Preparing For The Eclipse - Presented by Celestron

Summary:

Welcome to the Cosmos Safari Podcast Presented by Celestron. In this episode, my co-host, the last-minute astronomer and I discuss the upcoming total solar eclipse on April 8th, 2024, and our personal experiences and lessons learned during the 2017 total solar eclipse.

A Special Thanks to Will Young at https://www.deepskydude.com/ for the right to use his awesome music. 

Sources and Links:  

• Rob’s 2017 Eclipse Video - https://youtu.be/APEqM_q3ATc?si=IxUrUDEZY0uWCCUT 
• Cosmos Safari Episode with Gordon Telepun - https://youtu.be/rZFnlYfNweE?si=9GW41IQKPoRwjsp_ 
• Gordon Telepun’s Solar Eclipse Timer App - https://www.solareclipsetimer.com/ 
• Kid’s Eclipse Activity Book - https://www.greatamericaneclipse.com/kids/kid-activity-book 
• EclipSmart Solar Eclipse Glasses Observing Kit https://www.celestron.com/products/eclipsmart-solar-eclipse-glasses-observing-kit?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cse&utm_term=44405&utm_content=googleshopping&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAlcyuBhBnEiwAOGZ2SyAZqAOTKp2g9NIx5FNiyYWOdSc3_nW5Bsdp7IU1YYBZ_jQwMR8kWBoCo7AQAvD_BwE 
• Eclipsmart Travel Solar Scope 50 Refractor Telescope - https://www.celestron.com/products/eclipsmart-travel-solar-scope-50-refractor-telescope
• Eclipsmart Universal Solar Filter - https://www.celestron.com/products/eclipsmart-universal-solar-filter 
• Eclipsmart 12x50mm Porro Solar Binoculars - https://www.celestron.com/products/eclipsmart-12x50mm-porro-solar-binoculars 
• More Celestron Eclipsmart Products: https://www.celestron.com/collections/eclipsmart-solar-safe-products 
• Celestron Eclipse Watch Website - https://www.celestron.com/pages/eclipsewatch
• Trivia facts - https://nationaleclipse.com/trivia.html

Let the countdown to the cosmos commence as the Last Minute Astronomer and I recount the celestial splendor of past solar eclipses and beam with excitement for the upcoming 2024 total solar eclipse. With the awe of totality etched in our memories, we traverse the patchwork of personal anecdotes and viewing strategies that both seasoned and first-time eclipse chasers will find invaluable. Imagine standing in the moon's shadow as we paint a vivid picture of the expansive path this solar phenomenon will carve across the globe, and let our tales of family adventures intertwined with celestial wonder inspire your own journey toward the sun's corona.

Jump aboard our auditory spaceship where we navigate the practicalities and joys of eclipse viewing, from rustic camping experiences to urban retreats with skylit vistas. Our shared

Transcript

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2024 Solar Eclipse Preparations and Reflections

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 0:00

The temperature also . You know that temperature change that you experience , the animals start making the noises like it's nighttime birds are chirping , insects are making noises . It definitely does feel like it's about nighttime , but it's only for a few minutes . Welcome to the Cosmos Safari podcast presented by Celestron . In this episode , I co-host the last minute of Astronomer and I discussed the upcoming total solar eclipse on April 8th 2024 and our personal experiences and lessons learned during the 2017 total solar eclipse .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 0:39

I'm Dave and I'm Rob , the last minute astronomer and we're going to talk about the 2024 eclipse . Finally , dave , finally we're getting together and actually talking about this . I am very , very excited about this one . I did the one back in 2017 and I highly recommend five stars . You know , do it again , and so that's what we're doing . How about you ?

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 1:04

Definitely , man . I had a blast in 2017 . I've been trying to encourage everybody I know to make sure that they get a chance to go out and see the 2024 eclipse , whether that be actually going to travel and seeing it in you know , totality , or even if you know , if you have to stay home and you're not going to be able to be in totality , to just have the right equipment so that you can safely view the partial . No matter what , it's a great experience and I'm excited because this time I'm going to be able to bring my family with me . Last time it was just me , but this time it's going to be extra special , with my family along for the ride I want to talk a little bit about the 2017 eclipse that we both went to .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 1:46

but before we do that , we've got a little trivia for you , a little pre-launch check out for you , all right let's do it so we've got three questions right here . I'm going to see if you can get them correct . As far as eclipses go , it's been estimated that only about one in every blank people will see a total solar eclipse in their lifetime . What do you think that number is ? One in every how many ? One in a hundred ? One percent Now now gotta go higher .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 2:17

One in a thousand .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 2:19

One in 10,000 people will see a total solar eclipse and that honestly makes sense because it's so few people , because you have to be in the area , you have to travel to that place and it's such a small thing . So I actually thought that was a little small , but I don't know , that's me All right . Next one the 2024 eclipse has a maximum duration of totality of what ? What is the maximum duration of totality ?

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 2:54

I know where I'm going to be . It's over three minutes and 30 seconds and I believe I remember seeing in Mexico it was going to be over four minutes . I can't remember by how much , but I know it wasn't dramatically more . So I'm going to say four minutes and 15 seconds .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 3:15

That's pretty close , I'll give it to you . You were 13 seconds off . It's four minutes and 28 seconds .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 3:21

Oh , it is almost half , okay , halfway to five .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 3:24

Yeah , and I believe that's either in . Yeah , that's in Mexico , that's where that's happening . All right , last one here it's a two parter . The path of the 2024 eclipse that's coming up . How long is the whole path in miles from beginning to end ? And then , how long do you think the just the United States part from Texas to Maine ? How long ? How long is that going to be ?

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 3:50

Are we including ocean in addition to land ?

