Starin’ at the sun for science
Victoria Rooks, 9, gazes up at the sky at the Sunridge Observatory during the solar eclipse. A small group of club members gathered Monday morning to watch the partial eclipse while many of the members travelled to the United States to watch the full eclipse.
It was not a total solar eclipse in this area but it was spectacular, nonetheless.
“It first looked like an eyeball and then it (the sun) looked like a moon,” said Rianne Van Der Haar, 9, who was at the observatory near Seven Persons on Monday morning.
Equipped with special glasses, there was considerable interest at the observatory when about 30 per cent of the sun was covered by the moon at about 10:55 a.m. Within five minutes, 40 per cent of the sun was covered, said Chris Kohlman, president of the Medicine Hat Astronomy Club.
While most of the members had travelled south for a view of the total solar eclipse, there were still some adults and children at the observatory.
Kohlman noticed the sun was less intense as more and more was covered by the moon. By 11:16 a.m., 70 per cent of the sun was covered and those present remarked on feeling a little chilly — like you would at dusk.
The sun initially looked as though someone had taken a bite out of it at the 2 p.m. point. By the time 70 per cent was covered, it looked like a sliver of the moon and finally like a crescent shaped hat ready to be plonked on someone’s head.
For the children, the process was too long to sustain interest but they watched from time to time.
“It is really cool because we have to use these special glasses,” said Victoria Rooks, 9.
On Vancouver Island, Victoria was expected to get the best view of the rare celestial event, with 90 per cent of the sun blocked out above the British Columbia capital. The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada said Vancouver would enjoy 86 per cent coverage, Calgary 77 per cent and Toronto 70 per cent.
In Vancouver, a large crowd gathered on the grass outside the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre and broke into a cheer when the eclipse reached its peak.
In Calgary, close to 2,000 sun watchers were lined up at the Telus Spark science centre when it opened its doors. Most rushed to the long line of tables to build their own eclipse viewers.
For many children and adults, the event provokes questions and arouses curiosity, said Kohlman.
“Seems incredible and impossible. It strikes an interest to learn about other stuff,” said Crescent Heights student Ben Filion at the observatory.
It would be interesting to know if animals perceive something different happening in the run up to the eclipse, said Patti Rooks, senior scientific consultant at Praxis, who was at the observatory on Monday. Rooks had noticed bulls acting strangely on Sunday.
Eclipses help scientists to learn more about the Earth’s movement. Atmospheric scientists learn more about gravity waves, the ripples in Earth’s atmosphere that are caused by the moon’s shadow cooling the air in its path.
“And to understand how the corona gets so hot — hundreds of times hotter than the sun’s surface — NASA astronomers will fly two jets over Missouri, Illinois and Tennessee to capture the movement of the bright wisps shooting out from the corona,” said Science magazine online.
An experiment was also being done to determine whether reception for ham radio operators changes during an eclipse.
Science http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/08/thr ee-times-scientists-learnedsomething-solar-eclipses-andthree-times-they-were
http://hamsci.org/projects/2017-total-solareclipse/2017-eclipse-experiment-description
-- with files from The Canadian Press