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February 20, 2024 65 mins

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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. 

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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

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari (00:00):
The temperature also.
You know that temperaturechange that you experience, the
animals start making the noiseslike it's nighttime birds are
chirping, insects are makingnoises.
It definitely does feel likeit's about nighttime, but it's
only for a few minutes.
Welcome to the Cosmos Safaripodcast presented by Celestron.

(00:25):
In this episode, I co-host thelast minute of Astronomer and I
discussed the upcoming totalsolar eclipse on April 8th 2024
and our personal experiences andlessons learned during the 2017
total solar eclipse.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astr (00:39):
I'm Dave and I'm Rob, the last
minute astronomer and we'regoing to talk about the 2024
eclipse.
Finally, dave, finally we'regetting together and actually
talking about this.
I am very, very excited aboutthis one.
I did the one back in 2017 andI highly recommend five stars.

(01:00):
You know, do it again, and sothat's what we're doing.
How about you?

Dave Farina - Cosmos (01:04):
Definitely , man.
I had a blast in 2017.
I've been trying to encourageeverybody I know to make sure
that they get a chance to go outand see the 2024 eclipse,
whether that be actually goingto travel and seeing it in you
know, totality, or even if youknow, if you have to stay home
and you're not going to be ableto be in totality, to just have

(01:25):
the right equipment so that youcan safely view the partial.
No matter what, it's a greatexperience and I'm excited
because this time I'm going tobe able to bring my family with
me.
Last time it was just me, butthis time it's going to be extra
special, with my family alongfor the ride I want to talk a
little bit about the 2017eclipse that we both went to.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astr (01:46):
but before we do that, we've got a
little trivia for you, a littlepre-launch check out for you,
all right let's do it so we'vegot three questions right here.
I'm going to see if you can getthem correct.
As far as eclipses go, it'sbeen estimated that only about
one in every blank people willsee a total solar eclipse in
their lifetime.

(02:06):
What do you think that numberis?
One in every how many?
One in a hundred?
One percent Now now gotta gohigher.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari (02:17):
One in a thousand.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astr (02:19):
One in 10,000 people will see a
total solar eclipse and thathonestly makes sense because
it's so few people, because youhave to be in the area, you have
to travel to that place andit's such a small thing.
So I actually thought that wasa little small, but I don't know

(02:40):
, that's me All right.
Next one the 2024 eclipse has amaximum duration of totality of
what?
What is the maximum duration oftotality?

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari (02:54):
I know where I'm going to be.
It's over three minutes and 30seconds and I believe I remember
seeing in Mexico it was goingto 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 fourminutes and 15 seconds.

Rob Webb - Last Minute A (03:15):
That's pretty close, I'll give it to
you.
You were 13 seconds off.
It's four minutes and 28seconds.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari (03:21):
Oh, it is almost half, okay,
halfway to five.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Ast (03:24):
Yeah , and I believe that's either in
.
Yeah, that's in Mexico, that'swhere that's happening.
All right, last one here it's atwo parter.
The path of the 2024 eclipsethat's coming up.
How long is the whole path inmiles from beginning to end?
And then, how long do you thinkthe just the United States part

(03:45):
from Texas to Maine?
How long?
How long is that going to be?

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari (03:50):
Are we including ocean in addition
to land?

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astr (03:54):
Yes , so the entire path and then
just the United States.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari (03:59):
I'm going to go with for the entire
path, 5,000 miles.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astro (04:07):
No 9,200 miles.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari (04:11):
Wow , much longer than I thought.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astr (04:13):
Yes .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari (04:13):
Yes , so is that quite a bit over
the ocean then, on eitherdirection, I'd imagine.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Ast (04:18):
Yeah , I think more, definitely more
on the Pacific side, because themaximum totality is in Mexico.
So, and there's a little bit ofa pass now that you say that
because that's center, that'slike central, right On the
eclipse path.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari (04:33):
The maximum would be in the center.
That makes a lot of sense.
Okay, and then how much overthe United States?
Well, that helps me a lot justto think of it that way.
So I'm going to go with 2,500miles 2,142.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Ast (04:55):
Good job, yeah.
So I mean that's going fromTexas up to Maine.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari (04:59):
I'm trying to think like
orientation wise.
It's kind of tilted from Texasthrough Pennsylvania, where we
live, and then up through by theGreat Lakes and then it's out
into Canada.
So you know, I knowapproximately how far it is to
get to Florida and I kind oftilted on the you know the angle
then to kind of think throughthat.
So, yeah, hard questions, butthank you for that.

(05:22):
That's helpful.
When we come back from thisshort break, myself and Rob
reflect on the do's and don'tsthat we learned through our
experience with the 2017 totalsolar eclipse.

Lance Lucero - Celestro (05:31):
There's no better way to see the
eclipse than with CelestronEclipse Mart.
Choose from observing kitsfeaturing solar shades, eclipse
glasses, two times magnification, solar viewers, a photo filter
and more.
Every item includes solar safefilter technology, independently
lab tested to ensure itconforms to ISO 12312-2 safety

(05:51):
standards.
Observe smart.
Observe Eclipse smart.
Learn more at Celestroncomslash Eclipse watch.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safar (06:00):
Stay tuned to learn more about how
to enter to win a four-piecesolar eclipse glasses observing
kit and solar binoculars for ourEclipse smart giveaway.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Ast (06:09):
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 outof it because it was the last.
Like the last week beforeschool we visited some friends
down in Georgia or cousins downin Georgia saw my friend as well

(06:32):
.
He was in the area.
So we we got to hang out withpeople, made sort of a whole
week of it.
We flew down because we had thewhole week to do it and driving
down to South Carolina just isnot appealing to me, but it was.
It was great time.

(06:54):
There was a lot of Eclipse stuffgoing on in South Carolina.
Like we went down to the cityand there was there were some
markets and then you sawdifferent people with Eclipse
stuff that they were making Ibought.
I don't have it with me.
I have like a decal for one ofmy Yeti mugs that is like
totally Eclipse and it's got thedate and stuff.