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 3:54

Yes , so the entire path and then just the United States .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 3:59

I'm going to go with for the entire path , 5,000 miles .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 4:07

No 9,200 miles .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 4:11

Wow , much longer than I thought .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 4:13

Yes .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 4:13

Yes , so is that quite a bit over the ocean then , on either direction , I'd imagine .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 4:18

Yeah , I think more , definitely more on the Pacific side , because the maximum totality is in Mexico . So , and there's a little bit of a pass now that you say that because that's center , that's like central , right On the eclipse path .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 4:33

The maximum would be in the center . That makes a lot of sense . Okay , and then how much over the United States ? Well , that helps me a lot just to think of it that way . So I'm going to go with 2,500 miles 2,142 .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 4:55

Good job , yeah . So I mean that's going from Texas up to Maine .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 4:59

I'm trying to think like orientation wise . It's kind of tilted from Texas through Pennsylvania , where we live , and then up through by the Great Lakes and then it's out into Canada . So you know , I know approximately how far it is to get to Florida and I kind of tilted on the you know the angle then to kind of think through that . So , yeah , hard questions , but thank you for that . That's helpful . When we come back from this short break , myself and Rob reflect on the do's and don'ts that we learned through our experience with the 2017 total solar eclipse .

Lance Lucero - Celestron Product Manager 5:31

There's no better way to see the eclipse than with Celestron Eclipse Mart . Choose from observing kits featuring solar shades , eclipse glasses , two times magnification , solar viewers , a photo filter and more . Every item includes solar safe filter technology , independently lab tested to ensure it conforms to ISO 12312-2 safety standards . Observe smart . Observe Eclipse smart . Learn more at Celestroncom slash Eclipse watch .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 6:00

Stay tuned to learn more about how to enter to win a four-piece solar eclipse glasses observing kit and solar binoculars for our Eclipse smart giveaway .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 6:09

When I went in 2017 , it my son was , I think , so he was three . He was three years old . Wow , yeah , it was . It was his first plane ride , you know . So we we get on the plane . We actually made a vacation out of it because it was the last . Like the last week before school we visited some friends down in Georgia or cousins down in Georgia saw my friend as well . He was in the area . So we we got to hang out with people , made sort of a whole week of it . We flew down because we had the whole week to do it and driving down to South Carolina just is not appealing to me , but it was . It was great time .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 6:54

There was a lot of Eclipse stuff going on in South Carolina . Like we went down to the city and there was there were some markets and then you saw different people with Eclipse stuff that they were making I bought . I don't have it with me . I have like a decal for one of my Yeti mugs that is like totally Eclipse and it's got the date and stuff . You know there are people selling . I got a bow tie and Eclipse bow tie down there in Columbia . It was . It was neat to just fly down there and immerse yourself in an area and then have a really cool event at the same time .

Eclipse Viewing Experiences Compared

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 7:30

Now you , you didn't fly right .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 7:33

No , I didn't . I decided to drive and I drove from my home in Pennsylvania all the way to land of the lakes , kentucky , which I , you know , just looked for a campground that had an opening , and that's where I ended up and , kind of similar to what you did , I was able to visit a friend , or at least that was the plan , and we'll talk a little more about that later . But long story short , it was a long drive . I stayed at a campground , I was in a tent and it was extremely hot , like 96 , 97 degrees , and so my , my sweltering experience was somewhat different than your experience , I believe .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 8:21

Well , I didn't know . You were in a tent , like I thought you . You didn't have a camper back then did you .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 8:29

I had a camper . I decided not to use it , which is a terrible choice .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 8:33

Oh , ouch , yeah , I'll tell you what it was . I , we got lucky because we had an Airbnb and Danielle would never camp anyway Maybe not , but most mostly never , definitely not 95 degree weather . But so we we got the Airbnb and we got one right on Lake Murray down in Columbia . So we found one and I just asked before I booked it . I was like , is there a clear view up in the sky ? Can you send me some pictures ? And it worked out . It was good .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 9:06

But the best part was is that I had air conditioning . It was phenomenal , it was . It was great because I could go out in the morning . It was already like 85 degrees in the morning , but I could go out and just set all my stuff up and by I think it was like one o'clock or something , was was when the partial started and by that time I had everything set up and then I could go cool off in the house . I could go sit under some air conditioning , you know , have some nice iced tea or whatever . So that was nice . I had all my camera stuff set up and the best part was in that Airbnb there was a skylight and it was just perfectly aligned that we could look and look up and just see the eclipse from inside the house and monitor it .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 9:53

Not that we let let me just interrupt here for a second and give you a different taste of what I did , which I had an umbrella , that I could sit under and keep myself out of the sun , which was really nice .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 10:10

I did get a chance to set up all my telescopes , and I was surrounded by hundreds of other people in the campground who had no idea what they were looking at , and so I played the role of explaining what it is they were looking at for the vast majority of my day , which I thought was great . I set up cameras as well , of not just the eclipse but also of myself and others enjoying the experience . So I think we have some similarities and some very different experiences on the side of our accommodations .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 10:48

Yeah , I was very pleased . Now , you know me , I love talking to people . I love talking astronomy to people . You know , you get under the stars and you just communicate , you talk and it's just awesome . But , man , it was nice to just be there and be able to focus on just me , my wife and my son . Right , and that's something that I think you told me that you didn't bring your son along . Well , you didn't have a son at that point .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 11:15

I did not have a son at that point , you did not have a son at that point , but I didn't .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 11:18

He was three years old and it is that experience was just Cream of the crop . I mean , he was three . So he remembers it . Oh yeah , absolutely he remembers it . Yeah , now it helps that I have a video that I took with lots of different stuff , but , like he remembers it , we had a little workbook . I would definitely advise anybody with kids , you know , get a workbook , like a coloring Type of thing , about eclipses and then they learn the words and they understand what's going on a little bit more . Not totally . I mean , in the middle of the eclipse , sikorso just was like was was that the day Right ? Like he thought the day ended . Even though we told her right what it was going to be , he still felt like the the day had ended .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 12:07

What ? Why is that ?

