2017 Solar Eclipse in Kansas

monday august twenty first all eyes will be on the skies and j mcintyre and today and keep your prisons that totals solar eclipse of two thousand seventeen northeast kansas is in the path of the total solar eclipse will walk through what to expect on august twenty first with dr barber anthony torres she's a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the university of kansas barbara always great to see it a first things first wife is a total solar eclipse describe for me the positions of the sun the moon and the earth on monday the twenty first for the line up is that the man is exactly between the earth and the sun senator center line and that is such a tricky configuration in all three dimensions of space or doesn't happen all that often and quite rarely for that to happen and passed a small shadow on a very particular place on the planet that that's what's going to happen on august twenty first and that path of totality that you mentioned is sweeping over the course of

about an hour half from the northwest united states to south carolina were really close to the path of totality was last time that happened here in this part of the country i don't know that it has happened in the inhabited period of northeast kansas history a total eclipse so close to lawrence so how does a solar eclipse different than a from a lunar eclipse in a case of a lunar eclipse it's it's the other way around them and it's getting into the earth's shadow and that place so we're blocking some light from a man but in this case at the man is just managing to slip in front of the sun and into it's a very tight fit so the moon's disc is not always exactly big enough to cover the sun but that's what needs to happen in a total solar eclipse so walk us through monday august twenty first what can we expect to see starting at say eleven thirty in the morning and thirty or eleven for it if you're able to project an image of the sun or have a safe way to view

it will start to ceo level crescent shaped mic forum on one side of the science desk and over the course of about the next hour and a half the part that blocked or dark or get bigger and bigger and bigger until about one ios seven pm that day will you will only be able to see less than one percent of the sun's bright surface and that will last very very briefly in an animal all rap itself out over the next hour and a half when you say you really briefly it's about two minutes to my right to tell it is two minutes were not actually ever going to have a phase here in lawrence that is total so that all hundred percent of the sun's bright disk has blocked that means for our purposes that it's never ok to look at the sun we will need protective glasses or some kind of a protection set up it also means that there's not a phase that kind of easy describe and talk about how long outlast it's going to be a very gradual transition

from the zero percent blocked to ninety nine point three locked and then backed over the next hour and a half to the sun's disk being fully clear again how dark is that if youre a stay here in lawrence where you're not in the mouth of totality to me that sounds like ninety nine percent of the sun blocked that sounds pretty really dark you know that's one of the things i'm most excited about because i don't really know how that can work and i thought at first well it'll be a late evening twilight but it's not because at twilight the sun's light is is is in the atmosphere and scattering around and that's not going to be the case here there's no sunlight getting through this part of the state of kansas at that time even if its cloudy it will be very dark if not cloudy what i'm hoping to look for is is there any point in time when we can see any of them sick of the stars are the planets there in the sky that ordinarily we can't see because the sun square is so bright so that's my personal mission is to see whether we could see

marty's more other planets at the time of the maximum eclipse here in lawrence people in the cab a totality it's clear they should be able to see some stars and planets in the sky as i understand it as a hundred percent so it will be very dark there and pretty dark here the patent totality isn't that far away how far north we need to go in order to get to total eclipse look a sense that people i know are are planning for and the ones that have organized large gatherings or st jo ann atchison benedictine is as having a very large event on their campus on but some people are planning to go off road into savanna firm some other locations i haven't started out any sense i knew i wasn't going to be leaving town but probably fifty miles from here is in the path of tripoli and if you can figure out a place to go to discreetly safely and a little bit at a time and i'm sure people are going to tie together i'm imagining if they're moon

is blocking the sun's rays that it doesn't take that long before the temperature starts to drop how noticeable of a of a temperature drop might we expect to see i think that's something that we've incurred schoolteachers to think about as a way to participate in the eclipse without nearly kinder to view it so i don't really know how many degrees to expect him in tandem humanity as well pick it and animal behavior is something also us can be getting darker over a period of a couple hours i don't know how confusing its committee for animals and imagine it depends a little bit on on their cognitive disabilities there's dessert to be a lot of very very puzzled in sex and parents that's a that's a cursed me that flowers that open in the assignment made clothes are very open and they follow you a topic flowers like sunflowers well also be a little yogurt is the day for a lot of people are you anticipated what my other

