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Art: Zeke Barbaro/Getty Images
When AISD Trustee Lynne Boswell told a friend why she traveled to see multiple total solar eclipses, she explained, “You see a hole in the sky and fire comes out of it.” did.
“It’s grand and wonderful,” she says. “You just stand there in awe of the darkness. As everyone watches together in silence, the birds and insects change their behavior. The temperature drops. The stars come out. If you’re standing high up and looking down, you might see a shadow moving across the ground towards you.
“It’s different. And it’s gone.”
A total solar eclipse occurs somewhere on Earth approximately every 18 months. However, total solar eclipses occur much less frequently in any given location, approximately every 375 years, although it has been more than 600 years since a total solar eclipse was seen in the Austin area. That’s why the opportunity for Austinites to watch Monday’s solar eclipse from their backyards is so rare and valuable.
A total solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the Earth and the sun, blocking the sun and casting a shadow over a narrow stretch of land called a total path. The moon’s orbit around the Earth, and the Earth’s orbit around the sun, are elliptical. But they are not on the same plane. The moon’s orbit is tilted 5 degrees with respect to the Earth’s orbital plane. A solar eclipse only occurs when the moon’s orbit intersects the Earth’s orbital plane. This is why there is no total solar eclipse at the new moon every month.
If the Sun, Moon, and Earth align when the Moon is closest to Earth (and thus appears largest) in its orbit, people who enter the Moon’s shadow will experience a total solar eclipse. If these align when the moon is far from Earth, observers on Earth will see an annular solar eclipse because the moon won’t appear large enough to completely cover the sun. This type of solar eclipse, in which a bright ring of the sun is visible around the moon, is what Austin experienced last October.
A total solar eclipse is only possible because we are living at the right moment in the history of the universe. Solar eclipses occur because the sun is 400 times larger and 400 times farther away than the moon. This means that the two appear to be the same angular size in the sky. When the moon first formed, it was much closer to Earth and would have appeared larger if humans had lived to see it. However, the moon’s orbit has gradually increased, moving away from Earth by about 1.5 inches each year. Millions of years from now, total solar eclipses will no longer occur.
Multiple ancient cultures left behind evidence that they were aware of solar eclipses, even if they didn’t know what they were actually seeing. Anaxagoras, a Greek philosopher born in 500 BC, is credited with being the first to explain solar eclipses as the result of the moon blocking the sun’s light. Two thousand years before Copernicus popularized the heliocentric theory of the universe, Anaxagoras was unaware of the orbital patterns that cause solar eclipses. But as astronomer and artist Tyler Nordgren explains in his book, sun, moon, earthAnaxagoras was so understanding that he tried to calculate the moon’s size based on the shadow it cast during an annular solar eclipse in 478 BC.
Scientists still face unanswered questions during solar eclipses. Solar physicists do not fully understand the structure of the Sun’s corona or atmosphere, nor do they know why the corona is hundreds of times hotter than the Sun’s surface. Solar eclipses provide scientists with a rare opportunity to image the entire corona from Earth and advance knowledge.
The only time the corona is visible to the naked eye is during a total solar eclipse. hang on! Can you see the Sun with the naked eye during a solar eclipse? Yes, but only if you are in the path of a totality, and only for a few minutes during a totality, when the moon completely blocks the sun. A total solar eclipse begins as a partial solar eclipse in which the moon crosses the surface of the sun. In Austin, it starts Monday at 12:17 p.m. Looking at the sun during a partial solar eclipse is just as dangerous as on a normal day. Even a fleeting glance can cause permanent retinal damage. But when the sun is covered by the moon, this happens in downtown Austin at 1:36:09 p.m. Viewers can remove their eclipse glasses. For one minute and 46 seconds of totality (also in downtown Austin), everyone will look up at the moon surrounded by a “firing hole in the sky,” or corona.
You can still experience a solar eclipse even if you haven’t purchased ISO 12312-2 eclipse glasses. It can be observed indirectly by creating a pinhole camera that projects an image of the sun onto its surface. Cut a small hole in the paper and hold it over another piece of paper or poster board with your back to the sun. You can see that the sun is shrinking on the second sheet of paper. (You can use anything with small holes, such as a colander or a slotted spoon.) Set your watch or listen to the people around you who are wearing glasses to find out when everyone has started bleeding. please. After that, you can look up and enjoy the darkness until just before totality ends. Set a timer to look away before the sunlight appears from behind the moon. Be especially careful when observing from near the edge of a total road. If you are south of the river and east of Interstate 35, please double check the map (https://eclipse2024.org/eclipse_cities/statemap.html).
Eclipse chasers like Boswell describe the experience as eerie but spectacular. “The two core emotions everyone describes are awe and primal fear,” writes Australian eclipse tracker Kate Russo, who is helping the town prepare for the eclipse. When seen in a group, the awe tends to be even greater, as one person’s cries of joy evoke the others. A video embedded on Mr. Russo’s site (https://beingintheshadow.com/what-is-it-like) and his NPR video of the 2017 solar eclipse. , “One Nation Under the Sun,” capture the moment.
“It’s such a beautiful shared experience,” Boswell says. “That wonder brings people together and brings people together. The idea that it’s coming to our city and we can have that amazing experience together is so exciting.”
The Austin Public Library will be giving away free solar eclipse glasses starting Thursday, April 4 while supplies last. Maximum of 2 items per person. Once the glasses run out, the quantity will not be refilled. However, a limited number of glasses will also be distributed at nine Total Eclipse watch parties around Austin on Monday, April 8th. The locations and times are as follows:
Central Library: Noon – 2pm
Cepeda branch: Noon – 2pm
Menchaca branch: 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
North Village Branch: 11am to 2pm
Old Quarry Branch: Noon – 2pm
Pleasant Hill Branch: 12:30-2:30pm
Twin Oaks Branch: Noon – 2pm
Willie Mae Kirk Branch: Noon – 2pm
Windsor Park Branch: Noon – 2pm
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