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 12:08

for people who have never experienced an eclipse like what's happening , that would cause him to think that so the fact that the moon , just like , covers up the entire Surface of the Sun , the entire thing . So none of the sunlight that's coming off the surface is actually hitting us and it's not hitting the air , the atmosphere which usually scatters it into blue . So it's it's basically nighttime . I could see Venus , I could see Jupiter . I think , if I remember correctly , people might have been able to see Mercury , but that's kind of hard to see and you don't want to waste your time looking for a planet when you've got any clips right in front of you .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 12:52

I'd yeah , I remember really dark . I Just think they remember when you know you're looking up at totality but around you it looks like a big 360-degree sunset . It's absolutely beautiful . The temperature Also . You know that temperature change that you experience . The animals start making the noises like it's nighttime Birds are chirping , insects are making noises . It definitely does feel like it's about nighttime , but it's only for a few minutes , right , only for three or so minutes , and then it's over and then it's daytime again .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 13:35

Yeah , yeah , we , I notice I . I actually had Temperature sensors , some veneer temperature sensors . I could bring data back to my classroom and I actually tracked it and it was about a 10-degree drop , wow , which , yeah , I could definitely feel it . You know , the Sun's not radiating down on you and it's not radiating everywhere else , so you're gonna get a little drop in temperature , so about 10 degrees . I heard the cicadas , maybe a little bit louder than I thought . I had not sure , but the way I think about it is , when you get into totality , like to me , it looked like up in the sky . There was a black hole right like like you see in Interstellar not exactly like what you see in interstellar but kind of no , but I was far away , a little blurry ish .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 14:23

But yeah , you just have this . It's just dark and it's super bright around the outside and it's just a man it messes with you a little bit Now .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 14:33

I know you used some Camera stuff . You also had some other things that you were doing . You mentioned the temperature sensors .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 14:42

Yeah , yes , and I have a video too which will put in the show notes of of my experience there when you're doing the solar filter . You had that on a what , what scopes did you have with you ?

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 14:56

So I had a Schmidt cast of grain native Schmidt cast of grain with a solar filter on the front .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 15:03

That gave me is the visual Telescopic view . I didn't actually take any pictures through the telescope I had on top of the telescope I piggybacked my Canon T3i with a solar filter on just a traditional zoom lens and All of that was tracking with an equatorial mount so that , just like you said with your tracking mount that it would follow the Sun , so an equatorial mount for those of you who are kind of new to this is a mount that is Generally used for telescopes and astronomy , where the one pole of the telescopes axis Is pointing towards the North Star and over the course of 24 hours the axis will rotate one time in 24 hours . So effectively it's tracking the Earth's rotation , which is what you're observing when you're watching day and night . So it's like a Allowing you to keep it in the visual Range of your , of your optics . So if you're staring through that you with your eyes , or if you're looking at it through a camera lens , it'll just keep it right there on the sensor or right there in your eyepiece .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 16:19

Yeah . So do you feel like the so you use the telescope ? Do you feel like that was overpowered , or do you feel like Like you didn't need that , or were you thankful that you had it ?

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 16:32

I knew , going into it , what I needed in terms of the correct eyepiece To use to get the full view of the Sun , and I use that mostly for the partial eclipse . So I never actually used the telescope to look at the Sun during totality because I first didn't want to bother taking the solar filter off the front and it's not really the right tool . During totality you can just use your eyes and you get a much better experience without you know the need for a magnification . So I Did take pictures with the camera during that time . So I do have some really nice images of totality that I got . But I did focus , I'd say , about half of my time to try to soak it in and Experience it with my own eyes , and then about half of the time I spent was to take pictures that I then later was able to process and look back on yeah , I think that's a way to do that .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 17:41

Right . I got the full lead up all the way to from all the partial phases . I've got totality and then I've got the end Partial phases as well . So I never actually went together and put it into any kind of simple image , but I do have the images leading up to and then after the totality .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 18:00

Yeah , it's , it's . I'll tell you what . When I was watching it , I did make sure in fact , I think you warned me beforehand , you know don't be fumbling with your camera , don't be fumbling with your camera .

Lance Lucero - Celestron Product Manager 18:16

That's the last thing that you want to do and you were absolutely right .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 18:21

One of the things I wanted to do is make sure that I was not spending too much time fumbling with equipment . So I got the Program that would connect to my computer and then connect to my camera , which would then take only during totality . It would only take the pictures , or it would take all the pictures I wanted of totality and then it would shut off . Right , it would change all different settings . You could pre-program at all . But the nice thing was is that all I had to do was take the shroud off of that and then , basically for the next two and a half minutes , I was able to enjoy it . I was able to point at things , I was able to Show my son what was going on , talk with him .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 19:07

I was able to completely forget to use the binoculars that I brought . Yeah , like it was , I had brought binoculars specifically because I was like I want to go look up and that's something I don't want to do this time around . I don't want to forget to use the binoculars because I do want to use a pair of binoculars , just real quick and Take a look at it . But yeah , it's sometimes you just you forget those things . I'm gonna have a checklist of everything that I'm gonna want to do Did you do anything with .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 19:37

You know the partial phases at all , so if you look at the video , you'll see that I did put them into a continuous video . I didn't know how to keyframe at the time , so it's a jiggly . I have a little bit of learning to do . But yeah , other than that little video , I didn't really do the partial pictures , all that like .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 19:59

How about the actual stuff , like with just looking at the ground ? You know , for example , I Watched for . You know some of the things you would see , the little partial phases when light passes through . You know trees and things like that .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 20:15

Yes , yes , in fact , this is one of my favorite things is I wrote my son's name and then tapped little . You probably can't even see it on here , but all I did was I put little pinholes in the shape of the letters in his name . So then what I did is , during the eclipse , I held this out like this and the sun's behind me Okay , the sun's passing by my head I had passed all those little pinholes and I had a white sheet of paper on the floor , on the ground , that it was projecting onto , and so then each little pinhole Was a little picture of the eclipse , the partial eclipse at that time acting like a little pinhole camera .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 20:57

Exactly , and that's one of the really cool things about this is you don't need much to just observe it and check it out . Right , those pinhole cameras are pretty good . Now , I did not notice the what , what they say about when the trees , the light comes through the trees and all the little leaves , the holes in between the leaves , act Like pinhole projectors . Right Now , I never saw that at that point , but I have seen that work . In fact , it was during the effort of parade . I was in with the scouts and we were marching and there was a light , an LED light , above one of the trees and it showed on the pavement . Oh wow , actual shape of the lamp , wow .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 21:41

And I was like oh , my gosh , this is actually going to work . So did you get to see any of those sorts of things .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 21:49

I didn't bring anything along , but there were some other people around me that had similar things like colanders are a great thing , to use , because they're already got the little holes in them . You don't even have to make them . So you know . People had colanders and that kind of stuff . I saw the shadow bands on the ground , which was phenomenal .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 22:10