questions what if it's a really cloudy day will that make a big difference in what the eclipse looks like well we can't see through clouds so you'll be able to see what's happening if it's cloudy the only effect that would be noticeable here in kansas if we have very overcast skies is that it will get darker there's nothing that can can get around that that we are none zero chance of clouds that day it's actually been a fairly wet and cloudy summer so prevalent in some trees that it might be overcast or carney that day if you've read anything about the solar eclipse or any solar eclipse for that matter you know not to look at the sun it's not safe to look at the sun barber how can you safely few eclipse were always really really glad to talk about that because it is true and ordinarily it's never say to look at the sun ordinarily you not tempted because it's bright it hurts but if if we're only getting one or two percent of sunlight which will be true for a period

of time you're a new national defenses might not work so well and you might be tempted to look at the damage would occur without your realizing it so are our information from now says it even less than one percent of the sun's bright desk is too much for unprotected eyes so there are a couple of ways one of them is to get some approved solar eclipse glasses and i know he has a perry and she said she can't see anything through them and we agreed that is the point they are very very very dark they're not sunglasses you don't wear them to walk around outside you would only wear them to look at the sun and you can do that any day with these classes as long as they don't have a puncture remember something like that so i just have to make a side note serve these approved solar eclipse glasses that you were kind enough to bring they look like they kind of three d glasses you get at a movie theater they're just cardboard but the lenses are relieving between last decade or so the year they're

designed to block out an incredibly high fraction of the sun's light so you'll be able to watch all over the three hour period he had a pair of eclipse classes than underweight eating even does project an image of the sun with a couple of pieces of paper and stick a hole in one project an image on the other and in fact major will do a lot of projected images that day which can be won in most beautiful parts of an eclipse and tiny little holes and tree leaves will project these beautiful crescent images of the sun on the page many on the ground so there's lots of beauty in the indies phenomena i remember that very same thing happening i measure how long ago was during an economist at it you'd and i didn't expect that at all i was walking outside and underneath a tree there were all these little crabs and has a projected onto the pavement as exists it was striking it was so beautiful so there's a projection method which is very simple very cheap and the glasses which we will have

lots available at beijing sports complex that day we've been distributing summer and can we we being i am not just my department of the college of liberal arts and sciences in the school of engineering ponied up to buy enough for them aren't public schools those have been delivered to us did for nine seven and they're figuring out just exactly how to distribute them so probably every kid in teacher and lauren schools will have access to those classes that day in their own buildings because we knew we couldn't handle large large field trips of people i've read that you can in some circumstances view an eclipse through a welders masses alter's glass or smoked glass that's a technique that people have used for a long time it's not something that i would know how to do well enough for precisely enough so it's not something we recommend anybody and since the glasses and manufactured to a certain standard of protection we really say dallas i stick to the questions

stick to the glasses if you were listening to this and you're not going to be able to come to k you're at a place where they're giving away glasses you can purchase glasses there's says they're available online and they have been for a long time i think the museum might have some for sale in the library while from the public library and lawrence so they secured a grant of a thousand kisses we didn't and we bought a lot more and to use can be buying more but he used his division will probably be on campus the week before and the day off and the bulk of ours will be the day of our event we have you know sound for walkin is that we don't have the means to provide dozens or hundreds firfer groups unfortunately that and they're still available for sale now i will tell you when i was a little kid i remember a solar eclipse that took place in iowa where i grew up and are teachers we're so

adamant not to look at the sun now don't even glance at the sun that when we went out under the playground to look through our little pinhole camera as i was so terrified that i literally can't my eyes straight downward the entire time because i was so convinced that i was just to know that i would feel obliged to look at the sun and i still remember it you know fifty years later how scary that was the philosophy of thinking i needed a lot of the sun and it's an ember my red nose well it would if you did and i think that the balance for teachers and parents is you know how how likely is my child actually listened to me when i tell them if you need to wear these glasses if you can look at this and or use some kind of projection method so tell me that period when when things are pretty dark that i think that it that it might be tempting to just say i don't need these and i can look at the sun and the

and that's the period that i would think carefully about kids that you don't think you can control their behavior quite well enough to make sure they've got those glasses on or they're using a projection method and as he's and if you're here in lawrence or in manhattan or to peek at one bn totality say you shouldn't regardless but if you are if you do travel to it but to a place that is experiencing totality there is a point at which you can is that obvious when you're at that point where you can say okay the glasses a common often i hope so i've wondered if they're going to have simply claxton are something of a mentality that you know that never entered total solar eclipse you have i have not you're an astronomer alan broadbent have spent your whole why are you getting the stars another seven years and kind of marking that down as a goal but it seemed like a better idea to stay in town this time but don't know what it's like but i think it's obvious because now is a lot darker but suddenly features that you really can't see about the son because the

