Crimson and Gold Connection; Easton Morrill

Thank you for joining me this week for the Crimson and Gold Connection on 89.9 KRPS, I'm Fred Fletcher-Fierro. On Monday, November 9th, the L. Russell-Cales Planetarium located on the campus of Pittsburgh State University, will host two special viewings of the film, Solar Superstorms. Joining me this week is one of the first centers from the Cales Planetarium. Thank you for joining me this week at Easton Moral. Yep, I'll start off by asking you a little bit about your background and how you got interested in studying our solar system. Sure. My background, I am a double major in math and physics with an emphasis in astrophysics and a minor in leadership studies here at Penn State. And the way I got interested is I guess I've always just loved space looking up at the stars, stargazing. My ultimate goal is to study black holes. I want to be on the forefront of discovering the math that describes them. Really what I love to do here is just to take the steps that I need in order to get to

that goal. And you know, the world is complicated and there are a lot of things going on here on Earth. Why should I be interested in learning something that's happening in outer space? Because it all affects us, everything that is here on Earth was created by something on space, whether that was the Big Bang, whether that was when a planetess molded the size of Mars rammed into ancient Earth, and that's what created the Moon was the debris that flew up and eventually fell into orbit around the new Earth or the magnetic sphere that was created by the rotation of the Earth with respect to the molten inner core. So everything that you can learn about in the solar system and in space in general will affect you here on Earth. You know, why should I come out to the calisplanetarium on November 9th at 6 p.m. to see a solar super storm? What is the film all about? Really it's all about what happens with our sun. And what I want to talk about is solar wind and how that affects us. It actually creates the auroras that you can see closer to the northern and southern poles

depending on the season. It's about the sun and the solar storms that can occur there. So the movie itself, which is narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch, which is an awesome name and he's a wonderful voice, it'll be talking about solar flares, coronal mass ejections, solar wind, the magnetic sphere of the sun and how that affects the three different layers of the sun's outer sphere, how that all of that affects us here on Earth and what we can gain from that knowledge and experience. Yeah, I've watched the trailer of the film I think on it was on YouTube and it may be wonder, it seems like we get so close to the sun, at least in the trailer. You know how they get footage like that? Lots of it is animated, so it's an artist's interpretation of what that would look like. But we have been able to see those specific parts of the sun. I've watched the same trailer on YouTube and I've also seen the fish eye one, which is the version of it that is modified to be viewed in the planetarium and it can get so close

because of that artist's interpretation. But set aside from that, we actually do have satellites that orbit the sun and we can see those coronal mass ejections and solar flares and all of that type of stuff is something that we've seen before. What's it about seeing it at the Chaos Planetarium versus watching an all my computer screen? It's more of a real experience for you. So you're sitting in a very nice chair, it's very comfortable and you'll almost forget that you're sitting there because you're looking up and you're watching all of this unfold above you, in front of you, behind you to both sides and you almost feel like you're floating there right where the picture has you positioned. So that's something that you'll never get watching your TV screen or computer screen watching it on YouTube. You'll never have that sense of being lost in that video. I've never gone to the Chaos Planetarium before, I didn't realize it that you were watching it on a dome though.

Yeah, interesting. The way that we show our videos, we have a projector that's faced upwards and then on top of that is a lens called the Fish Islands and that projects it in 360 degrees and straight up. So you're sitting back in this chair watching everything unfold above you. Wow, it sounds engaging. It is. Very much so then watching it on a flat computer screen. Yes. This is a, I have a small child, say I have an eight-year-old little boy. Is there anything particularly scary about this event because I bring children to it? I would love to see children there. I think that one of the biggest, not biggest, but most important things is to expose children to this type of information. And I think that because I was as a child and I think it really brought in my horizons when it came to deciding on what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. So I would love to see children there and more than anything for adults, I would love to see you learn something and come and enjoy yourself. And for kids, I would love to see you have that insightful wonder and just look up and be amazed and hopefully that will bring you back to see another one and then maybe

more. So just keep bringing you back and hopefully eventually you'll start becoming interested and want to learn more about it. Before the film starts, is there like a question or answer or is that after or? I do one before and after the video. So basically the format of presentation that I prefer is I talk about what the videos going to talk about and kind of give an introduction for a less scientific point of view. So the way that I speak to my presentations is very much here's an introduction to what this video is going to give you a more in depth version of. So I'll talk about solar flares and coronomass ejections during my presentation, which will last maybe 15 minutes before the video. But I probably won't use those words, I'll say like solar explosions and get you that mental image in your head. And then we'll go on into the video and you'll get the scientific definition and understanding of it.

For somebody that's never visited the calisthenitarian before, what can somebody expect when they first visit it? So you'll walk in and there will be lights up and music playing and you'll kind of just enjoy the space at first. And then as soon as I close the doors, I turn the lights down and you see all of the stars and you see everything above you. And I just want you to come in and have this sense of, whoa, wow, like look at that. How cool is that? So that's how you see it. Yeah, that's how I saw it. The way I got into this was the old head of the physics department. His name was Dr. David Kean. And when I first came here as a freshman, he kind of took me under his wing and I actually got my position at the planetarium almost as a joke one day. I was sitting talking to him about my coursework for the upcoming semester and a girl walked behind me talking to Dr. Kyla Scarborough about getting a job grading for her. And I looked at Dr. Kean and I said, so what, you're just giving out jobs now?

Like I'll take three. And from there, he was like, well, wait, I actually have one that you might be interested in. And he took me down to the planetarium and showed me what it was all about. And it was just this huge aha moment because that was something that I was so interested in. And I had never experienced a planetarium show like that. This week on the Crimson and Golden Connection, I've been speaking with Pittsburgh State University sophomore, Eastern Moral. Eastern. Thanks for stopping by. Yeah, no problem. For more information, you can visit their Facebook page at facebook.com slash L Russell Kales Planetarium, I'm Fred Fletcher-Fierro. Join us for Crimson and Golden Connection Wednesdays at 8.50 and Fridays at 350.