What is that ? I don't quite get the shadow bands bit .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 22:13

There's still some question as to exactly how they're formed , but basically it looks like little snakes almost that are on the ground at a very particular part of the eclipse . Now I was using an app for this through Solar Eclipse Timer , which we had a previous podcast on with Gordon Telethon , and his app allows you to kind of just sit back and enjoy because it describes everything that's happening in words as you're going , which I believe did you use that as well . Yes , yes , I did . Yeah , so that was super helpful and you know , that was one of the things we looked at .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 22:54

We looked at , like , the 360 degree sunset during totality , we looked for the different planets and stuff . We listened and felt you know the temperature change , the birds , the bugs , all that kind of stuff . But no , I didn't really bring a whole lot with me . I really was trying to pack light because , as you said , this was the beginning of the school year and I had to be back at work as a teacher the next day because I actually had missed I had to get a special permission to miss that first day of school when it was the teacher in service day kickoff and it required me to go very light .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 23:37

Tell us , how did that plan ?

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 23:38

work out for you Not very great , and this is something that I'm definitely changing this time , as we kind of start to talk about some of the changes that I'm going to be making in 2024 .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 23:52

So we'll kind of use this as a transition here .

2024 Total Solar Eclipse Plans

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 23:56

My experience on the way home was I hit some major , major traffic . I had planned on going to a friend's house for dinner . His wife created this beautiful Italian meal for us . Didn't show up to his house till two o'clock in the morning because I hit six accidents and I think it was eight hours of driving , or something like that , till I got to his house . He had to work the next day , so he's like here's your meal , warm it up .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 24:27

There's your house , go , take a shower and I'll see you in the morning that we're changing . This time we're actually going to spend the next day there and be able to relax and enjoy the day of the eclipse as well as be a little less rushed to get home . So if I have to suggest any changes to anybody's plans , if you can't stay , just kind of consider traffic is going to be a little difficult .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 24:57

Yeah , you can just see it on Google Maps . There have literally been traffic studies done on the eclipse traffic . I was looking stuff up , and there were literal studies in journals about the traffic caused by an eclipse . I mean , it's wild . And what's funny , though , is we're actually planning on leaving on Tuesday , probably super early in the morning on Tuesday , so not on Monday , because almost everybody's going to be traveling on Monday , but we're going to wait till that Tuesday .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 25:30

So what do you plan to experience different this time ?

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 25:38

So , number one , I'm driving , so I'm actually going to be able to take my telescopes Right . When I flew , I couldn't bring any telescopes , I could only bring . I brought a couple of cameras , I think . I brought like three DSLRs and I brought a couple of GoPro's , and that's where all of my footage comes from , and this time I can actually have a telescope . Now , which telescope am I going to bring ? Am I going to have something ? You know , there's all kinds of decisions ahead of me , right . So I don't know exactly , but I do know that I can bring some telescopes with me . Now , that's because I can drive . What that also does is , if I need to kind of change where I'm at , I can drive somewhere with the stuff . I don't want to do that . That's like a last last ditch effort , right , because sometimes it kind of clears up right before the eclipse .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 26:35

That's what I experienced last time , yep , and I think you had the same experience .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 26:40

Yeah , it was cloudy , cloudy , cloudy . But then what ? Like 10 minutes before the eclipse ? Yep , it was partial clouds .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 26:47

Yep , I mean , I still got to see the partial phases , but there was cloud cover right before the totality and then all of a sudden , it just opened up perfectly clear . As soon as the totality was over , partial clouds came back in and once again , as we discussed with Gordon Tellup and this is actually a known phenomena that he describes in that podcast so check it out . So where are you going ? I know that we had some plans and then they got changed .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 27:14

So do you have a plan ? Wait , wait , actually , before I get into that , before I get into that , I think we need to take a little break when we come back after this short break , we discuss our plans for the April 8th 2024 total solar eclipse .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 27:28

So one of the big things that people would like to know is what am I going to be doing for the 2024 total solar eclipse ? So I have a number of different things here I want to show you , and some just tips and tricks that I've found along the way help quite a bit . The first thing I have here is a dedicated solar telescope , the EclipseSmart travel 50 millimeter telescope that is dedicated for astronomy of the sun , and with this type of a telescope , the one thing I find that's kind of helpful that is not included is just a kind of sheet . This is actually a piece of felt , and the felt is a little , you know , thick enough in order to be able to drape it over your head . It does a number of things . It provides you with some additional contrast because you're not having the sunlight from around you while you're looking into the telescope , which is helpful . The other thing it does is it keeps you from accidentally looking towards the sun , because of course , that's a bad decision as it can damage your eyes permanently . And over here I have the ultimate 80 . The ultimate 80 is a spotting scope , so this could be used to rest , really as well as with this particular solar filter . On the front , we have the EclipseSmart universal solar filter , and what this allows us to do is to use it towards looking at the sun . The cool thing about this is , if I just take off this little tape that I have on holding this in place , I can now use it to look at totality when it's actually safe to look at the sun without the solar filter , and then immediately I can put this back on and I can place my tape back down . I recommend using painter's tape because it doesn't leave residue behind and it's meant to be peeled off and won't damage your equipment or leave anything behind that same universal solar filter . I also have it on my camera and lens as well , so that I can be taking images . I'll likely be mounting this onto a tripod and that way , once again , once the Eclipse hits totality , I can peel off my painter's tape and I can get the image of totality , place it right back on here once we get out of totality and continue shooting images of the partial phases as well . Another thing I'll be bringing along is a colander , because each of these little holes in here is going to act as its own pinhole projector , so during the partial phases of the Eclipse , you'll be able to see the little shape of the sun and moon in each of those little holes projected onto the ground or a piece of paper or something . So that's a kind of cool thing . There's a lot of time during those partial phases , so there are a number of items you can be looking at while you're doing the observations of the partial phases through the telescopes .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 30:32

I have an awesome giveaway for you guys . One of you is going to be going home with a 12 by 50 pair of the Eclipse Smart Poro binoculars . These things are awesome . They are meant to look directly at the sun and they can do this because they have a built-in solar filter in the actual binoculars themselves . It's the point of them , and I really like these . They're super comfortable , and one of the things that you can be doing with this that is awesome even beyond the Eclipse , is the chance to look at the upcoming solar cycle . As we're going into solar maximum , the sun has more sunspots than usual and , as a result , having a pair of binoculars like this allows you to zoom in just enough to be able to see those sunspots easily and that's really cool because that's going to be an event that's happening day after day after the Eclipse . It actually happens , but if you are interested in winning these , celestron is going to be giving these a pair away . To enter , visit Celestron on Instagram and click on the Eclipse giveaway post for more details .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 31:41

I've got some trivia for you . Excellent . I got three pieces for you . These are new ones . Let's see

Planning for Solar Eclipse Viewing

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 31:50

what you know . The greatest possible duration of a total solar eclipse is how long ?

