.

In twenty seventeen a total solar eclipse was witnessed by about 20 million people from Oregon to South Carolina and because of what they saw the beauty of the sun's corona hanging in a suddenly darkened sky many millions more now know that a total solar eclipse is something truly worth seeing this year 99 percent of the country will be able to see a partial or total eclipse from where they live.

>> And if you live in northeast Indiana, you also live near some great guides to the galaxies as well as to this Monday's total solar eclipse as we welcome to members from the Fort Wayne Astronomical Society to this week's prime time.

Good evening, Bruce Haines with us is Gene Stringer.

He's a retired senior staff engineer from Magnavox, a member of the Fort Wayne Astronomical Society since 1966 held a number of offices with the organization he served as project engineer for the Starquest Project since its inception in 2006.

We'll talk more about that as we go.

And along with Gene is Laura Ainslee also a member of the society since 1987, also a multiple office holder.

>> She currently serves with her husband Neil and son Russell as co-director of the Starquest Observatory.

>> And as we welcome them, we welcome you to join us with your questions and comments.

The solar eclipse is coming.

Call the number on the screen and we're all about all things solar eclipse and also how to enjoy it safely.

And if you wish to do it frompin home, we can also tell you that PBS Fort Wayne will be joining NASA for live coverage of the solar eclipse Monday starting at one o'clock one o'clock to 5:00.

So the whole experience to the best of our consent to grasp what's happening in the skies above us.

NASA coverage of the solar eclipse on PBS Fort Wayne this Monday starting at 1:00.

Meanwhile, Laura and Gene, welcome both to you.

>> Thank you.

Thank you.

You're it's a big party.

>> Yes, it is.

It's a big party being played.

I'm going to be in Bluffton.

I've started calling it Woodstock on the Wabash.

>> There you go.

Soon to be yet another T-shirt as in Gene has his his T-shirt there also.

Yeah, the gift the exit through the gift shop you can find that as you go along.

But one of the things that's also worth circling on your notes as we move through the time is that Fort Wayne's at the Fort Wayne Astronomical Society has has been with us from for more than 70 years according to to some who've been keeping track.

>> Tell us a little bit about the society and how it all came to be.

>> What do you do?

Well, the Astronomical Society is a not for profit organization.

It was founded and incorporated in nineteen fifty nine with about 60 founding members.

Our mission is to promote in every way among its members and the public an interest in and knowledge of astronomy and its allied sciences and the members who are encouraged to own their own telescopes or other astronomical astronomical equipment and to be involved in public works about astronomy and to render assistance to individuals and organizations working in the same or similar fields.

>> Our current membership fluctuates between 50 and 150 members.

>> Yeah, we've always been an all volunteer organization.

We keep our budgets small so we can offer our services to our visitors and we don't need to charge which is helpful honestly.

Our board members are volunteers.

We meet monthly and also our officers are volunteers as observatory directors I'm a volunteer and I love it.

No paid staff.

We hold public education programs monthly usually at Purdue Fort Wayne and well what about the observatory what we've mentioned Starquest in the open and Gene it sounds like a wonderful thing that people should do a mini pilgrimage to see Starquest all by itself.

>> Tell me about it.

Well, in September of 2006 we began that project I the purpose was to survey what we've been doing for the past 50 years and see if we could upgrade our facilities, equipment and our approach to the public for the next 50 years or so under that project we moved from Fox Island Park which was out west of town to our present location at Jefferson Township Park.

That's East of New Haven out the Dawkins Road.

It's in began operation by the way in May of 2017.

>> Yeah, at the Starquest Observatory we offer free stargazing to the public every clear Saturday night starting one hour after sunset for two hours.

>> Our first night will be it has to be clear let me let me state we start the first weekend of April and run through the last weekend of November and will be open this this particular Saturday tomorrow night even if it's cloudy for this event will be open because people people may have questions you can come and ask us and in person and besides that we offer stargaze programs and other presentations at other people's sites.

