmosphere over a whole night that are required? We’ll take what we find and use it to think about normal noneclipse conditions.

By launching a series of weather balloons before, during and after the eclipse we will see the evolution of winds and temperatures above the Earth’s surface over time. The instrument packages attached to the balloons take measurements from about 100 meters above the surface up through the lower atmosphere, troposphere and lower stratosphere, eventually reaching nearly 20 kilometers. Scientists are coordinating all across the eclipse’s path, and will conduct this same experiment at several sites.

At our site in South Carolina, we are focusing on the question of whether a total eclipse can generate internal atmospheric gravity waves: parcels of air moving together as chunks trying to regain an equilibrium in temperature and density.

(These are different from the gravitational waves that result when black holes collide.) Sometimes gravity waves are visible in clouds. During previous eclipses there has been promising evidence of gravity wave activity, but not enough data from enough locations to fully understand them.

The vertical profiles of temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and wind direction we collect will be used to answer a number of other scientific questions as well. First, we’ll add to the sparse database of eclipse-induced temperature changes and provide quantitative measures of how strong the temperature change is and how long the lag between the total blackness at solar minimum and the temperature minimum is.

We will also be able to see if the cooling when the sun disappears and sudden rewarming when it returns propagates vertically and, if so, how far above the Earth’s surface it goes. In terms of wind, questions to be answered center around changes in wind speed and turbulence intensity.

See ECLIPSE, Page 4

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Skagit Valley Herald

© 2017 by Vicki Whiting, Editor Jeff Schinkel, Graphics Vol. 33, No. 36 Source: Eclipse Prediction Times/NASA

Will animals in the zoo behave differently during an eclipse when the sky goes dark in the middle of the day?

That is what Nashville Zoo wants to find out. It has been more than 150 years since the last total solar eclipse occurred in Nashville.

Zoo officials are asking their visitors on that day to help watch the animals and record animal behaviors during the eclipse.

They are asking people to take pictures, videos and write down what they observe animals doing during the eclipse.

n August 21st, there will be a total eclipse of the sun along a path across North America. People living outside the path of the total eclipse, will see a partial solar eclipse, which is amazing as well!

A solar eclipse happens when the moon casts a shadow on Earth, blocking all or part of the sun’s light.

I drew this picture to show how an eclipse happens.

What do you think the zoo animals will do? Will the nocturnal animals wake up?

Will animals that sleep at night go to bed?

Replace the missing words.

Looking ____________ at a solar eclipse can cause serious harm to your eyes. That is why I found some great ________ viewing tips from NASA. I even found an easy-to-make eclipse projector!

Write down what you think will happen. (Your hypothesis!)

It can look like ______ in the middle of the day! At the time of an eclipse, some ancient peoples worried the world was coming to an ____ when it suddenly became ________.

After this solar eclipse, the next one over North __________ will be on April 8, 2024.

You can see the sun and the eclipse ONLY with special eclipse glasses or with these easy-to-make eclipse projectors below. NEVER look directly at the sun without protection.

REMEMBER: Regular sunglasses are not safe to view the eclipse.

When the solar eclipse begins, listen to the sounds of the natural world around you. Do you hear birds singing? Crickets chirping?

Owls hooting? Do the sounds change during the eclipse?

1. Make a small opening in a cardboard box.

2. Cover the opening with aluminum foil.

1. Punch a small hole in a piece of cardboard.

3. Punch a pinhole in the aluminum foil.

2. Hold it over a blank sheet of paper during the eclipse.

3. Look at the piece of paper to see the eclipse projected onto it.

4. Cut a large opening at the bottom of the box.

Cool, simple and safe!

5. Tape a sheet of paper inside the box.

More at eclipse2017.nasa.gov/safety

6. Look through bottom of box to see a projection of the eclipse.

Look at this chart showing the starting and ending times of the eclipse. Do the math to find out how long the eclipse will last in each city.

Where will it last the longest? __________________ Where will it last the shortest? _____________________ PLACE

MADRAS, OR CASPER, WY ST. JOSEPH, MO CARBONDALE, IL NASHVILLE, TN COLUMBIA, SC

START TIME

END TIME

10:19 a.m.

11:42 a.m.

1:06 p.m.

1:20 p.m.

1:27 p.m.

2:45 p.m.

10:21:04 a.m.

11:44:26 a.m.

1:08:39 p.m.

1:22:46 p.m.

1:28:56 p.m.

2:47:30 p.m.

TOTAL

SOURCE: greatamericaneclipse.com

Standards Link: Reading Comprehension: Follow simple written directions.

EXPERIENCE BLOCKING ECLIPSE GLASSES ANCIENT SHADOW MIDDLE LIGHT TOTAL SOLAR MOON TIPS DUSK SAFE VIEW

Eclipse Adjectives Look through the newspaper to find five adjectives that describe an eclipse.

What did you learn during the eclipse? Was your hypothesis correct?

Standards Link: Language Arts: Follow simple written directions.

D M T N E I C N A G

W O D A H S W D G L

S O T A I E T U N A

A N U H I S R S I S F N S V G P P K K S

This week’s word:

EXPERIENCE

E X P E R I E N C E

The verb experience means to undergo or come into contact with.

R A L O S C O N L I

We experienced problems when the computer would not turn on.

L A T O T L L T O S

M I D D L E G H B T

Try to use the word experience in a sentence today when talking with your friends and family.

Your Observation Skills

Select a photograph from the newspaper.

Make a list of details you can observe, or see, in the photo. Give the photo and list to a friend and see if he or she can add more details.

Finish this story.

Standards Link: Research: Use the newspaper to locate information.

◗ Eclipse Continued from Page 3

We believe we will see a reduction of both, which provides further explanation for the eerie “eclipse wind” so often cited by human observers.

This more comprehensive examination of the troposphere and stratosphere in time and space will help inform our modeling and prediction of regional

weather and climate.

But what if the changes are smaller? A heliumfilled balloon leaves the ground quickly – ideally at five meters per second – and the first reliable measurement is almost 100 meters above the ground.

A lot can happen in 100 meters.

To fill in that gap, at our site we are adding other measurements. We’ve erected a small tower with fine thermocouples

every half-meter from the ground up. These thin wires can detect temperature changes over 0.1-second time periods and will help us see if the darkness causes a very shallow layer of cooler air to start to grow under the typical daytime warmth.

The tower will also house two sonic anemometers – sensors that use disruption in a sound pulse to measure the wind speed in three dimensions at

very fast rates – to see if a wind shear develops near ground level.

An infrared gas analyzer will record carbon fluxes throughout the eclipse period to see if there is any detectable change in plant respiration. Remember, they “breathe” in carbon dioxide. Some animals interpret an eclipse as night – do the plants?

Finally, we’ll also deploy a lidar system. That’s like a radar, but with a laser

that will point upward. This is to see if there are any changes in the depth of the boundary layer – a transition point between where the atmosphere is affected by the Earth’s surface to the free troposphere above.

And we’re going to do all of this in just two minutes and 36 seconds. A tiny window for a big impact.

A total solar eclipse is often referred to as a meteorological playground, and

that is just how it feels.

We’re taking out all our scientific toys to see what we can find. Eclipse events are relatively rare; meteorologists like me take what we know about the interactions between land and air to think logically about what will happen during an eclipse. But until we see it, put an equation on it and predict the next one, it still falls into the realm of theory, not reliably predictable weather.