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 31:59

I'm not going to go for exact timing because that's difficult , but say somewhere around six minutes .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 32:06

Seven minutes and thirty seconds .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 32:08

Okay .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 32:09

Yeah , the last one with over seven minutes was in 1973 . Second one it's been calculated that on average , a total solar eclipse is seen from the same place once every how many years ?

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 32:28

18 .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 32:30

375 .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 32:33

Oh , I'm thinking sorrow cycle , I'm thinking 18 years for the sorrow cycle . So you're saying from the exact same place , from the exact same place there's a repeating pattern every 18 years , I believe .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 32:45

Yeah , there's something like that .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 32:47

Okay , misunderstood the question , all right so last one .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 32:52

Now this is good , you've got a one in 12 chance . Based on 5,000 years of eclipse data , the most likely month for a total solar eclipse is which month ?

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 33:04

Oh my goodness , which month Is it statistically significant , first off , or is it minor ?

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 33:15

I just got these off of a website today , so I did not do any more background research .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 33:22

I'm going to go with January simply because it's cold in the northern hemisphere , and it would be just you know how it of course has to be that they're going to make it one of the worst times of year to have to go out and look at it .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 33:36

Okay , so you're going with the . When I buy a telescope , it gets cloudy idea . Yeah , no , you were very wrong it is . May is the most common month and November is the least likely Interesting .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 33:51

Yeah , I don't know Tell you how many like there were or anything .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 33:55

it just says how many or at least I didn't look into that part . I do know these . All the trivia today comes from national eclipsecom , so that's where I got it from , and I didn't dive any deeper this time , so okay , all right , so you had asked where I was going for the eclipse , right ?

Lance Lucero - Celestron Product Manager 34:18

Yeah .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 34:18

Now my first . My first inclination was Texas . Right , like I actually sat in a coffee shop one day to actually start planning way ahead of time and I was looking at this and looking at that and way overthinking everything and I was like I got to go to Texas and I didn't say I'd go to Mexico just because they don't feel like doing international travel .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 34:41

That's just a whole extra hurdle and I don't get that many days off . So I was like , okay , I'm going to go deep in the heart of Texas , I'm going to go as far southwest as I can . And I had a couple ideas and in fact I even started to buy tickets , like I was . I went to buy plane tickets and I was looking for the cheapest thing . I used Google flights or whatever , and and I get it and I'm like , oh yeah , boom . And I buy the tickets and it says , no , those tickets are no longer available . I was like what ? There's no way . No way , because it took me two minutes to fill out the stuff . So I did it again . But I went super duper fast . Less than like a minute later I had everything up there . Boom by the tickets . They're not available anymore . I don't know , maybe I'm not as tech savvy as I thought I was Something going on there .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 35:35

Maybe it was a sign .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 35:37

Maybe it was , but then so that frustrated the heck out of me , so I was just done , tired . So then I was like you know what , daniel , I need some help planning this thing . And so we sit down and we figured out like maybe , with a tight turnaround and having to be back at school , maybe air travel is not the way to go .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 36:00

Right , yeah , I kind of think that was a good decision .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 36:04

Yeah , that's a tough one for me . Maybe I just don't think about the possible consequences of actions that I take . But you know I did . I did have my heart set on that . But she made good points and I think overall she's right . Like let's drive . And so we're going to drive to Ohio , we're going to go somewhere around Cleveland on the western side , and because we saw that that's the area . Oh , by the way , texas the reason I was picking Texas was because at the least percentage of clouds , it was like only a 40% chance of clouds .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 36:37

Yeah , that's why I avoided northeast . I was originally going to go to the Adirondacks and I was going to try to spend time there , and I had even discussed it with some people from up in the Adirondack region . They're hosting a big event in the Adirondack public observatory I believe it's called . But I ended up going to Richmond , indiana , for the same reasons , because as you go farther towards the south and west , the chances of cloud cover is less , and so I went about as far as I was willing to go and that's where I ended up . So Richmond , indiana , once again . Just like last time , I'm doing a campground . This time I am bringing the RV and , as I said at the beginning , I'm bringing my family with me . We will have air conditioning and the campsite that I got is actually at the northern most point of the campground and it faces over a pond that they have , so I can kind of like look out and over the pond from my campsite and hopefully that gives me a clear view to the south .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 37:49

Yeah , south , southwest , yeah Right , nice I like that . I like that idea . Now , are you thinking that you may have to pick up and go travel , or are you ?

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 38:01

I refuse , I refuse , I'm going to hunker down and cross my fingers with the trailer and my son and just all that comes along with my setup that I'm going to want to do . I just can't see the frustration of trying to pick up and move last minute . Yeah , so I'm going to hunker down .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 38:25

That's very smart , I know . I remember like I think , 24 hours out I was kind of on the edge in South Carolina . I was kind of like , oh , it might get cloudy tomorrow , it might do this . Should I move ? And I'm so glad I didn't because I could set as I said before , like everything is just nice and easy there . There's very little . I feel like the juice isn't worth the squeeze for the most part .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 38:54

Yeah , I think that makes a lot of sense .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 38:58

Well when we talk to Gordon Tullipin , who's got numbers of these under his belt , he's saying like 500 miles minimum to get a real chance of actually getting significantly different weather options . Yeah , I'm not driving 500 extra miles , and he said days in advance . You know , like , make your call which of the two sites you're going to go to in advance , and I can't see booking yet another location or trying to end up on the side of a road or something . So this way I can enjoy it and if it's cloudy , it's cloudy and I'll still enjoy my family and my trip .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 39:36