brake part just obliterates them you can see them for a few minutes those two minutes a totality probably really really beautiful so i i kind of envy the people going and nasr a nd them the traffic and the hundreds of thousands of people crowds but i think we're going to have a pretty good time here and wants to let's talk about what you'll be doing here it in what lawrence the university of kansas is planning a wide range of activities for august twenty first tell me where that case the plant and to hear is has arranged before some gas purchases to be part of talk week and sting orientation so a lot of students will have classes in their hand that day i think a lot of faculty are going to and probably with their cheers nineteenth blessings not in all cases but many cases not have class that day especially during the middle of the day

that organized activity that we have plant is it to sink sports complex which is on twenty third street just off i o n you're really big parking area and we would kind of rearrange something that's a little bit of a cross between a street fair in a science fair so over the two hour period that bracket eleven thirty to one theory which would be the build up to the maximum and a little bit of that of the decline and will be there will have telescopes will have pinhole camera setups for people will have classes we have a lot of glasses that we've seen for that day i am and i'm hoping that will have a lot of nonsense on participants' doing that we are to have our projects museum of natural history has been huge partner in its planning effort and i can't say enough about how much of this they've made possible but kay you are department the museum of natural history and a number of colleagues in humanities and social sciences or you can talk about history in actual science around eclipses and

art art projects that the food trucks so there's always going to be fear is it through his lunch hour and it if it's clear that is that i hope you can have moon pies throw a pass that allowed a resort is twenty four says it is a day in lawrence history anyway it's the anniversary of on trolls reda on the city so some of us are are paying attention to that that coincidence of dates and now it's to the very dark days in lawrence history for their tagline that it's one thing to be anticipating a solar eclipse like we are right now in a twenty first century knowing why the sciences behind and knowing what is causing it and that we will get through that two hours and be fine but i would imagine they've lived a thousand years ago and have no

idea of why the positioning of a sudden the moment was the democrats would be a terrifying event i am sure that it was and it's always been a core of knowledge about eclipse regularity in the pattern of repetition but that would have been accessible to a pretty small number of people in in the western world is you know a thousand or two thousand years ago and one of our humanities colleagues has come and share with us some recollections about the town late medieval period this would have been insisting that bad omen for people and something that in fact we have been terrifying imagine and this can happen in the middle of the day for us which is good in a lot of ways to imagine an eclipse starting in anniston going down and talk about terry you would have until the next day to think about why does the senate has sent him back up again and so we find these associations of

major major historical events in history with the corpses that were also recorded the extent to which they actually occurred at the same time i'm not clear about but i think muhammad's son died on the day of an eclipse and there are funny even xerxes invasion of greece there was a major eclipse which is pena handy because we can back date the date of the eclipse very precisely more than her auditors could describe i think in history's so we can use eclipse events if that's when they actually occurred to precisely date historical events just kind of call now but the extent to which people were just hoping that they would live through this is probably the bulk of human history one just thinking about even with comments that i know that those were considered terrible and great omens and at time it is just that mean that he's not getting that aid we like to

feel like we have some control over things and astrology was always a way of using knowledge about the heavens to control are our knowledge about our futures and if things are not predicted that occur that's more terrifying than if you knew anything to start with i think so i hope we're in a better place that people used to eat about these amazing event i think that's for everybody is looking forward to this will be disappointed if they can't see it so extensively a better day in human history than a thousand or two thousand years ago you mentioned that you're especially hoping that non science students come out and probably adults today to participate and to deviate close to what extent are you hoping that an event like this draws people in who might not otherwise think they're interested in astronomy and continue that interest past august twenty first we have uncovered our planet's

land and it doesn't make any sense almonte were all with what people are excited about it and amplify that and help them enjoy it on were always happy to help people enjoy what's going on and then go a little deeper or maybe the day after the eclipse is they've recorded the temperature on the day the eclipse what is a normal day look like wooden wooden five normal days look like and you can teach some scientific method during that era of people are pondering how the eclipse as possible and then maybe they'll look at the men every day that it's up in that is half the time to get it up in the daytime and we just don't notice that we don't see it would pay more attention to the lunar cycle of phases is is it an experience that free available to everybody and all that it takes is some instigation awareness to do that so we're always hoping that people tuning in a little bit

more i've heard that there are groups of people that travel from one place to another just too few eclipse is why and why the faster they say why would somebody you you know at great expense go from one place to the other i can't say i'm a times i've i've seen an article not an eclipse and coyote too bad deaths in australia or you know in the middle of and i was an ocean on which odds are especially middle of the ocean you know anything on it i guess i don't know what is say about how remarkable mean you can experience it can be on my tips is kind of a bucket list for astronomers that that that's something that we really really want to do and it's hard to not going that within a hundred miles and you can arrange her schedule and take time off of work and do that and that also means in our case that people with telescopes and telescope competence will be somewhere