(07:14):
You know there are peopleselling.
I got a bow tie and Eclipse bowtie down there in Columbia.
It was.
It was neat to just fly downthere and immerse yourself in an
area and then have a reallycool event at the same time.
Now you, you didn't fly right.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari (07:33):
No, I didn't.
I decided to drive and I drovefrom my home in Pennsylvania all
the way to land of the lakes,kentucky, which I, you know,
just looked for a campgroundthat had an opening, and that's
where I ended up and, kind ofsimilar to what you did, I was

(07:54):
able to visit a friend, or atleast that was the plan, and
we'll talk a little more aboutthat later.
But long story short, it was along drive.
I stayed at a campground, I wasin a tent and it was extremely
hot, like 96, 97 degrees, and somy, my sweltering experience

(08:17):
was somewhat different than yourexperience, I believe.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Ast (08:21):
Well , I didn't know.
You were in a tent, like Ithought you.
You didn't have a camper backthen did you.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari (08:29):
I had a camper.
I decided not to use it, whichis a terrible choice.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astro (08:33):
Oh , ouch, yeah, I'll tell you what
it was.
I, we got lucky because we hadan Airbnb and Danielle would
never camp anyway Maybe not, butmost mostly never, definitely
not 95 degree weather.
But so we we got the Airbnb andwe got one right on Lake Murray
down in Columbia.

(08:56):
So we found one and I justasked before I booked it.
I was like, is there a clearview up in the sky?
Can you send me some pictures?
And it worked out.
It was good.
But the best part was is that Ihad air conditioning.
It was phenomenal, it was.
It was great because I could goout in the morning.
It was already like 85 degreesin the morning, but I could go

(09:17):
out and just set all my stuff upand by I think it was like one
o'clock or something, was waswhen the partial started and by
that time I had everything setup and then I could go cool off
in the house.
I could go sit under some airconditioning, you know, have
some nice iced tea or whatever.
So that was nice.
I had all my camera stuff setup and the best part was in that

(09:41):
Airbnb there was a skylight andit was just perfectly aligned
that we could look and look upand just see the eclipse from
inside the house and monitor it.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari (09:53):
Not that we let let me just
interrupt here for a second andgive you a different taste of
what I did, which I had anumbrella, that I could sit under
and keep myself out of the sun,which was really nice.
I did get a chance to set up allmy telescopes, and I was
surrounded by hundreds of otherpeople in the campground who had

(10:17):
no idea what they were lookingat, and so I played the role of
explaining what it is they werelooking at for the vast majority
of my day, which I thought wasgreat.
I set up cameras as well, ofnot just the eclipse but also of
myself and others enjoying theexperience.

(10:38):
So I think we have somesimilarities and some very
different experiences on theside of our accommodations.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Ast (10:48):
Yeah , I was very pleased.
Now, you know me, I lovetalking to people.
I love talking astronomy topeople.
You know, you get under thestars and you just communicate,
you talk and it's just awesome.
But, man, it was nice to justbe there and be able to focus on
just me, my wife and my son.
Right, and that's somethingthat I think you told me that

(11:10):
you didn't bring your son along.
Well, you didn't have a son atthat point.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari (11:15):
I did not have a son at that point
, you did not have a son at thatpoint, but I didn't.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astro (11:18):
He was three years old and it is
that experience was just Creamof the crop.
I mean, he was three.
So he remembers it.
Oh yeah, absolutely heremembers it.
Yeah, now it helps that I havea video that I took with lots of
different stuff, but, like heremembers it, we had a little

(11:39):
workbook.
I would definitely adviseanybody with kids, you know, get
a workbook, like a coloringType of thing, about eclipses
and then they learn the wordsand they understand what's going
on a little bit more.
Not totally.
I mean, in the middle of theeclipse, sikorso just was like
was was that the day Right?

(12:00):
Like he thought the day ended.
Even though we told her rightwhat it was going to be, he
still felt like the the day hadended.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safar (12:07):
What ?
Why is that?

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astr (12:08):
for people who have never
experienced an eclipse likewhat's happening, that would
cause him to think that so thefact that the moon, just like,
covers up the entire Surface ofthe Sun, the entire thing.
So none of the sunlight that'scoming off the surface is
actually hitting us and it's nothitting the air, the atmosphere

(12:29):
which usually scatters it intoblue.
So it's it's basicallynighttime.
I could see Venus, I could seeJupiter.
I think, if I remembercorrectly, people might have
been able to see Mercury, butthat's kind of hard to see and
you don't want to waste yourtime looking for a planet when

(12:49):
you've got any clips right infront of you.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari (12:52):
I'd yeah, I remember really dark.
I Just think they remember whenyou know you're looking up at
totality but around you it lookslike a big 360-degree sunset.
It's absolutely beautiful.
The temperature Also.
You know that temperaturechange that you experience.

(13:14):
The animals start making thenoises like it's nighttime Birds
are chirping, insects aremaking noises.
It definitely does feel likeit'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'sdaytime again.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Ast (13:35):
Yeah , yeah, we, I notice I.
I actually had Temperaturesensors, some veneer temperature
sensors.
I could bring data back to myclassroom and I actually tracked
it and it was about a 10-degreedrop, wow, which, yeah, I could
definitely feel it.
You know, the Sun's notradiating down on you and it's
not radiating everywhere else,so you're gonna get a little

(13:57):
drop in temperature, so about 10degrees.
I heard the cicadas, maybe alittle bit louder than I thought
.
I had not sure, but the way Ithink about it is, when you get
into totality, like to me, itlooked like up in the sky.
There was a black hole rightlike like you see in

(14:17):
Interstellar not exactly likewhat you see in interstellar but
kind of no, but I was far away,a little blurry ish.
But yeah, you just have this.
It's just dark and it's superbright around the outside and
it's just a man it messes withyou a little bit Now.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari (14:33):
I know you used some Camera stuff.
You also had some other thingsthat you were doing.
You mentioned the temperaturesensors.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Ast (14:42):
Yeah , yes, and I have a video too
which will put in the show notesof of my experience there when
you're doing the solar filter.
You had that on a what, whatscopes did you have with you?