Yeah , I'll tell you what that , even though he was three years old , he still remembers so much about that . I mean , it's such a good experience with the family You're going to love that . It's going to be fantastic . Now we also decided again this time to do an Airbnb , but we had some tough issues with that . I had , actually . It was just tough because there's so many options and , like you kind of got to see their backyard and , you know , not all of them have pictures of the outside .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 40:12

And we even finally sat down for like a whole day , whittling it down from like 50 to 50 . Down to 25 , down to 10 , down to the top two . Let's make this choice and we booked it , we had a place , and then the next day I'm in the grocery store with my son and I get a message on my phone that says okay , I'm really sorry , but the property was already booked on another platform . That's not fun , that's terrible . Like I never get angry , but I was so angry at that time .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 40:45

I never did tell him off , because I'm a good person , I guess I don't know , but that was just that I had that weight lifted off my shoulders because we booked it and then it just came right back down . So I don't .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 41:00

You told me all this , but I didn't know that you had found another place . So , yes , we did find about it .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 41:06

Yeah , we did find another place . It's actually in a nice , in a neighborhood where I think , I think the people in the neighborhood are planning to leave and get out Instead of experience it . But it's going to be a nice house and it's got it's on like three acres , so I'm going to have my choice of places to set up . Wow , yeah , it's , there are some trees , but you know there's trees everywhere . It looked like there was plenty of open space , just a beautiful house . And yeah , it's going to be even better , I think , than last time , assuming that the clouds aren't there . And yeah , now we are booking a hotel as a backup to oh OK , we're finding places that can you know . You can cancel like up to a week beforehand without a cancellation fee .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 41:58

Wow , that's surprising because I know a lot of the places that I've looked at were very much like I had to book for I believe it was four nights minimum , because they knew what was coming . I'm getting a T shirt , by the way , with mine . You know my campground is providing us T shirts . They already contacted me and asked me what sizes we needed and Wow , so they're preparing something pretty cool . I think I may have mentioned that I kind of know what I'm doing , but I'm trying not to get too involved . I'm going to like enjoy it for myself . I don't want to be there as a hired help that paid to be there . Let me stay for free and I'll give you a talk . You know , right , Right , yeah , I don't want to be known for knowing what I'm talking about .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 42:45

I want to just kind of go under the radar here and unlike last time where I was presenting during this thing , I want to just kind of hang out and enjoy it .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 42:54

You know what you still are going to present , but you're going to be presenting to your son , and that's going to be way more rewarding than anything else , so that's yeah . So what , what ? What equipment are you going to bring ? Because I've got some things in my head as far as what I'm going to do . I'm curious since you're going to have the RV , you can bring a ton of equipment , but you only want to manage so much , so like what ?

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 43:19

Yeah .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 43:19

What's your plan ?

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 43:21

Well ,

Preparation for Solar Eclipse Viewing

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 43:22

ok . So kind of cool thing about a new moon is not only are you going to have the eclipse , but that same night the potential for the darkest night of the entire Month . The new moon is also there . So I'm trying to make sure that I have not only the equipment for a solar , but also some equipment for nighttime observing as well . I don't really often get an opportunity with my kid to look at the night sky , as horrible as that is , because of school nights and things like that .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 43:59

They got to go to bed at some point , right ?

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 44:01

And , as a result , especially during the summer when I'm off , gets dark very late and is not really conducive to proper bedtime . So I'm going to keep them up and we're going to look at the night sky , hopefully . And so I'm going to bring I think it's going to be the EVO 8 from Celestron . The solar filter you know fits right over the top of it , it's in the . I've done a few videos on my , my channel for YouTube If you're interested in checking it out . But the nice thing I like about that is it's all self contained . It has , like it's built in , battery and all that kind of stuff and as simple as possible but with the most capability , I think . So that's one , and they have a little cool travel tripod I'm going to bring Okay , which makes it all real compact . You know you sit on top of like a picnic table or something . There's some solar binoculars that I'm going to bring along as well .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 44:57

Those are good . Those are good . Now , are those the ones ? There's solar binoculars .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 45:02

Let me tell you one thing to let me tell you one thing about that , though , especially if you're going to have your boy look through them and I've got a little terrible pair right here , but like the block out the sun , which is good , but you got to make sure that your son isn't looking into the sun when he's lining it up . So you got what I did is I took a pizza box and I cut out eye holes and I shoved this in the pizza box , so he had a whole shade around him , but so that he couldn't damage his eyes Like it actually worked out really really well and it was just a greasy pizza box .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 45:37

That's a good idea , so that I think you know the binoculars and the telescope with with the solar filter on the front , that I can also take off then at night to do , you know , visual observations of just nighttime stuff . You know , of course , eclipse glasses , right .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 45:59

Just the regular old eclipse shades and beyond that , I think I'm going to try to travel pretty light . You know I'm going to send some stuff your way to check out . So , yeah , I want to make sure I keep the load as light as possible and I really want to focus on the experience itself . Right , right , I don't know if I'm gonna be doing a whole lot of images this time .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 46:29

Oh , See , I think I'm gonna go video , but I don't know if .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 46:33

I want to go crazy with it , like astrophotography For the actual eclipse itself . Well , I can get it automated , like you had it last time , where it handles most of it . I was doing it all manually last time . No , and it would be one thing if it were just me , but with my family along . I want to focus on that , in addition to Viewing it myself you got to have as much automatic as possible .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 46:59

absolutely the , I'll share it . It might be be a PC only thing I'll have to look into that for you , see , see if it'll work . But yeah , I , I know I'm , I'm planning on having a ton of cameras and a ton of stuff set up , but again , all in advance .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 47:18

I'll probably . I say all this and it probably will end up that I have a lot more than I Planned . You know , just last minute I'll decide that I want to do a bunch of stuff . But yeah , if you can , if you can put that also in the show notes , that'd be great if you have a link ?