else that day so one of the conditions for ourselves with a modest complement of astronomy inclined telescope operators that i know i'm curious if you're not supposed to be looking at the sun why would she be watching this through a telescope well we feel to the telescope's show me even denser than the sun glasses so they're very very tightly filtered we have to take off anything that would be exposed to any magnified some sunlight but with a telescope you can see a lot more detail he can blow the image of the sun up we might be able to see flares are prominences on the edge of the sun but which we can do with these telescopes me other day as well so if you and see more detail on that that's that's a way that we hope to be able to provide and people will of course want to take pictures of this event so not just being there but the one record of it so they're probably

be a lot of fans held up tiny pieces and hopefully to get some kind of or having him into not clear how well that can work but i see you should not try to take a picture of the eclipse using of thousands more irregular rubber a little too bright for your camera i mean you can probably overexposed for the camera inside barr was so looking forward to monday august twenty first now it's just the weather that we have to wait on attempting a scruffy are thank you so much for being a barber anthony tore it teaches astronomy and astrophysics at the university of kansas she's one of the people behind the community event the eclipse decay you monday august twenty first twenty third in iowa's street and lawrence i'm j mcintyre you're listening to kbr presents on kansas public radio coming up we'll find out how that tiny town of dry kansas is

celebrating the two thousand seventeen solar eclipse troy is in donovan county end in the path of totality for the eclipse thousands of visitors are expected to descend on northeast kansas to view the august twenty first eclipse with major events taking place in atchison and st joseph missouri that's just ahead on k pr presence but first a look at the eclipse of eighteen seventy eight with acclaimed science journalist david baron aaron is the author of american eclipse and nations epic race to catch the shadow of the moon and when the glory of the world matt kaplan is the host and producer of planetary radio which comes to us today from pr x the public radio exchange yeah that plays a listener david barron's great science reporting on national public radio i didn't know during those years that he had an obsession like so many others who've witnessed a total solar eclipse david's

heart had been captured by moon shadow and it was already planning to tell a story that would bring more readers under the spell that book is now out just in time for the great american eclipse of twenty seventeen when the path of totality will across much of the united states yet it's about an eclipse of a hundred and thirty nine years ago david recently joined me via skype while he was in the midst of a book to our david is an honor to welcome you to our planetary radio to talk about this book which are absolutely love american eclipse the nation's epic race to catch the shadow of the moon and when the glory of the world welcome thank you madam thrilled to be near it really is just that i mean it's not just eclipse chasers like yourself a white i guess you prefer the term on profile big we'll talk about that later but this when the glory of the world that's that's kind of a key to the book i mean what how do the rest of the world especially western europe

you the status of a lot of american science leading up to this this big event in eighteen seventy eight that's a great point to bring up so yeah when i started looking into the eclipse of eighteen seventy and just decided this is a fascinating kind of adventure tale from the american west in the gilded age that i wanted to write about i just started out thinking about it as a story but the deeper i got into it the more i realized it's symbolic of america's early rise as a scientific nation cause as you say back eighteen seventy eight when america was just had just turned a hundred years old we were basically an adolescent nation we were becoming an industrial power but europe really looked down on us intellectually we were not thought to be very deep and your app was where culture came from europe was we're good literature and art and music and science team but there was a small band of american scientists at that time who were determined to show that this democratic nation on the other side of the atlantic

could do science and so hearing eighteen seventy eight a total eclipse with crossing the wild west at a time when total eclipse were very important to science and this was america's chance to prove itself on the global stage in terms of science and i would say they did i mean would you say they were successful looking back at the eclipse of eighteen seventy eight from our modern standpoint you really can't say that there were any specific discoveries made during that eclipsed that held up over time but from a societal standpoint what it meant for america getting its infrastructure of science together and becoming a country that cared about science that's where i think the real significance of the eclipse of eighteen seventy eight shows up when i started writing the book i wasn't thinking about illustrations but as i was doing research i just kept coming across these just beautiful etchings of line drawings and beyond some cases sketches and paintings from that aaron you know this wasn't that the late at night that was a real that was a