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari (14:56):
So I had a Schmidt cast of grain
native Schmidt cast of grainwith a solar filter on the front
.
That gave me is the visualTelescopic view.
I didn't actually take anypictures through the telescope I
had on top of the telescope Ipiggybacked my Canon T3i with a

(15:17):
solar filter on just atraditional zoom lens and All of
that was tracking with anequatorial mount so that, just
like you said with your trackingmount that it would follow the
Sun, so an equatorial mount forthose of you who are kind of new
to this is a mount that isGenerally used for telescopes

(15:38):
and astronomy, where the onepole of the telescopes axis Is
pointing towards the North Starand over the course of 24 hours
the axis will rotate one time in24 hours.
So effectively it's trackingthe Earth's rotation, which is

(15:59):
what you're observing whenyou're watching day and night.
So it's like a Allowing you tokeep it in the visual Range of
your, of your optics.
So if you're staring throughthat you with your eyes, or if
you're looking at it through acamera lens, it'll just keep it
right there on the sensor orright there in your eyepiece.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Ast (16:19):
Yeah .
So do you feel like the so youuse the telescope?
Do you feel like that wasoverpowered, or do you feel like
Like you didn't need that, orwere you thankful that you had
it?

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari (16:32):
I knew, going into it, what I
needed in terms of the correcteyepiece To use to get the full
view of the Sun, and I use thatmostly for the partial eclipse.
So I never actually used thetelescope to look at the Sun

(16:53):
during totality because I firstdidn't want to bother taking the
solar filter off the front andit's not really the right tool.
During totality you can justuse your eyes and you get a much
better experience without youknow the need for a
magnification.
So I Did take pictures with thecamera during that time.

(17:15):
So I do have some really niceimages of totality that I got.
But I did focus, I'd say, abouthalf of my time to try to soak
it in and Experience it with myown eyes, and then about half of
the time I spent was to takepictures that I then later was

(17:35):
able to process and look back onyeah, I think that's a way to
do that.
Right.
I got the full lead up all theway to from all the partial
phases.
I've got totality and then I'vegot the end Partial phases as
well.
So I never actually wenttogether and put it into any
kind of simple image, but I dohave the images leading up to

(17:58):
and then after the totality.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Ast (18:00):
Yeah , it's, it's.
I'll tell you what.
When I was watching it, I didmake sure in fact, I think you
warned me beforehand, you knowdon't be fumbling with your
camera, don't be fumbling withyour camera.

Lance Lucero - Celestron (18:16):
That's the last thing that you want to
do and you were absolutelyright.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astr (18:21):
One of the things I wanted to do is
make sure that I was notspending too much time fumbling
with equipment.
So I got the Program that wouldconnect to my computer and then
connect to my camera, whichwould then take only during
totality.
It would only take the pictures, or it would take all the

(18:42):
pictures I wanted of totalityand then it would shut off.
Right, it would change alldifferent settings.
You could pre-program at all.
But the nice thing was is thatall 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 toenjoy it.
I was able to point at things,I was able to Show my son what

(19:04):
was going on, talk with him.
I was able to completely forgetto use the binoculars that I
brought.
Yeah, like it was, I hadbrought binoculars specifically
because I was like I want to golook up and that's something I
don't want to do this timearound.
I don't want to forget to usethe binoculars because I do want
to use a pair of binoculars,just real quick and Take a look

(19:27):
at it.
But yeah, it's sometimes youjust you forget those things.
I'm gonna have a checklist ofeverything that I'm gonna want
to do Did you do anything with.
You know the partial phases atall, so if you look at the video
, you'll see that I did put theminto a continuous video.
I didn't know how to keyframeat the time, so it's a jiggly.

(19:48):
I have a little bit of learningto do.
But yeah, other than thatlittle video, I didn't really do
the partial pictures, all thatlike.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari (19:59):
How about the actual stuff, like
with just looking at the ground?
You know, for example, IWatched for.
You know some of the things youwould see, the little partial
phases when light passes through.
You know trees and things likethat.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astr (20:15):
Yes , yes, in fact, this is one of
my favorite things is I wrote myson's name and then tapped
little.
You probably can't even see iton here, but all I did was I put
little pinholes in the shape ofthe letters in his name.
So then what I did is, duringthe eclipse, I held this out
like this and the sun's behindme Okay, the sun's passing by my

(20:38):
head I had passed all thoselittle pinholes and I had a
white sheet of paper on thefloor, on the ground, that it
was projecting onto, and so theneach little pinhole Was a
little picture of the eclipse,the partial eclipse at that time
acting like a little pinholecamera.
Exactly, and that's one of thereally cool things about this is

(21:01):
you don't need much to justobserve it and check it out.
Right, those pinhole camerasare pretty good.
Now, I did not notice the what,what they say about when the
trees, the light comes throughthe trees and all the little
leaves, the holes in between theleaves, act Like pinhole
projectors.
Right Now, I never saw that atthat point, but I have seen that

(21:24):
work.
In fact, it was during theeffort of parade.
I was in with the scouts and wewere marching and there was a
light, an LED light, above oneof the trees and it showed on
the pavement.
Oh wow, actual shape of thelamp, wow.
And I was like oh, my gosh, thisis actually going to work.
So did you get to see any ofthose sorts of things.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari (21:49):
I didn't bring anything along, but
there were some other peoplearound me that had similar
things like colanders are agreat thing, to use, because
they're already got the littleholes in them.
You don't even have to makethem.
So you know.
People had colanders and thatkind of stuff.
I saw the shadow bands on theground, which was phenomenal.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Ast (22:10):
What is that?
I don't quite get the shadowbands bit.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Sa (22:13):
There's still some question as to
exactly how they're formed, butbasically it looks like little
snakes almost that are on theground at a very particular part
of the eclipse.
Now I was using an app for thisthrough Solar Eclipse Timer,
which we had a previous podcaston with Gordon Telethon, and his

(22:35):
app allows you to kind of justsit back and enjoy because it
describes everything that'shappening in words as you're
going, which I believe did youuse that as well.
Yes, yes, I did.
Yeah, so that was super helpfuland you know, that was one of
the things we looked at.
We looked at, like, the 360degree sunset during totality,

(22:59):
we looked for the differentplanets and stuff.
We listened and felt you knowthe temperature change, the
birds, the bugs, all that kindof stuff.
But no, I didn't really bring awhole lot with me.
I really was trying to packlight because, as you said, this
was the beginning of the schoolyear and I had to be back at
work as a teacher the next daybecause I actually had missed I

(23:26):
had to get a special permissionto miss that first day of school
when it was the teacher inservice day kickoff and it
required me to go very light.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Ast (23:37):
Tell us, how did that plan?

