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Ready for the eclipse today?
Last one in US was 38 years ago.
New post on WeatherPlus
Two years of eclipse science hinges on forecast, and it’s looking iffy
by Kimberly Miller
The skies over Carbondale, Ill., clouded up Sunday afternoon like a thick dessert whip above a town praying for blue overhead.
At 1:21 p.m. Monday, totality reaches this southern Illinois town - a viewing station for NASA, and host to the NASA EDGE live broadcast. It will go dark for two minutes, 40 seconds, which is the longest time for totality in the nation.
While scientists stressed Sunday that darkness will still descend, between 50,000 and 90,000 in people in Carbondale are expecting to see the moon slide in front of the sun, watch the diamond ring appear as the last of the rays are covered, and stare, sans glasses for a moment, at the ethereal corona during totality.
"This eclipse is very important for us Americans because it's been 38 years since the one in 79' and it has faded from the consciousness of people," said Mike Kentrianakis, a member of the American Astronomical Society, who is also in Carbondale. "This is grand, because it's available to almost anyone within driving distance of the line coast to coast."
Eclipse glasses are piled on a table at a "dark site" for telescopes at Southern Illinois University. (Thomas Cordy / Palm Beach Post)
The forecast for Carbondale is sketchy. A "decent" amount of rain is expected Mondaynight into Tuesday morning, according to forecasters at the Paducah, K.Y., office of the National Weather Service. But there's daytime heating, that could also trigger storms earlier in the day.
Heat index temperatures are forecast to top 100 degrees.
Less than 24 hours until #Eclipse2017 ! Here is the latest @NWS forecast for cloud cover! pic.twitter.com/ZZPeP8c1ZC
— NWS WPC (@NWSWPC) August 20, 2017
For Chris Mandrell, the eclipse is not just a cosmic fancy to behold, he's been working on a project with NASA for two years that lined up 68 telescopes from Oregon to South Carolina to get a continuous 90-minute stream of images from the inner corona.
"This is like a meteorologist being able to see inside a tornado," said Mandrell, a graduate assistant in Southern Illinois University's physics department. "We can't see the inner corona with anything we have today until a total eclipse."
Chris Mandrell, a graduate assistant in Southern Illinois University's physics department is participating in Citizen CATE, a NASA experiment to learn more about the sun's corona. He's camping at a "dark site" away from campus with his telescope.
The project, called Continental America Telescopic Eclipse, or "Citizen CATE", is using volunteer scientists from across the U.S. to help with the imagery. It is important to learn more about the corona because of its magnetic field and how that can affect communications systems, said Bob Baer, a physics professor at SIU and co-chairman of the school's eclipse steering committee.
"We live in an amazing time but we still don't know how the sun operates," said Lou Mayo, a planetary scientist and astronomy professor at Marymount University, who is in Carbondale for the eclipse.
Mandrell's experiment is set away from town in a "dark site" between a cornfield and rows of soybeans.
The university poured concrete slabs for telescopes and Mandrell is camping at the site to keep an eye on the equipment.
On Sunday, with clouds materializing overhead, he said he stopped watching the forecast two days ago.
"I'll be performing a no-rain dance later," he said. "The eclipse is going to make people stoop and think, 'That's a star out there, and that's pretty neat.'"
If you haven’t yet, join Kim on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
http://weatherplus.blog.palmbeachpo...ence-hinges-on-forecast-and-its-looking-iffy/
Kimberly Miller | August 20, 2017 at 6:35 pm | Tags: 2017 eclipse, 2017 total solar eclipse, carbondale, mobile rotator, NASA, news, newsfeed, NOAA, pbpmobile, solar eclipse, southern Illinois University | Categories: weather | URL: http://wp.me/p4xwQo-8mw
Last one in US was 38 years ago.
New post on WeatherPlus
Two years of eclipse science hinges on forecast, and it’s looking iffy
by Kimberly Miller
The skies over Carbondale, Ill., clouded up Sunday afternoon like a thick dessert whip above a town praying for blue overhead.
At 1:21 p.m. Monday, totality reaches this southern Illinois town - a viewing station for NASA, and host to the NASA EDGE live broadcast. It will go dark for two minutes, 40 seconds, which is the longest time for totality in the nation.
While scientists stressed Sunday that darkness will still descend, between 50,000 and 90,000 in people in Carbondale are expecting to see the moon slide in front of the sun, watch the diamond ring appear as the last of the rays are covered, and stare, sans glasses for a moment, at the ethereal corona during totality.
"This eclipse is very important for us Americans because it's been 38 years since the one in 79' and it has faded from the consciousness of people," said Mike Kentrianakis, a member of the American Astronomical Society, who is also in Carbondale. "This is grand, because it's available to almost anyone within driving distance of the line coast to coast."
Eclipse glasses are piled on a table at a "dark site" for telescopes at Southern Illinois University. (Thomas Cordy / Palm Beach Post)
The forecast for Carbondale is sketchy. A "decent" amount of rain is expected Mondaynight into Tuesday morning, according to forecasters at the Paducah, K.Y., office of the National Weather Service. But there's daytime heating, that could also trigger storms earlier in the day.
Heat index temperatures are forecast to top 100 degrees.
Less than 24 hours until #Eclipse2017 ! Here is the latest @NWS forecast for cloud cover! pic.twitter.com/ZZPeP8c1ZC
— NWS WPC (@NWSWPC) August 20, 2017
For Chris Mandrell, the eclipse is not just a cosmic fancy to behold, he's been working on a project with NASA for two years that lined up 68 telescopes from Oregon to South Carolina to get a continuous 90-minute stream of images from the inner corona.
"This is like a meteorologist being able to see inside a tornado," said Mandrell, a graduate assistant in Southern Illinois University's physics department. "We can't see the inner corona with anything we have today until a total eclipse."
Chris Mandrell, a graduate assistant in Southern Illinois University's physics department is participating in Citizen CATE, a NASA experiment to learn more about the sun's corona. He's camping at a "dark site" away from campus with his telescope.
The project, called Continental America Telescopic Eclipse, or "Citizen CATE", is using volunteer scientists from across the U.S. to help with the imagery. It is important to learn more about the corona because of its magnetic field and how that can affect communications systems, said Bob Baer, a physics professor at SIU and co-chairman of the school's eclipse steering committee.
"We live in an amazing time but we still don't know how the sun operates," said Lou Mayo, a planetary scientist and astronomy professor at Marymount University, who is in Carbondale for the eclipse.
Mandrell's experiment is set away from town in a "dark site" between a cornfield and rows of soybeans.
The university poured concrete slabs for telescopes and Mandrell is camping at the site to keep an eye on the equipment.
On Sunday, with clouds materializing overhead, he said he stopped watching the forecast two days ago.
"I'll be performing a no-rain dance later," he said. "The eclipse is going to make people stoop and think, 'That's a star out there, and that's pretty neat.'"
If you haven’t yet, join Kim on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
http://weatherplus.blog.palmbeachpo...ence-hinges-on-forecast-and-its-looking-iffy/
Kimberly Miller | August 20, 2017 at 6:35 pm | Tags: 2017 eclipse, 2017 total solar eclipse, carbondale, mobile rotator, NASA, news, newsfeed, NOAA, pbpmobile, solar eclipse, southern Illinois University | Categories: weather | URL: http://wp.me/p4xwQo-8mw
