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BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) – Texas A&M Atmospheric Science and the Brazos Valley Museum of Natural History are partnering with NASA to participate in a science relay race called Citizen CATE 2024.
Citizen CATE 2024 is an abbreviation for CitizenContinental-American Telescope Eclipse of 2024. This is a project conducted by the Southwestern Research Institute in collaboration with NASA. Volunteers from across the United States will participate in a 2,100-mile observation relay along the Total Path from Laredo, Texas, to Houlton, Maine. The Brazos Valley team will be just one of 35 sites collecting observations during the April 8 total solar eclipse.
Each of the 35 sites is strategically located along the total path, and its observations partially overlap with sites directly to the south and north. This ensures that data is not lost even if visibility at a site is obscured by clouds or equipment malfunctions. The Brazos Valley team will be established at Site 5, a 25-acre site just north of Killeen.
To make these observations, NASA donated specialized cameras and telescopes to each site. Potentially even more exciting is the fact that each site can store equipment for future community use. The telescope at Site 5 will be kept in a museum but will be available for use by local residents. Texas A&M Atmospheric Sciences already plans to use it at the university’s annual physics festival, and the Brazos Valley Museum of Natural History is aiming to launch a new space education exhibit.
Each of the 35 sites was instructed to record a four-minute observation during the peak of the eclipse, with the end goal being to stitch them together to create one seamless video of the total solar eclipse passing over the United States. It is to be. This will allow astronomers to study coronal imaging during a solar eclipse like never before. Therefore, despite the forecast for cloud cover, sites are being instructed to continue recording no matter what, as even a little bit of cloud cover will provide critical information for the project.
Rain or shine, the Brazos Valley Museum and A&M meteorology team set up Monday afternoon to prepare for this once-in-a-lifetime event, with members of the Pinpoint Weather team also on hand to provide direct coverage from the trail. will deliver. completely!
Have fun observing the solar eclipse!
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