You just make appointments set up a set up a time when we can come and we will be sharing additional contact information.

We'll put the graphic up again about how you can find Starquest and you're right about folks having questions because not only about we already have Lopper we already have one that let's go to the telephones and welcome Nathan to the broadcast.

>> Nathan, go ahead with your question sir.

Yeah I've heard a lot about the the danger to your eyes from looking at the eclipse but I also remember that President Trump looked at the eclipse the last time around so I'm just wondering what exactly I mean I'm not sure who to believe to be honest with you.

>> OK, go ahead.

Go ahead.

It's a good time.

You've got some examples here.

You may as well you can look directly at the sun in mid eclipse because the sun is is covered completely by the moon.

If you have totality, if you have totality otherwise you dare not look directly at the sun your eye it's like a burning glass and it will burn your retina.

Now your eye has remarkable capability to repair itself with scratches and things like that on the surface but the retina will not rejuvenate.

You will be blind in that spot for the rest of your life .

>> Yeah, we were saying ourselves that this is not just an eclipse thing, right?

>> That's correct.

Yeah.

I mean you don't look at the sun any time you don't want to look at the sun any time.

>> There's nothing special about the eclipse part.

>> It's just it's just that during an eclipse people want to look at the sun.

People normally don't want to look at the sun because it's bright and it hurts and go right.

>> And now for the longest time there have been Anchee, maybe you want to model one of these or at least hold one up to the camera so the folks can see them and maybe you now have a few of these but believe it or not, something as straightforward as the film and it's all about a special film, right?

>> Correct it is.

And it has to be there are some bogus ones out there so you have to be careful from whom you buy and make sure that you're checking to see who made it.

And there are certified glasses also if you use it in twenty seventeen you want to use it again fine but check it for pinholes and scratches and set it aside if you see any you might want to tell them how to check it.

>> Yeah hold it up and look to see if you see any light bright spots coming through.

The other concern I think that maybe nothing you hear is you don't have to wear protective eyewear during totality who who makes that call?

>> So it seems like caution may still be the better part of wisdom here.

>> Well, there is a bag of worms open there because everyone knows when to take the glasses off gone dark.

You just don't know when sun's coming back right.

You don't know the time unless you know where you are and there are apps that can in in for yourself that that can help with the timing depending on where you are.

>> So as we go through the rest of the program, Nathan, stay with us because there are some other options for watching the eclipse in a safe manner.

But again, the big takeaway looking directly at the sun never a great idea and as we move through it, of course wanting to be able to experience this in a personal way, Indiana and Ohio are going to be two of the many states that will be hosting this eclipse as it moves through.

>> So will Fort Wayne see totality?

Unfortunately no.

Fort Wayne is one of the there are a number of there are a number of cities in the United States that just are just on the edge of totality.

But this aren't quite there and in twenty seventeen Evansville was in the same boat they had ninety nine percent what they called ninety nine percent totality and well yeah unfortunately there's no such thing as ninety nine percent totality it's either totality or it's not one hundred percent has to be totality anyway in fact we're seeing here this came from the Department of Homeland Security just out in the last day or so you can literally see the road map across and then so life on either side of that is you move out is going to be partial, correct?

>> Yes, correct.

Yeah.

The gray is partial and when we also then look to for for Fort Wayne and outby Starquest what is the predicted amount of dark that we're looking at?

It's really going to be a gun, right?

>> It has been revised right now we're thinking it's between thirty five seconds and thirty five and forty five forty five seconds and forty five in here is that that updated graphic that shows in effect the whole process of the eclipse though this is a good graphic to stay with if anything else to suggest how much overall time this eclipse will take.

>> Yes if you're going to do photography you've got to get to the center but there are many people who will not or don't care to or for other reasons can't they can't travel .

That's where the Starquest Observatory comes in.

We are you can see totality but you can't there's no time for you to set up and take photographs.