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safar (23:38):
work out for you Not very great, and
this is something that I'mdefinitely changing this time,
as we kind of start to talkabout some of the changes that
I'm going to be making in 2024.
So we'll kind of use this as atransition here.
My experience on the way homewas I hit some major, major

(24:00):
traffic.
I had planned on going to afriend's house for dinner.
His wife created this beautifulItalian meal for us.
Didn't show up to his housetill two o'clock in the morning
because I hit six accidents andI think it was eight hours of
driving, or something like that,till I got to his house.

(24:21):
He had to work the next day, sohe's like here's your meal,
warm it up.
There's your house, go, take ashower and I'll see you in the
morning that we're changing.
This time we're actually goingto spend the next day there and
be able to relax and enjoy theday of the eclipse as well as be

(24:44):
a little less rushed to gethome.
So if I have to suggest anychanges to anybody's plans, if
you can't stay, just kind ofconsider traffic is going to be
a little difficult.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Ast (24:57):
Yeah , you can just see it on Google
Maps.
There have literally beentraffic studies done on the
eclipse traffic.
I was looking stuff up, andthere were literal studies in
journals about the trafficcaused by an eclipse.
I mean, it's wild.
And what's funny, though, iswe're actually planning on

(25:19):
leaving on Tuesday, probablysuper early in the morning on
Tuesday, so not on Monday,because almost everybody's going
to be traveling on Monday, butwe'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 Astro (25:38):
So , number one, I'm driving, so
I'm actually going to be able totake my telescopes Right.
When I flew, I couldn't bringany telescopes, I could only
bring.
I brought a couple of cameras,I think.
I brought like three DSLRs andI brought a couple of GoPro's,
and that's where all of myfootage comes from, and this

(25:59):
time I can actually have atelescope.
Now, which telescope am I goingto bring?
Am I going to have something?
You know, there's all kinds ofdecisions ahead of me, right.
So I don't know exactly, but Ido know that I can bring some
telescopes with me.
Now, that's because I can drive.
What that also does is, if Ineed to kind of change where I'm

(26:22):
at, I can drive somewhere withthe stuff.
I don't want to do that.
That's like a last last ditcheffort, right, because sometimes
it kind of clears up rightbefore the eclipse.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Saf (26:35):
That's what I experienced last time,
yep, and I think you had thesame experience.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Ast (26:40):
Yeah , it was cloudy, cloudy, cloudy.
But then what?
Like 10 minutes before theeclipse?
Yep, it was partial clouds.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari (26:47):
Yep , I mean, I still got to see the
partial phases, but there wascloud cover right before the
totality and then all of asudden, it just opened up
perfectly clear.
As soon as the totality wasover, partial clouds came back
in and once again, as wediscussed with Gordon Tellup and
this is actually a knownphenomena that he describes in
that podcast so check it out.

(27:08):
So where are you going?
I know that we had some plansand then they got changed.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astro (27:14):
So do you have a plan?
Wait, wait, actually, before Iget into that, before I get into
that, I think we need to take alittle break when we come back
after this short break, wediscuss 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 iswhat am I going to be doing for
the 2024 total solar eclipse?
So I have a number of differentthings here I want to show you,
and some just tips and tricksthat I've found along the way
help quite a bit.
The first thing I have here isa dedicated solar telescope, the
EclipseSmart travel 50millimeter telescope that is

(27:53):
dedicated for astronomy of thesun, and with this type of a
telescope, the one thing I findthat's kind of helpful that is
not included is just a kind ofsheet.
This is actually a piece offelt, and the felt is a little,
you know, thick enough in orderto be able to drape it over your

(28:13):
head.
It does a number of things.
It provides you with someadditional contrast because
you're not having the sunlightfrom around you while you're
looking into the telescope,which is helpful.
The other thing it does is itkeeps you from accidentally
looking towards the sun, becauseof course, that's a bad

(28:33):
decision as it can damage youreyes permanently.
And over here I have theultimate 80.
The ultimate 80 is a spottingscope, so this could be used to
rest, really as well as withthis particular solar filter.
On the front, we have theEclipseSmart universal solar
filter, and what this allows usto do is to use it towards

(28:54):
looking at the sun.
The cool thing about this is,if I just take off this little
tape that I have on holding thisin place, I can now use it to
look at totality when it'sactually safe to look at the sun
without the solar filter, andthen immediately I can put this
back on and I can place my tapeback down.

(29:19):
I recommend using painter'stape because it doesn't leave
residue behind and it's meant tobe peeled off and won't damage
your equipment or leave anythingbehind that same universal
solar filter.
I also have it on my camera andlens as well, so that I can be
taking images.
I'll likely be mounting thisonto a tripod and that way, once

(29:42):
again, once the Eclipse hitstotality, I can peel off my
painter's tape and I can get theimage of totality, place it
right back on here once we getout of totality and continue
shooting images of the partialphases as well.
Another thing I'll be bringingalong is a colander, because
each of these little holes inhere is going to act as its own

(30:05):
pinhole projector, so during thepartial phases of the Eclipse,
you'll be able to see the littleshape of the sun and moon in
each of those little holesprojected onto the ground or a
piece of paper or something.
So that's a kind of cool thing.
There's a lot of time duringthose partial phases, so there
are a number of items you can belooking at while you're doing

(30:28):
the observations of the partialphases through the telescopes.
I have an awesome giveaway foryou guys.
One of you is going to be goinghome with a 12 by 50 pair of
the Eclipse Smart Porobinoculars.
These things are awesome.
They are meant to look directlyat the sun and they can do this
because they have a built-insolar filter in the actual

(30:51):
binoculars themselves.
It's the point of them, and Ireally like these.
They're super comfortable, andone of the things that you can
be doing with this that isawesome even beyond the Eclipse,
is the chance to look at theupcoming solar cycle.
As we're going into solarmaximum, the sun has more
sunspots than usual and, as aresult, having a pair of

(31:14):
binoculars like this allows youto zoom in just enough to be
able to see those sunspotseasily and that's really cool
because that's going to be anevent that's happening day after
day after the Eclipse.
It actually happens, but if youare interested in winning these
, celestron is going to begiving these a pair away.
To enter, visit Celestron onInstagram and click on the

(31:38):
Eclipse giveaway post for moredetails.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Ast (31:41):
I've got some trivia for you.
Excellent.
I got three pieces for you.
These are new ones.
Let's see what you know.
The greatest possible durationof 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 As (32:06):
Seven minutes and thirty seconds.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safar (32:08):
Okay .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Ast (32:09):
Yeah , the last one with over seven
minutes was in 1973.
Second one it's been calculatedthat on average, a total solar
eclipse is seen from the sameplace once every how many years?