great time for illustrations winner a lot of illustrated newspapers magazines and i started collecting these things and when i was putting the manuscript together i started to put them in their privacy what my what my editor thought and friends who read them and then everyone love the illustrations are just putting more and more and i specifically even though this was an era when photography what existed of course photography was not very good and i use very few photographs because i actually think that that the etchings in the drawings just really bring alive the era much much more so than a photograph i could not agree more but i will know that you have this series of very fine color played some india back of the book where the source notes are divisible get underway at that they're trying to knowledge the library of congress in washington are or is that just for you spent an awful lot of your time well our job to back up just a minute or so i had i had the idea for this book nineteen years ago i'd been planning this book since nineteen ninety

eight which is when i saw my first total solar eclipse and just became hooked that's when i became an eclipse chasers and as a science writer and that's what i've done is my profession all my adult life i decided in nineteen eighty eight that i wanted to write a book about chasing but i knew in nineteen eighty eight at the time to come out with the book would be the sum of twenty seventeen this is where that the people will care so why i put the project on hold for a while about six years ago i started to really look around to find it the good tale i think that the best way to educate is to sports i want to find a really good story that would enable me to teach people about and what makes a quip so fascinating and what made them so important assign so i started looking around and it didn't take long to discover that really the best eclipses stories come from the nineteenth century because that was a time when total eclipses were not just amazing natural spectacles but they were really important to science the european nations and united states during that time would send these expeditions off to

various parts of the world to sit in the path of totality wait for the moon shadow and frantically conduct studies into a three minutes detritus discover what they could about the decree the sun i started a look at various eclipses in the nineteenth century eighteen sixty eight that a quote crossed indian siam eighteen seventy that one across the mediterranean and then i came to eighteen seventy and i just just relief saw how rich it was in terms of characters and settings and i soon discovered that a lot of the scientists who work in the west for the eclipse of eighteen seventy eight their papers still exist and many of them left their papers to the library of congress and when i went there and open these boxes and found a regional letters and telegrams and train tickets and diary entries it just all came alive thomas edison was an eclipse chaser at least for this one occurrence right and so on again when i get back to what really got me engaged in eclipse of eighteen seventy eight a big part of what got me hooked early on was when i learned

the processing was even the wild west in eighteen seventy eight to see a total solar eclipse and this was this was a key year for thomas edison he had just come out with the phonograph and that's what launched him from being a very successful but little lone inventor in fact perhaps his best known invention up to them with something called the electric fan which was basically a mimeograph device but sadly comes out with a photograph he becomes a local celebrity he heads off to wyoming to conduct an experiment during the eclipse of eighteen seventy eight he comes home and the very next day he begins work on the electric light bulb so this is a key year for thomas edison and he he of course was such a fascinating character i mean not only a genius but yet dead invention but he was a genius a public relations and just a really colorful character who would be interviewed by journalists all on his way out to wyoming and back and

i had such great fun getting to know yeah you you really get a great picture of him and i wondered whether he was a better self marketer or better or inventor it was kind of a toss up i think they they went hand in hand at the other end of the spectrum is my favorite character in the book that was this astronomer mariah mitchell who fought against tremendous odds brought about by well her fellow americans ought to be able to get out and enjoy and andrew science at this eclipse talk a little bit about her because she's just had an amazing character in american history yeah i just love my mitchell to so awry mitchell was an astronomer and she was by far the best known female scientist in america in the nineteenth century she first came to prominence in the eighteen forty seven when she was working professionally as a librarian by day but was studying the heavens at night well while living on the island of nantucket massachusetts so she discover a comet in nineteen forty seven and that she received a

gold medal from the king of denmark an icon and launched her to fame by eighteen seventy eight she was teaching astronomy at vassar college then at that point knew all women's college in poughkeepsie new york and as you can imagine this was a time when as hard as it is to be a female scientists to date multiply that by a foul now there were so few opportunities for women to actually work in science and in fact you know there was a real societal an obvious societal biased against women going into science and mariah mitchell would have none of it and she not only did her own scientific studies but she saw that her personal responsibility to pave the way for the next generation of women to come along and she was out there publically advocating for women to go into science and eighteen seventy eight track we ended dozens of men were assembling eclipse expeditions out to the west and receiving support financial support

logistical support from the federal government to put these expeditions together she was left out but she would not accept that and so she on her own put together an all female eclipse expedition out to colorado to denver which was a scientific expedition but it was really a lot more than that it was a kind of political theater that was an effort to show america what women could do and science and to wake them up and there was a lot of press coverage of her really quite praising her for what she was doing in people realizing that the women could be smart and educated and healthy and salmon en andrew sullens a glorious book i recommended very highly thank you for coming on planetary radio to talk with us about it and the best of luck as so you continue to travel the country i hear your it and what your image springfield you said springfield missouri you've got me in springfield missouri which is just outside the path of totality but their course the cap does go across missouri and i