>> But guess what?

Are there going to be photographs on the Internet afterwards?

>> You better believe it and I NASA's taking a few of them while they get the chance and a bunch of others are going along and it'll be some great amateur shots.

>> Yes, very much so.

Nick has an offline question for you both even with a total eclipse, can you take your glasses off when it is fully hidden and the answer to that is you have to take your glasses off when it's total eclipse if you want to see the sun there is a misnomer traveling through the literature warning about is a statement saying put your glasses on and you can see the total from beginning to end eclipse that is the Forestier.

It's a false statement you have to take them off to see but then you to put them on before you're in total the end and in fact let's get to this particular section starting with the telescopes.

But it all follows under the question of what are some ways we can watch this eclipse safely.

And we talked a little bit about the glasses and checking for pinholes and scratches.

Laura, there's a telescope in the room.

Tell me about there is it's going to pop up on the screen here any second now.

There it is.

This is actually Gene SCOP.

I should probably let him talk about it please.

point a telescope at the sun unless it's an ordinary telescope, an ordinary telescope unless it has something that covers the full aperture of your telescope up front not at the eyepiece up front but there are telescopes that are specifically made to look at the sun and they have a special filter in a hydrogen alpha filter that lets you see things that you can't see with a white light, a regular telescop with a hydrogen alpha .

You can see the enormous and convoluted convoluted surface of the sun prominences Flavius and in the excitement going on around sunspots yes, terrific.

But it has to be if you when you see on the images of the eclipse that shows how prominences coming off the side of the limb of the sun that can only be done with a hydrogen alpha filter.

>> Laura, there's another old school approach apparently called eyepiece projection.

>> Yes, yes.

IPS projection and yeah, it's very old school.

>> Unfortunately this was big and this was big in the sixties before the filters that go over the front of the telescope are widely available and basically you shoot you shoot the sun through the scope and hope nothing catches fire.

>> So that's probably why it's been retired it's yeah mostly but oh yes we have several others that I would like to be sure we at least touch on them as far as time is moving right forward.

Right pinhole types there are several ways to look at this quite a few of those up on the screens.

>> Yeah.

Now the classic that a lot of us older people have seen when we were in school.

Oh OK.

Yes.

We'll start with this in the shade of in the shade of shade trees oftentimes during an eclipse you can see shapes the shapes of the sun being projected BIPIN gaps between the leaves unfortunately this is April in Indiana.

We're not going to see that unfortunately unless you unless you've got a plastic tree in your front yard or something, I don't think that's going to happen now we can also I call this the waffle fry basically-yd your spread them out and cross them across each other and as you can see the spots of light coming through our crescent shaped but in this case even the images of the fingers are becoming crescent shaped.

It's it's interesting.

OK, then we have shoebox cameras.

That's the thing I was driving in the first place basically you cut two holes, you put PIN four tin foil over one and put a pin hole in it and then an image forms on the back of the box with a we have been talking about totality and again with the naked eye and extreme caution exercised somebody should be chaperoning a crowd saying OK, especially with kids which are yes as a engaging is that that that photograph in this particular image can be but then we get to the image itself describing the Corona and what it is that people see and what everyone is waiting for .

>> Jean, tell us what it is about this that just fascinates astronomers and non astronomers alike.

West we're seeing the image right there on the screen.

>> You said you think yeah, yes.

This is a shot that I took down at Clemson University in twenty seventeen and it is the classic shot of an eclipse and this Corona that you see about the sun and moon together is about a million times fainter and then the photosphere the sun itself.

So that's why you are able to see it just like it's nighttime this it looks spectacular but it can't compare with seeing it live.

>> Well that's yeah.

>> And you've seen your fair share as well.

Yeah, I've seen one total eclipse and I sure hope to see a second and when this happens I'm seeing references to things called solar maximum.