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari (32:28):
18.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astr (32:30):
375 .

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari (32:33):
Oh, I'm thinking sorrow cycle, I'm
thinking 18 years for the sorrowcycle.
So you're saying from the exactsame place, from the exact same
place there's a repeatingpattern every 18 years, I
believe.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Ast (32:45):
Yeah , there's something like that.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safar (32:47):
Okay , misunderstood the question,
all right so last one.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astr (32:52):
Now this is good, you've got a one
in 12 chance.
Based on 5,000 years of eclipsedata, the most likely month for
a total solar eclipse is whichmonth?

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari (33:04):
Oh my goodness, which month Is it
statistically significant, firstoff, or is it minor?

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astron (33:15):
I just got these off of a website
today, so I did not do any morebackground research.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari (33:22):
I'm going to go with January simply
because it's cold in thenorthern hemisphere, and it
would be just you know how it ofcourse has to be that they're
going to make it one of theworst times of year to have to
go out and look at it.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Ast (33:36):
Okay , so you're going with the.
When I buy a telescope, it getscloudy idea.
Yeah, no, you were very wrongit is.
May is the most common monthand November is the least likely
Interesting.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safar (33:51):
Yeah , I don't know Tell you how many
like there were or anything.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astro (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 fromnational eclipsecom, so that's
where I got it from, and Ididn't dive any deeper this time
, so okay, all right, so you hadasked where I was going for the

(34:17):
eclipse, right?

Lance Lucero - Celestron P (34:18):
Yeah .

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astr (34:18):
Now my first.
My first inclination was Texas.
Right, like I actually sat in acoffee shop one day to actually
start planning way ahead oftime and I was looking at this
and looking at that and wayoverthinking everything and I
was like I got to go to Texasand I didn't say I'd go to
Mexico just because they don'tfeel like doing international

(34:40):
travel.
That's just a whole extra hurdleand I don't get that many days
off.
So I was like, okay, I'm goingto go deep in the heart of Texas
, I'm going to go as farsouthwest as I can.
And I had a couple ideas and infact I even started to buy
tickets, like I was.
I went to buy plane tickets andI was looking for the cheapest

(35:02):
thing.
I used Google flights orwhatever, and and I get it and
I'm like, oh yeah, boom.
And I buy the tickets and itsays, no, those tickets are no
longer available.
I was like what?
There's no way.
No way, because it took me twominutes to fill out the stuff.
So I did it again.
But I went super duper fast.

(35:22):
Less than like a minute later Ihad everything up there.
Boom by the tickets.
They're not available anymore.
I don't know, maybe I'm not astech savvy as I thought I was
Something going on there.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safa (35:35):
Maybe it was a sign.

Rob Webb - Last Minute As (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 knowwhat, daniel, I need some help
planning this thing.
And so we sit down and wefigured out like maybe, with a
tight turnaround and having tobe back at school, maybe air

(35:58):
travel is not the way to go.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safa (36:00):
Right , yeah, I kind of think that was
a good decision.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Ast (36:04):
Yeah , that's a tough one for me.
Maybe I just don't think aboutthe 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 Ithink overall she's right.
Like let's drive.
And so we're going to drive toOhio, we're going to go
somewhere around Cleveland onthe western side, and because we

(36:28):
saw that that's the area.
Oh, by the way, texas thereason I was picking Texas was
because at the least percentageof clouds, it was like only a
40% chance of clouds.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safar (36:37):
Yeah , that's why I avoided northeast
.
I was originally going to go tothe Adirondacks and I was going
to try to spend time there, andI had even discussed it with
some people from up in theAdirondack region.
They're hosting a big event inthe Adirondack public
observatory I believe it'scalled.
But I ended up going toRichmond, indiana, for the same

(37:00):
reasons, because as you gofarther towards the south and
west, the chances of cloud coveris less, and so I went about as
far as I was willing to go andthat's where I ended up.
So Richmond, indiana, onceagain.
Just like last time, I'm doinga campground.
This time I am bringing the RVand, as I said at the beginning,

(37:22):
I'm bringing my family with me.
We will have air conditioningand the campsite that I got is
actually at the northern mostpoint 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 mycampsite and hopefully that

(37:46):
gives me a clear view to thesouth.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Ast (37:49):
Yeah , south, southwest, yeah Right,
nice I like that.
I like that idea.
Now, are you thinking that youmay 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 fingerswith the trailer and my son and
just all that comes along withmy setup that I'm going to want
to do.
I just can't see thefrustration of trying to pick up

(38:21):
and move last minute.
Yeah, so I'm going to hunkerdown.

Rob Webb - Last Minute A (38:25):
That's very smart, I know.
I remember like I think, 24hours out I was kind of on the
edge in South Carolina.
I was kind of like, oh, itmight get cloudy tomorrow, it
might do this.
Should I move?
And I'm so glad I didn'tbecause I could set as I said
before, like everything is justnice and easy there.

(38:47):
There's very little.
I feel like the juice isn'tworth the squeeze for the most
part.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safar (38:54):
Yeah , I think that makes a lot of
sense.
Well when we talk to GordonTullipin, who's got numbers of
these under his belt, he'ssaying like 500 miles minimum to
get a real chance of actuallygetting significantly different
weather options.
Yeah, I'm not driving 500 extramiles, and he said days in

(39:15):
advance.
You know, like, make your callwhich of the two sites you're
going to go to in advance, and Ican't see booking yet another
location or trying to end up onthe side of a road or something.
So this way I can enjoy it andif it's cloudy, it's cloudy and
I'll still enjoy my family andmy trip.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Ast (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 goodexperience with the family
You're going to love that.
It's going to be fantastic.
Now we also decided again thistime to do an Airbnb, but we had
some tough issues with that.