was in st louis the other day and endure carbondale illinois tomorrow going to be in kansas city those are all in the path of totality and excitement is really building as well it should be folks who live in the pepper to tally they have to understand that they have been given a gift to not have to go anywhere and to see the grand estate and all of nature we talk with david baron and he is the author the creator of american eclipse the nation's epic race to catch the shadow of the moon and when the glory of the world it is published by live right publishing that's a division of ww norton it's available in all the usual places and will put a link up to it on this week's show page that you could get to from planetary dot org slash radio proudly calls himself an umbrella file i guess you better explain that basically you're an eclipse chaser button on bro final that's just a fancy word using greek and latin to her lover of the shadow

but yes i do more than anything love to stand in the shadow any welcome back to black violin with their own signature blend of classical hip hop rock r and b and bluegrass music september twenty second seven thirty pm tickets are relieved that k u dot edu well you'd be on august twenty first twenty seventeen i'll be in the path of totality at southern illinois university carbondale where a four day celebration will climax with the great american eclipse from the northwest of the united states to its southeast millions to may have never looked through a telescope will crowd into that roughly thirty kilometer or eighteen mile wide ribbons to see the sun entirely blotted out by our moon the monumental significance of this event hasn't been lost on science educators one of them is mike simmons mike is

president of astronomers without borders the nonprofit that spreads the love of astronomy and science across our planet when i saw that a deputy had been awarded a grant by google i knew i needed to get my back on the show mike welcome back planetary radio is always a pleasure to talk to you and also to congratulate you in this case on this wonderful new project funded by of all organizations google thanks matt it's it's always a pleasure to be on your program so glad to be here and thanks for the good wishes on that to young google is a great partner this is part of their stem education effort involving a corpse which are very much into so they're a natural partner for this one i'm delighted to be working if they could look at a better organization tell us about astronomers without borders remind us of the mission welcomed the mission really is to connect people through the fascination with astronomy you know we're looking at the same sky we share the saints

go off looking at the same objects it wherever we are around the planet you we we share this fascination and even the same party unify people looking at the sky through binoculars you telescopes are naked eye every place on the planet it's part of everybody's culture and all the way back through time so that's what we use non indian what we do is to create programs that bring people together to share what they are doing in their country maybe the same activity but they do it in different ways because of cultural differences and now a week we learned about each other and get a little bit more empathy for each other seeing people as passengers on fellow passengers on the spaceship earth who are really just like just happened to be on another part of this this little piece or are going around the soldier i sure see evidence of that because we hear from planetary radio listeners who are fans of the sky fans of space

everywhere on the planet and you've actually been to a lot of these toys were some of the more interesting and exotic places you fall brought this up message of astronomy to i have a tendency to go to some of those more interesting places hat so might vacations end up being in really kind of more unusual places one of the places that i'd been as much as any other place on earth is he ran its country i really love i love the people are extremely active astronomy community and was really connecting the americans and iranians who were doing the same thing that led to the founding of astronomy lab wars in the first place because i found it was so different to what we knew about over here that's really where it worked well it's just a wonderful place that that i love the visit lots of history through diamond's song you're getting a lot of people the opportunity to look through a telescope for the first time we all love to talk about that first experience we had do you

see that same thing happening no matter what culture you are visiting no matter what nation your own it's always the same i mean this is really universal people are here on this little planet and when we look out and see something else it's an amazing response everybody knows that the moon's out there nobody knows that that bright light appears jupiter or saturn they looked through a telescope for the first time to see the rings of saturn this a summer has nothing to do with a different culture anything else is just innate they're suddenly seen on in the universe for the first time giving a sense of their place in the universe from the same time this is a really human experience it there there's no difference between us when we have an experience like them all so unified experience it is very unifying experience you know you probably have this experience as well that when people come to the telescope very they may be shy about are much more

but what every they are before they look when they take their eye for me it is a different it changes their responses completely different so we're we're all used to authority figures are various others everybody turns into the curious kid that they still have inside of them really assertive keep under control that goes away so tell us how this new google project is going to help you and do even more well one of the things that people say about total solar eclipses that actually triggers it can be a life changing experience it's an incredible experience i've been to seven total eclipses around the world including my first trip to iran which is how he discovered that great country it's an inspiration it raises a lot of questions what was that what is going on here and everybody recognizes it as an inspiration for learning more about stem fields science technology engineering mathematics