The magnetic field is like a tangled hairball streamers energy will be visible in the corona if we're so fortunate because of the way life plays out this year it poses a lot of excitement.

>> There's a there's an interesting image on today' astronomy astronomy picture of the day where they show they compare the Corona from twenty seventeen with the Corona from last year and they're totally different.

>> It's neat in the moments we have.

I do want to share a couple of these slides under the notion of being prepared and we've been hearing a lot about this as well.

So let's let's go to the next one if we could so that we can talk about tip three.

>> There we go.

Make a list and check it twice, correct?

Yeah.

Make a list and check it twice .

Pack your vehicle as much as you can the night before.

Allow extra time to get where you're going because everybody talks about the traffic jams leaving totality but there's traffic jams getting there in the first place and yeah.

And also plan to get there early as early as you can and if you're traveling to or from large gatherings like down to Indianapolis to the Yeah yeah.

To they can handle a lot of things here at the speedway but you got different things to worry about filling your gas tank because gas stations along the interstates are likely to be pumped dry, take food and water, take cash because they may not be able to process your credit card if the Internet goes down and then plan and alternate egress route that avoids interstates for at least twenty five miles if you can.

>> Yeah, these are only the highlights.

>> There's there are plenty more things on the Department of Homeland Security, the Indiana website and you mentioned too we should touch on this briefly that even if the skies are a little bit cloudy during the day, don't give up right.

>> Don't give up.

That's Gene that's Gene's story.

Yeah.

The story is I was down in South Georgia in nineteen seventy two with my spouse and we were out really trying to help raise the clouds running through back roads in Georgia.

We came to this hamlet that high school yard was filled with telescopes and some very disappointed people looking at the sky because it was overcast but we couldn't not race so we said to join and we did.

But looking to the southwest in a clear sky you can't see that shadow coming but we could see it through the clouds traveling Mach three and it's over top of you.

It gets dark as night streetlights come on roosters crow dogs bark and the temperature drops.

>> It was awesome.

And then the light came back on .

It's an event that I carried for decades afterwards until I see an eclipse in the clear.

So even under clouds it's an awesome aspect.

So if you're going to if you can't travel and if you do your job keeps you here in Fort Wayne come out to the Starquest Observatory.

We'll see an awesome event whether it's cloudy or clear.

>> Yeah, don't write it off.

Yeah, we'll have various ways around that.

You can look at the eclipse for yourself and we'll have Internet hopefully we'll have Internet connectivity so we can have displays some other sites as well.

So you can see more totality than the thirty five or forty five seconds that we'll have there and don't plan for photography but if it's clear I hope I sure hope it's clear because the edge effects should be spectacular.

Do we have a moment more.

>> We have just about half a moment more go ahead.

The story's too long in many ways the cosmos we are part of the sky.

The cosmos is reaching down with the finger to touch you personally you are part of it.

Don't miss it.

>> And that's how it feels to yeah this is honestly it is certainly is a once in the rest of my lifetime moment and are you really it's a once in multiple lifetimes moment on average it's about three hundred and thirty years between eclipses we're fortunate that the next one is only going to be seventy five twenty it's twenty ninety nine is the next one in this area I think many of us may be otherwise occupied so you'll see where we're going.

Let's put the information up again the road map to show you how to get to the Starquest location that's star gazing at Jefferson Township Park.

There is the contact information for the website and the phone number.

But Allen, if you can find it there it is.

Thank you, sir.

The public observing every clear Saturday night.

Try this weekend for example.

It's April.

You're allowed and on behalf of everybody I hope you have a happy total solar eclipse.

>> Never found the greeting cards that we want to thank Laura Ainslee.

We want to thank Gene Stringer .

We want to thank you.

Be careful out there.

Have a lot of fun.

Remember Fort Wayne's live coverage with NASA for the total solar eclipse Monday afternoon one o'clock right here on PBS Fort Wayne, I'm Bruce Haines.

Take care.

We'll talk to you soon.

Goodbye