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 47:33

Yeah , yeah , I'll have to see automatic .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 47:36

So I'm gonna , I'm gonna push you right there , rob , that Don't wait till the last minute there , last minute of the strontum , or because we want everybody else to be able to plan for For this event , including my oh , I know .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 47:48

I do need . I , I'm working , I'm , I'm doing my best . All right , it's just some things . Just , you know it , you don't . You don't do it till you feel like the intense pressure and for some reason , I'm not feeling the intense pressure yet which I need to . I need to make myself feel that . But yeah , no , I know I'm so I'm , I'm thinking I'll do something similar to last time , where I have at least one camera for the partial phases , just dedicated , one camera for totality , zoomed in , but GoPro To do the time lapse or another camera to do the time lapse . That was fun to be able to just speed it up . I'm not full video . I'm definitely gonna have a 360 GoPro and one of my 360 cameras so I can get footage for a planetarium type show , and I know I want to record audio . That was a thing that I definitely made sure of last time . I wanted to get my audio with a lapel mic and I wanted to get my wife and my kids Reactions as we were going .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 48:57

Yes , worked out . Reactions are awesome . I've got a reaction video . That is super embarrassing , but it was because I was that excited . I was like screaming at the top of my lungs and just in awe and and it's . It's so , so over the top that it's embarrassing , but it's the real reaction . It was that crazy cool .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 49:25

Yeah , it

Preparing for Solar Eclipse Photography

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 49:26

really is . I mean it's , it's like I said , you know , it's like there's a black hole up in the sky right and there's just brightness around it's , it's , it's just otherworldly , you know . I mean I , I can see why eclipses have been known as these , like portents of bad luck and and bad omens and all that like that . It's pretty wild to see your source of life Just Yep , just bloop out of existence for a bit , you know .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 49:56

So I think you know , all in all , I really want to make sure that in 2024 , I'm , I'm present , that's my , that's my goal is to be present and and really try to take in that experience .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 50:13

And yeah , you , like you said , automate whatever I can automate so that I can do that right , right , yeah , and just , you know , hope that the clouds don't come and you know , I , I also I need to put that in the back of my mind like that's a possibility , right , and I need to be able to prepare myself so that I don't like Really feel terrible when that happens .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 50:40

You know what I mean Like it's always a possibility , you know , and we will always have 2017 , but you know well , if you're going for a backup plan with a black up backup hotel , have a backup plan , I guess , for if that Eventuality happens and and you'll be ready to go , then yeah , and you can feel like you're prepared for it .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 51:00

You know , I think the cool , the coolest part about this particular eclipse is the proximity then to Neef , with you know , being that northeast astronomical forum is coming a week or we're taking us two weeks after the eclipse . I think the buzz at that conference is going to be Really exciting . You know , and a lot of the people that we know from the industry and From our hobby you're going to be there and I think everybody's who's going to have a chance to go see this is going to be just talking about what they did and and how awesome it was .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 51:39

Yeah , I would say also for people who do want to take pictures and stuff .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 51:47

You can use a telescope or a pair of binoculars with the smartphone adapters and you can actually place that through the eyepiece Of the telescope or binocular and you can actually get a pretty decent image then Once you're magnified .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 52:01

And also , I'd say I know I'm guilty of this with my astrophotography and stuff . Like I often see what other people are doing online and I think , man , there's no way I can do that and to be honest it's kind of true , there's no way that I can do that with the current time and stuff I have , right , like certain types of pictures . But you know , I would encourage you try to go in with a mindset of I'm going to get a picture , you know , plan something out ahead of time and get a decent picture that is yours . You don't have to do the Ultra dynamic range Composite and learn Photoshop . Like don't , don't put that pressure on yourself to do the amazing thing that other amazing astrophotographers do . Like , just go with what you know and can do and just get something that is good and is yours , that you can value and keep for the future . That's just my advice , I think . What do you think to dovetail on that ?

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 53:04

In .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 53:04

You said you know , don't worry about all of that like Photoshop and all that , if you get good quality data , you don't need to learn how to do all of that Immediately .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 53:16

So I would focus if you're new to taking photos or just taking photos of like astronomy type events is just focus on the actually capturing the image , part of it , as the thing to do , and you can actually practice In advance of the eclipse With just the sun . If you have the proper solar filters and everything already right , you can practice On the actual sun and get used to what to do and kind of . If you get the solar eclipse timer app , it even gives you some options where you can Simulate what that would look like and I highly recommend to go through that practice , run Days , weeks in advance of the actual eclipse , if you can help it , and that that way when you get to the actual event , you're not fumbling around , worried about settings while you're trying to enjoy this amazing experience . You just drove or flew or , you know , put lots of time and energy into trying to plan out , to just change your ISO to the proper setting , like that's not what you want to be doing . Yeah , so take time to practice .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 54:28

Yeah , how much , how much totality are ?

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 54:31

you getting ? I think I'm getting , if I remember , a three and a half minutes . So that's about what I'm at three and a half minutes or so , three minutes actually not much of a change .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 54:41

Yeah , there's not much of a change as you go from .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 54:46

Texas to Cleveland . Like I think Texas might be four minutes and Cleveland's like three minutes and twenty or three and a half , like it's not that much that the biggest problem is going sideways . Yeah , of course , but even that , you've got to go through that process . Yeah , oh yeah , of course but even that , you've got a good corridor .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 55:04

Yeah , I'm very , very close to the center line . We're on that right right .

Exploring Eclipse Trivia and Culture

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 55:10

But , yeah , I just this is looking to be pretty , pretty awesome if the weather works out . I mean , even so , it's gonna be fun to get out there and plan stuff and and actually like get something that we can bring home . I thought that's . That's what I'm hoping for . Shouldn't be too hot , you know . The Midwest in April should still be fairly cool , it's hope , but not snowy .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 55:35

Here's an interesting question . Yeah , what are you going to eat on the day of the eclipse ?

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 55:42

I'm , you know what . I'll probably just get like some kind of burrito from someplace local . That's the part about the traveling , though I really really like it's finding some local places , finding like a good hoagie place , or I guess they call them heroes out there or something , I'm not sure but like just finding something local , something good and like experience in the culture .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 56:01

Yeah , yeah , that's not a good idea .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 56:03

Yeah , like in South Carolina . You know , go to the market , see what kind of eclipse themed stuff people are selling and made in anticipation , and you know , you know , actually get into that culture .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 56:16

When we come back after this short break , Rob tries one last time to stump me on eclipse trivia .