this eclipse is coming up this year in the united states is a historic one because it's going to be seen by more people than any other cuts in history people come from all over the world there are lots and lots of organizations from a small straw may close to nasa who have efforts for this to get out the word tilt people to trying getting about totality sharing information and resources to help people experience the eclipse what we're doing is different the eclipse is the inspiration for doing stem education and i'm not sure that there are other organizations who are carrying beyond the eclipse that the biggest effort is to make sure people are aware of that and they take advantage of the poor actually developing a curriculum that will be used after the eclipse using sunlight and some other kinds of lights to study all kinds of stem fields not just about astronomy but biology and geology energy whether

climate all of these things they'll start with the song that life itself is that i was so absolutely no i asked congress without borders thought or g right that's right yeah and we'll will put up that link end up with a relevant links on the show page that you can find a planetary dot org slash radio mike this is some just one of the projects that i've learned about that is looking to this this tremendous event on august twenty first eclipse to stimulate interest and in science and astronomy and beyond in this country and beyond are you glad to see the excitement building toward this event audie it's fantastic i knew there is going to be a huge push for this but nobody really knew what to expect i mean those of us who are coaches have been looking for them for twenty years the effort is really tremendous the big worry for everybody is that people not know about it and will miss it or they won't understand how amazing his ears and i think there is a

great effort going on our awareness publicity and education about this eclipse yeah and there are planetary society and put in a plug we are working with the national park service to put together a on a booklet that job will be distributed to kids to visit the parks now unfortunately the path of totality is fairly narrow an eye on i'm going to guess that you like the other there eclipse chasers that i've talked to who say exactly the same thing that could be a life changing experience will tell people get yourself to totality but if you can't it's still something to enjoy yeah sure the partial eclipses are really very interesting and the whole country is going to have a fairly deep partial i think it's a minimal but sixty percent which is significant of those people who have a deeper cuts which is most of the country will you know it's very interesting effects from it doesn't have a very deep eclipse like ninety percent or more and figure that they're getting ninety percent of the main thing they really need to hop on

the bus and get his hotel it because a ninety percent partial eclipse is zero percent of total you're you're really missing the main event as interesting as it is one now famous eclipse chasers says that almost seen a total eclipse as like almost winning the lottery i think i know you're talking about who is that that scene that quote they better make their plans soon though because i as you know i'm an idiot southern illinois university for you weekend of eclipsed celebration there which i am incredibly excited about not just because i'll be sharing it with with about ten thousand of the people in the stadium there but because this will be my first one of my first total eclipse and i can't wake up my life changed as well my first eclipse was in nineteen seventy nine i was working at griffith observatory i'm telling people what to expect from the eclipse after i saw it i realized there was misinforming them so what i tell people now is i can't even tell you what it's like it's just not one of

those things you can describe its server like describing taste to aliens never you and food so it's just something that happens to being a half to see for yourself even professor all you want but it's going to be different and each one is different also so it really is an amazing experience well yeah yeah well mike you are a busy guy thank you for taking a few minutes to share some of those with us and once again congratulations on this new google funded project which is going to well are you to share this love of the night sky and the sun and science much much more broadly at least in this country even though i know you're doing this all over the world thanks very much man it's always great to be with you i love your program keep up the good work of planetary of course also tried thank you mike that's mike simmons the president of astronomers without borders that title pretty much says it all astronomers without borders got all our jeep

planetary radio was produced by the planetary society in pasadena california has made possible by it's totally awesome members daniel kunitz our associate producer joshua composed our theme which was arranged and performed by peter schweizer a mat kaplan there's guys at hope you enjoyed that looked at the solar eclipse of two thousand seventeen from planetary radio this program came to us today from pr x the public radio exchange you're listening to play pierre presents on kansas public radio i'm kay mcintyre we or will you be on monday august twenty first thousands are expected to descend on northeast kansas which is in the path of totality for the solar eclipse there are big celebrations planned in atchison kansas and st joseph missouri but it was the tiny town of troy kansas that caught the attention of tape here news director j schafer he visited with adrian

courson of the damaging county economic development commission about how they're planning on celebrating saying they were having life music beer garden on fruit vendors and no other merchants around and uses all around the cornell square it up and read a glow around that night to what is a rather low rise when you know you find a lot people to go do a five k walking around and they are going be wary no you know glow sticks a hole in them and really a sticking out against a really low and then you go in and running the stalk food vendors and stuff is going to get something to eat and drive yeah we have some a little restaurants we have the feed store cafe which is located right there in the square the feed store cafe there can say ok then as ricky sports bar and grille they also very good food that's kind of a locus trees are outside of the square but they're to have extended hours for the clips we can't arm and i have a really really in their barbecue and doing a