(39:57):
I had, actually.
It was just tough becausethere's so many options and,
like you kind of got to seetheir backyard and, you know,
not all of them have pictures ofthe outside.
And we even finally sat down forlike a whole day, whittling it
down from like 50 to 50.

(40:17):
Down to 25, down to 10, down tothe top two.
Let's make this choice and webooked it, we had a place, and
then the next day I'm in thegrocery store with my son and I
get a message on my phone thatsays okay, I'm really sorry, but
the property was already bookedon another platform.

(40:37):
That's not fun, that's terrible.
Like I never get angry, but Iwas so angry at that time.
I never did tell him off,because I'm a good person, I
guess I don't know, but that wasjust that I had that weight
lifted off my shoulders becausewe booked it and then it just
came right back down.

(40:58):
So I don't.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari (41:00):
You told me all this, but I didn't
know that you had found anotherplace.
So, yes, we did find about it.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Ast (41:06):
Yeah , we did find another place.
It's actually in a nice, in aneighborhood where I think, I
think the people in theneighborhood are planning to
leave and get out Instead ofexperience it.
But it's going to be a nicehouse and it's got it's on like
three acres, so I'm going tohave my choice of places to set
up.
Wow, yeah, it's, there are sometrees, but you know there's

(41:27):
trees everywhere.
It looked like there was plentyof open space, just a beautiful
house.
And yeah, it's going to be evenbetter, I think, than last time
, assuming that the cloudsaren't there.
And yeah, now we are booking ahotel as a backup to oh OK,

(41:50):
we're finding places that canyou know.
You can cancel like up to aweek beforehand without a
cancellation fee.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari (41:58):
Wow , that's surprising because I
know a lot of the places thatI've looked at were very much
like I had to book for I believeit was four nights minimum,
because they knew what wascoming.
I'm getting a T shirt, by theway, with mine.
You know my campground isproviding us T shirts.
They already contacted me andasked me what sizes we needed

(42:19):
and Wow, so they're preparingsomething pretty cool.
I think I may have mentionedthat I kind of know what I'm
doing, but I'm trying not to gettoo involved.
I'm going to like enjoy it formyself.
I don't want to be there as ahired help that paid to be there
.
Let me stay for free and I'llgive you a talk.

(42:40):
You know, right, Right, yeah, Idon't want to be known for
knowing what I'm talking about.
I want to just kind of go underthe radar here and unlike last
time where I was presentingduring this thing, I want to
just kind of hang out and enjoyit.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astr (42:54):
You know what you still are going
to present, but you're going tobe presenting to your son, and
that's going to be way morerewarding than anything else, so
that's yeah.
So what, what?
What equipment are you going tobring?
Because I've got some things inmy head as far as what I'm
going to do.
I'm curious since you're goingto have the RV, you can bring a

(43:15):
ton of equipment, but you onlywant to manage so much, so like
what?

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safar (43:19):
Yeah .

Rob Webb - Last Minute A (43:19):
What's your plan?

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safar (43:21):
Well , ok.
So kind of cool thing about anew moon is not only are you
going to have the eclipse, butthat same night the potential
for the darkest night of theentire Month.
The new moon is also there.
So I'm trying to make sure thatI have not only the equipment

(43:42):
for a solar, but also someequipment for nighttime
observing as well.
I don't really often get anopportunity with my kid to look
at the night sky, as horrible asthat is, because of school
nights and things like that.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Ast (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, getsdark very late and is not really
conducive to proper bedtime.
So I'm going to keep them upand we're going to look at the
night sky, hopefully.
And so I'm going to bring Ithink it's going to be the EVO 8
from Celestron.
The solar filter you know fitsright over the top of it, it's

(44:22):
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 aboutthat is it's all self contained
.
It has, like it's built in,battery and all that kind of
stuff and as simple as possiblebut with the most capability, I
think.
So that's one, and they have alittle cool travel tripod I'm

(44:43):
going to bring Okay, which makesit all real compact.
You know you sit on top of likea picnic table or something.
There's some solar binocularsthat I'm going to bring along as
well.

Rob Webb - Last Minute As (44:57):
Those are good.
Those are good.
Now, are those the ones?
There's solar binoculars.
Let me tell you one thing to letme tell you one thing about
that, though, especially ifyou're going to have your boy
look through them and I've got alittle terrible pair right here
, but like the block out the sun, which is good, but you got to
make sure that your son isn'tlooking into the sun when he's

(45:20):
lining it up.
So you got what I did is I tooka pizza box and I cut out eye
holes and I shoved this in thepizza box, so he had a whole
shade around him, but so that hecouldn't damage his eyes Like
it actually worked out reallyreally well and it was just a
greasy pizza box.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Saf (45:37):
That's a good idea, so that I think
you know the binoculars and thetelescope with with the solar
filter on the front, that I canalso take off then at night to
do, you know, visualobservations of just nighttime
stuff.
You know, of course, eclipseglasses, right.

(45:59):
Just the regular old eclipseshades and beyond that, I think
I'm going to try to travelpretty light.
You know I'm going to send somestuff your way to check out.
So, yeah, I want to make sure Ikeep the load as light as
possible and I really want tofocus on the experience itself.

(46:24):
Right, right, I don't know ifI'm gonna be doing a whole lot
of images this time.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astro (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 actualeclipse itself.
Well, I can get it automated,like you had it last time, where
it handles most of it.
I was doing it all manuallylast time.
No, and it would be one thingif it were just me, but with my
family along.
I want to focus on that, inaddition to Viewing it myself

(46:57):
you got to have as muchautomatic as possible.

Rob Webb - Last Minu (46:59):
absolutely the, I'll share it.
It might be be a PC only thingI'll have to look into that for
you, see, see if it'll work.
But yeah, I, I know I'm, I'mplanning on having a ton of
cameras and a ton of stuff setup, but again, all in advance.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safar (47:18):
I'll probably.
I say all this and it probablywill end up that I have a lot
more than I Planned.
You know, just last minute I'lldecide that I want to do a
bunch of stuff.
But yeah, if you can, if youcan put that also in the show
notes, that'd be great if youhave a link?