Lance Lucero - Celestron Product Manager 56:24

Get eclipse ready with the Celestron Eclipse Mart Travel Scope 50 , a 50 millimeter solar telescope with tripod and backpack , or reach for Eclipse Mart solar binoculars with up to 20 times magnification . You can even add an Eclipse Mart solar filter to your Celestron nighttime telescope . They're available in 14 different sizes . All Celestron Eclipse Mart products conform to the current ISO safety standards . Learn more at Celestroncom slash Eclipse Watch .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 56:53

As we're winding this down , I've got three landing trivia for you . Okay , are you ready ?

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 56:58

I'm ready .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 56:59

All right , so this goes in . You know slightly different areas . I'll start with this one . How about the earliest known record of a solar eclipse ? How old do you think it is and where do you think it was ?

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 57:15

Oh my goodness , I would imagine that the Maya would have had some experience with an eclipse and I know that they were very much in tune with the astronomical events . I believe that they would predate anything Chinese . I know Chinese kept very good records Egyptians . I think they would even predate Egyptians . I don't know an actual date , but I'm gonna go with the Maya .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 57:48

You know I don't think that's a bad choice , but it is not correct . According to nationaleclipscom , they say that it was made in ancient Ireland over 5,000 years ago , Stonehenge like areas yeah . Yeah , I bet you , bet you the Celts were really active , I guess at that time really popular .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 58:10

That's like 10,000 or so .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 58:15

Oh , maybe I don't know . I'm looking it up . This is . It's interesting , like here's the thing . Like I pull these together , the trivia together , and I always wanna go a little bit deeper , but even this , it surprises you .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 58:32

So according to EnglishHeritageorg , the history of Stonehenge about 5,000 years ago . There you go that's what this was saying too .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 58:43

So Stonehenge time ? Yep , wow , fantastic , all right , let's get off of this planet , okay , jupiter , jupiter . How often does a total solar eclipse occur on Jupiter ?

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 58:58

What would be causing a total solar eclipse on Jupiter ? You would have moons , but are they sufficiently large to completely cover the sun ? I would , I guess , expect that they would be , and Jupiter's moon I let's do Europa and Ganymede . I'm guessing it would be every day or two .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 59:30

Not too bad . Not too bad On Jupiter . They occur every 42 hours , day or two . Yeah , yeah , I'm impressed . I thought you were going way off for a little while there . It sounded like you were . You were . Where does the solar eclipse ? Well , they have moons . Come on , dave , you've seen this . You see a shadow transit ? I thought well that's exactly right .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 59:54

Right , yeah , and you know I do a lab with students where they're watching the orbital timings and periods of the different orbits , of the different moons , and you know they go at different rates and I know that the closest one is about two days to go around . So you heard it .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 1:00:11

And the planet's so big that , like you always get an eclipse Right , you're never not gonna get an eclipse . And you know , if you have a sky and telescope you can just look and see , or any kind of magazine you could look it up online . You know , you can see exactly when those transits are going to occur . It's really cool . I mean , I've seen it a couple of times in my telescope and I'm like , hey , I'm seeing a total solar eclipse on Jupiter right now .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 1:00:36

Right right .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 1:00:37

From Earth .

Lance Lucero - Celestron Product Manager 1:00:38

But yeah .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 1:00:40

Oh , how many can occur at the same time . Four , three , this is three , I was thinking four or two . This might require some extra work .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 1:00:55

I would imagine that the one of the moons is sufficiently far that the umbra doesn't reach the surface of Jupiter , so it might be a penumbra , partial eclipse , but not totality .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 1:01:07

Yeah , yeah .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 1:01:08

So the cone of the umbra never reaches the surface of the actual . Well , cloud tops not necessarily surface , but the cloud tops of Jupiter .

Future Solar Eclipses and Moon Movements

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 1:01:17

Yeah , now before I go into the next one , the last one before I do that when is the next total solar eclipse in America ? Oh no , I stopped him . I thought he was going to have this one .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 1:01:33

I believe in the 2040s .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 1:01:39

Yes , Now there is a , I think , an annular in 44 , but the next total solar eclipse is in 2045 . Wow , so we got another 21 years before we get a good , and that one's going to be a lot like the 2017 eclipse .

Lance Lucero - Celestron Product Manager 1:01:55

Okay .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 1:01:56

Going from left to right , from top left to bottom right Now . So get out there now , because you're not going to see one until 2045 . Now what we also know is that the moon is slowly moving away from the earth Right , and because it's moving further away , the moon's going to get smaller in the sky and eventually we will no longer have eclipses , total solar eclipses on earth . How many years in the future is that likely to happen ?

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 1:02:31

First instinct is to say it's going to be very , very far . But we are at the point where the moon , at its closest point , is covering up the sun , but at its farthest point it's no longer covering up the sun , it's an annular eclipse . So , earth , it's very difficult because this is a . This is a as it gets farther away , the influence becomes less and less and less and it's like a limit , like a calculus limit . So let's say a billion years .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astronomer 1:03:11

You are not quite right , but I'll say actually kind of in the right realm , 500 to 600 million years . Okay , so you doubled it , but we're talking about huge timescales , so I'm cool with that .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 1:03:25

I was trying to figure out because , like I said , it's a limit in calculus and so as you get farther away the effect is less gravitationally and as a result , the relationship where the moon is picking up or speed because it's taking away the earth's slowing down in its rotation , scrubbing away the energy from the earth's rotation to cause the moon to leave , and so as you get farther away that effect becomes less and so the speed at which it moves away is slower rate over time . So that's like really difficult to figure out . I kind of was backtracking in my mind because I know the moon was very close initially , early in its formation , but that effect would be very , very great early on .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari 1:04:21

and then has dissipated over the last three and a half four billion years . So yeah , that's an interesting question . If you're still listening and like this podcast , please consider becoming one of our Patreon patrons . Memberships start as low as $3 per month , with benefits including opportunities to ask questions of our guests . Also , please consider liking , subscribing and sharing this podcast to help us bring the universe even closer than you think . The New Times .