loss nope friends and whatnot to be selling out i know we have people coming this a couple food truck type the eighties can be an area do you have any idea at this point how many people might be coming to the courthouse square in troy for this big solar eclipse wall that canada know why the charges about this whole thing again people on board is no one really knows how much the crowd this country and we know the potential it is in the thousands so for instance enjoys of missouri is planning the huge event as well and that we get the exact same amount time to tally messages ms arie dollars and they're expecting around a hundred thousand people in the city of saint drill so if you look at that if we're just get a small percentage of that that could mean a couple thousand and which is still huge for our small little girl counting because only people live and overcome for about seventy five hundred if you know what a mess around in the big city you can come draw a n see a total solar eclipse for a fairly long

period time two minutes and change demands and thirty eight seconds which has long period of time for photo yeah well at least on the maximum for this particular clips can be two minutes and forty seconds and so i could believe that his in carbondale illinois so the fact that we're only two seconds off from that and this is the really the only area in kansas had an accent to tell the why not come to our area and to get up to the people to really experience small town kansas and to like you said earlier get away from the crowds and you know they say to the totality the best place to do it is in big open areas as an blocked by trees one that we've always beautiful farmland out there is really ideal do you personally have any special point i'm sure it'll be there with others to take him to the solar eclipse you do anything special open well i mean i'm running the show in iran although i have been the one to use our guns going from the start in the stronger from editing cause you

can't help but teach everyone area why are such big deal why this is like winning the lottery to be on center line and you know from the economic side what a big economic impact could be in teaching people how to race or their homes on european bees feed on the hotels in our county directly sir and surrounding counties to do but we teach people how to host a hose and caribbean besides a large historic homes in the county city recover is going to court these entrepreneurs actually are using this as a test run for their historic homes and they've refurbished deceived they would like running a b and b officially and we have several high schools are coming to the area an unlikely of one group from perry lecomte and they're below five hundred students that day to send the darkly members and buying the families so you know some people are yeah anything else we should know about as well while the main events are taking place in troy they're also taking place in other areas and dark as well highland i were home to ed koch is out there hosting some lectures there

and the firefighters are hosting a big hog rosen street dance on saturday nights so that their hunting of for a fundraiser events around the eclipse events and high line was a violent offering a movie night in pizza and they're expecting got people to sew on his grubby watch parties go around all over the county so we have a website go too deeply county care stock on the ceiling to go to the solar eclipse a job or a website or official slogan is eclipsing the heartland so he does google that article should start popping up it should be a total eclipse of the heart and well actually we were told was our initial phrasing that we're going to do but then a lot people didn't get it or they can't think of the heartland made sound like we were about to be black and our patients are considered all know that that's that is the regional we're we went though just

got cancelled is doggedly particular to sew go online ticket out what is the little bubbles so create at our county logo within the past year or so actually graphic graphic design department hired me any college incorporate that and transformed into eclipse in the heartland logo says nice green open values the sacred to harlin a very fun method but people still associate with our brand to go online check us the pg county ks the outcome dotcom so most of your events and activities intro and in donovan kelly are sunday and then monday if anybody try and tap into it will come up saturdays is a whole weekend out in law actually the majority people have cobbled alleys and rv parking are coming out friday out there they are coming up friday night staying until monday evening or tuesday morning they're making a weaker yeah but you see

when we got started with planning these events people are having trouble understanding that this humming people could potentially be in their souls like well for boeing we have limited resources and when i'm riding gavin sponsorships from the local businesses and organizations an area so we even have a way to put this on end they've been very generous but it's been a growing enthusiasm like people are starting as it gets closer to buying more more in the study get that is kind of a big deal yeah yeah so were actually ahead of the curve with a lot of the other and then all the other northeast kansas religion etc activist base blues is your best chance if you're interested in seeing what a total solar eclipses this is your best chance in many years and it will be your best tips for many years to go honestly first let me talk to astronomers about it they get very passionate about this and say like no if you are outside of the package italian alicia's not

the same a partial eclipse has totally different than a toll their total eclipse and they talk about how it's such an emotional experience apparently and how afterwards everyone has an adrenaline rush so i try to convince everyone to make sure we clean after parties as well because that's something that i was as happened pass cds have failed to do so basic necessities of life i mean that's not until also not speaking from first experience but would rather you know be prepared for the not adrian course of i think you enjoy the eclipse monday august twenty first and remember it's not safe to look directly at the sun i'm j mcintyre kbr presents is a production of kansas public radio at the university of kansas and anne as i

am it has been it's a nice beat is it