Rob Webb - Last Minute Ast (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'twait till the last minute there,
last minute of the strontum, orbecause we want everybody else
to be able to plan for For thisevent, including my oh, I know.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astron (47:48):
I do need.
I, I'm working, I'm, I'm doingmy best.
All right, it's just somethings.
Just, you know it, you don't.
You don't do it till you feellike the intense pressure and
for some reason, I'm not feelingthe 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

(48:13):
similar to last time, where Ihave at least one camera for the
partial phases, just dedicated,one camera for totality, zoomed
in, but GoPro To do the timelapse or another camera to do
the time lapse.
That was fun to be able to justspeed it up.
I'm not full video.
I'm definitely gonna have a 360GoPro and one of my 360 cameras

(48:37):
so I can get footage for aplanetarium type show, and I
know I want to record audio.
That was a thing that Idefinitely made sure of last
time.
I wanted to get my audio with alapel mic and I wanted to get
my wife and my kids Reactions aswe were going.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari (48:57):
Yes , worked out.
Reactions are awesome.
I've got a reaction video.
That is super embarrassing, butit was because I was that
excited.
I was like screaming at the topof my lungs and just in awe and
and it's.

(49:18):
It's so, so over the top thatit's embarrassing, but it's the
real reaction.
It was that crazy cool.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Ast (49:25):
Yeah , it 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 rightand there's just brightness
around it's, it's, it's justotherworldly, you know.
I mean I, I can see whyeclipses have been known as
these, like portents of bad luckand and bad omens and all that

(49:46):
like that.
It's pretty wild to see yoursource 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 in2024, I'm, I'm present, that's
my, that's my goal is to bepresent and and really try to
take in that experience.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astr (50:13):
And yeah, you, like you said,
automate whatever I can automateso 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 needto put that in the back of my
mind like that's a possibility,right, and I need to be able to

(50:34):
prepare myself so that I don'tlike 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'regoing for a backup plan with a
black up backup hotel, have abackup plan, I guess, for if
that Eventuality happens and andyou'll be ready to go, then
yeah, and you can feel likeyou're prepared for it.

(51:00):
You know, I think the cool, thecoolest part about this
particular eclipse is theproximity then to Neef, with you
know, being that northeastastronomical forum is coming a
week or we're taking us twoweeks after the eclipse.
I think the buzz at thatconference is going to be Really

(51:23):
exciting.
You know, and a lot of thepeople that we know from the
industry and From our hobbyyou're going to be there and I
think everybody's who's going tohave a chance to go see this is
going to be just talking aboutwhat they did and and how
awesome it was.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Ast (51:39):
Yeah , I would say also for people
who do want to take pictures andstuff.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari (51:47):
You can use a telescope or a pair
of binoculars with thesmartphone adapters and you can
actually place that through theeyepiece Of the telescope or
binocular and you can actuallyget a pretty decent image then
Once you're magnified.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astr (52:01):
And also, I'd say I know I'm guilty
of this with myastrophotography and stuff.
Like I often see what otherpeople are doing online and I
think, man, there's no way I cando that and to be honest it's
kind of true, there's no waythat I can do that with the
current time and stuff I have,right, like certain types of
pictures.
But you know, I would encourageyou try to go in with a mindset

(52:25):
of I'm going to get a picture,you know, plan something out
ahead of time and get a decentpicture that is yours.
You don't have to do the Ultradynamic range Composite and
learn Photoshop.
Like don't, don't put thatpressure on yourself to do the
amazing thing that other amazingastrophotographers do.
Like, just go with what youknow and can do and just get

(52:52):
something that is good and isyours, that you can value and
keep for the future.
That's just my advice, I think.
What do you think to dovetailon that?

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari (53:04):
In.
You said you know, don't worryabout all of that like Photoshop
and all that, if you get goodquality data, you don't need to
learn how to do all of thatImmediately.
So I would focus if you're newto taking photos or just taking
photos of like astronomy typeevents is just focus on the

(53:26):
actually capturing the image,part of it, as the thing to do,
and you can actually practice Inadvance of the eclipse With
just the sun.
If you have the proper solarfilters and everything already
right, you can practice On theactual sun and get used to what
to do and kind of.
If you get the solar eclipsetimer app, it even gives you

(53:48):
some options where you canSimulate what that would look
like and I highly recommend togo through that practice, run
Days, weeks in advance of theactual eclipse, if you can help
it, and that that way when youget to the actual event, you're
not fumbling around, worriedabout settings while you're

(54:11):
trying to enjoy this amazingexperience.
You just drove or flew or, youknow, put lots of time and
energy into trying to plan out,to just change your ISO to the
proper setting, like that's notwhat you want to be doing.
Yeah, so take time to practice.
Yeah, how much, how muchtotality are?

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astr (54:31):
you getting?
I think I'm getting, if Iremember, a three and a half
minutes.
So that's about what I'm atthree and a half minutes or so,
three minutes actually not muchof a change.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safar (54:41):
Yeah , there's not much of a change
as you go from.

Rob Webb - Last Minute As (54:46):
Texas to Cleveland.
Like I think Texas might befour minutes and Cleveland's
like three minutes and twenty orthree and a half, like it's not
that much that the biggestproblem is going sideways.
Yeah, of course, but even that,you've got to go through that
process.
Yeah, oh yeah, of course buteven that, you've got a good
corridor.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safar (55:04):
Yeah , I'm very, very close to the
center line.
We're on that right right.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astr (55:10):
But , yeah, I just this is looking
to be pretty, pretty awesome ifthe weather works out.
I mean, even so, it's gonna befun to get out there and plan
stuff and and actually like getsomething 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 shouldstill be fairly cool, it's hope,

(55:33):
but not snowy.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Saf (55:35):
Here's an interesting question.
Yeah, what are you going to eaton the day of the eclipse?

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astr (55:42):
I'm , you know what.
I'll probably just get likesome kind of burrito from
someplace local.
That's the part about thetraveling, though I really
really like it's finding somelocal places, finding like a
good hoagie place, or I guessthey call them heroes out there
or something, I'm not sure butlike just finding something
local, something good and likeexperience in the culture.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safar (56:01):
Yeah , yeah, that's not a good idea.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Ast (56:03):
Yeah , like in South Carolina.
You know, go to the market, seewhat kind of eclipse themed
stuff people are selling andmade in anticipation, and you
know, you know, actually getinto that culture.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safar (56:16):
When we come back after this short
break, Rob tries one last timeto stump me on eclipse trivia.

Lance Lucero - Celestron Pr (56:24):
Get eclipse ready with the
Celestron Eclipse Mart TravelScope 50, a 50 millimeter solar
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You can even add an EclipseMart solar filter to your
Celestron nighttime telescope.
They're available in 14different sizes.
All Celestron Eclipse Martproducts conform to the current

(56:46):
ISO safety standards.
Learn more at Celestroncomslash Eclipse Watch.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astro (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 Astr (56:59):
All right, so this goes in.
You know slightly differentareas.
I'll start with this one.
How about the earliest knownrecord of a solar eclipse?
How old do you think it is andwhere do you think it was?

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari (57:15):
Oh my goodness, I would imagine
that the Maya would have hadsome experience with an eclipse
and I know that they were verymuch in tune with the
astronomical events.
I believe that they wouldpredate anything Chinese.

(57:36):
I know Chinese kept very goodrecords Egyptians.
I think they would even predateEgyptians.
I don't know an actual date,but I'm gonna go with the Maya.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astr (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 yearsago, Stonehenge like areas yeah
.
Yeah, I bet you, bet you theCelts were really active, I

(58:09):
guess at that time reallypopular.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Saf (58:10):
That's like 10,000 or so.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astro (58:15):
Oh , maybe I don't know.
I'm looking it up.
This is.
It's interesting, like here'sthe thing.
Like I pull these together, thetrivia 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 about5,000 years ago.
There you go that's what thiswas saying too.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astro (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 solareclipse occur on Jupiter?

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safar (58:58):
What would be causing a total solar
eclipse on Jupiter?
You would have moons, but arethey sufficiently large to
completely cover the sun?
I would, I guess, expect thatthey would be, and Jupiter's
moon I let's do Europa andGanymede.

(59:22):
I'm guessing it would be everyday or two.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astr (59:30):
Not too bad.
Not too bad On Jupiter.
They occur every 42 hours, dayor two.
Yeah, yeah, I'm impressed.
I thought you were going wayoff 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?

(59:51):
I thought well that's exactlyright.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safa (59:54):
Right , yeah, and you know I do a lab
with students where they'rewatching the orbital timings and
periods of the different orbits, of the different moons, and
you know they go at differentrates and I know that the
closest one is about two days togo around.
So you heard it.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astr (01:00:11):
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 skyand telescope you can just look
and see, or any kind ofmagazine you could look it up
online.
You know, you can see exactlywhen those transits are going to
occur.
It's really cool.
I mean, I've seen it a coupleof times in my telescope and I'm

(01:00:32):
like, hey, I'm seeing a totalsolar eclipse on Jupiter right
now.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safa (01:00:36):
Right right.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Ast (01:00:37):
From Earth.

Lance Lucero - Celestron Pr (01:00:38):
But yeah.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astro (01:00:40):
Oh , how many can occur at the same
time.
Four, three, this is three, Iwas thinking four or two.
This might require some extrawork.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari (01:00:55):
I would imagine that the one of
the moons is sufficiently farthat the umbra doesn't reach the
surface of Jupiter, so it mightbe a penumbra, partial eclipse,
but not totality.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Ast (01:01:07):
Yeah , yeah.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari (01:01:08):
So the cone of the umbra never
reaches the surface of theactual.
Well, cloud tops notnecessarily surface, but the
cloud tops of Jupiter.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Ast (01:01:17):
Yeah , now before I go into the next
one, the last one before I dothat when is the next total
solar eclipse in America?
Oh no, I stopped him.
I thought he was going to havethis one.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari (01:01:33):
I believe in the 2040s.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astr (01:01:39):
Yes , Now there is a, I think, an
annular in 44, but the nexttotal solar eclipse is in 2045.
Wow, so we got another 21 yearsbefore we get a good, and that
one's going to be a lot like the2017 eclipse.

Lance Lucero - Celestron P (01:01:55):
Okay .

Rob Webb - Last Minute As (01:01:56):
Going from left to right, from top
left to bottom right Now.
So get out there now, becauseyou're not going to see one
until 2045.
Now what we also know is thatthe moon is slowly moving away
from the earth Right, andbecause it's moving further away
, the moon's going to getsmaller in the sky and

(01:02:16):
eventually we will no longerhave eclipses, total solar
eclipses on earth.
How many years in the future isthat likely to happen?

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safa (01:02:31):
First instinct is to say it's going
to be very, very far.
But we are at the point wherethe moon, at its closest point,
is covering up the sun, but atits farthest point it's no
longer covering up the sun, it'san annular eclipse.
So, earth, it's very difficultbecause this is a.

(01:02:56):
This is a as it gets fartheraway, the influence becomes less
and less and less and it's likea limit, like a calculus limit.
So let's say a billion years.

Rob Webb - Last Minute Astr (01:03:11):
You are not quite right, but I'll
say actually kind of in theright realm, 500 to 600 million
years.
Okay, so you doubled it, butwe're talking about huge
timescales, so I'm cool withthat.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari (01:03:25):
I was trying to figure out because
, like I said, it's a limit incalculus and so as you get
farther away the effect is lessgravitationally and as a result,
the relationship where the moonis picking up or speed because
it's taking away the earth'sslowing down in its rotation,

(01:03:49):
scrubbing away the energy fromthe earth's rotation to cause
the moon to leave, and so as youget farther away that effect
becomes less and so the speed atwhich it moves away is slower
rate over time.
So that's like really difficultto figure out.
I kind of was backtracking inmy mind because I know the moon

(01:04:11):
was very close initially, earlyin its formation, but that
effect would be very, very greatearly on.
and then has dissipated over thelast three and a half four
billion years.
So yeah, that's an interestingquestion.
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