WEBVTT FILE 1 00:00:11.911 --> 00:00:12.629 Okay. 2 00:00:12.629 --> 00:00:14.397 So a solar eclipse happens 3 00:00:14.397 --> 00:00:18.068 when the moon moves directly between the earth and the sun. 4 00:00:18.151 --> 00:00:20.253 And with 5 00:00:20.253 --> 00:00:23.373 an annular eclipse, the moon is a little bit farther away 6 00:00:23.373 --> 00:00:24.841 than it ordinarily might be. 7 00:00:24.841 --> 00:00:27.727 So it doesn't quite cover the entire disk of the sun. 8 00:00:27.727 --> 00:00:31.448 And it leaves this ring, shape or annulus 9 00:00:31.531 --> 00:00:31.981 behind. 10 00:00:31.981 --> 00:00:42.125 And we call it an annular solar eclipse. 11 00:00:42.208 --> 00:00:42.826 sure. 12 00:00:42.826 --> 00:00:45.662 You want to make sure that you're using these special safety glasses? 13 00:00:45.662 --> 00:00:46.980 These special solar viewing 14 00:00:46.980 --> 00:00:51.067 glasses that you can pick up at public libraries and other locations. 15 00:00:51.151 --> 00:00:55.238 But you want to make sure you have those on any time you're looking at the eclipse. 16 00:00:55.321 --> 00:00:57.540 Otherwise, you can have some serious eye damage. 17 00:00:57.540 --> 00:01:00.977 If you don't have a pair of these these solar glasses. 18 00:01:01.227 --> 00:01:04.230 You can take a simple piece of paper and poke a little hole in it 19 00:01:04.380 --> 00:01:05.815 and hold it up over the sidewalk. 20 00:01:05.815 --> 00:01:09.886 And it'll actually project an image of the sun down onto that surface. 21 00:01:10.103 --> 00:01:11.421 And you can view it that way. 22 00:01:11.421 --> 00:01:14.707 If you don't have a piece of paper, you can actually just use your hand. 23 00:01:14.791 --> 00:01:18.461 You can make a little bitty hole or look you can 24 00:01:18.528 --> 00:01:22.398 look and see a small hole in in between your fingers and you hold that up 25 00:01:22.649 --> 00:01:26.469 over the sidewalk, over your other hand, over a pretty much anything, 26 00:01:26.536 --> 00:01:39.232 and actually create that pinhole camera effect just using your hand. 27 00:01:39.315 --> 00:01:41.117 Oh, certainly. 28 00:01:41.117 --> 00:01:43.369 My my favorite example are the sounding rockets 29 00:01:43.369 --> 00:01:47.474 that they're going to be launching from White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. 30 00:01:47.690 --> 00:01:50.577 They're going to be launching one just before the eclipse, one 31 00:01:50.577 --> 00:01:53.563 during the eclipse, and our other one just after the eclipse. 32 00:01:53.813 --> 00:01:54.798 And measuring things 33 00:01:54.798 --> 00:01:59.152 like atmospheric temperature, the number of electrons that they detect 34 00:01:59.235 --> 00:02:02.238 in their instruments as they move through the sky. 35 00:02:02.422 --> 00:02:06.176 And they're going to be studying how the ionosphere, a charged particle 36 00:02:06.176 --> 00:02:11.247 layer in the upper atmosphere changes with time because the solar input, 37 00:02:11.481 --> 00:02:15.535 the solar, the sunlight moving into the atmosphere is lower during an eclipse. 38 00:02:15.652 --> 00:02:19.906 So seeing how that changes with time is of particular 39 00:02:19.906 --> 00:02:28.948 scientific interest. 40 00:02:29.015 --> 00:02:30.316 Certainly 41 00:02:30.316 --> 00:02:32.886 for the eclipse in April, the moon is actually going to be 42 00:02:32.886 --> 00:02:37.006 just a little bit closer to us than it is than it is tomorrow. 43 00:02:37.090 --> 00:02:40.593 And so it will perfectly cover the disk of the sun 44 00:02:40.593 --> 00:02:43.596 and we'll see what's called a total solar eclipse. 45 00:02:43.596 --> 00:02:47.200 Now, in this case, the the atmosphere of the sun, 46 00:02:47.200 --> 00:02:50.270 the sorry, the surface of the sun is completely covered. 47 00:02:50.470 --> 00:02:54.007 And all we're going to be able to see is this wispy outermost 48 00:02:54.007 --> 00:02:57.443 layer of of the sun's atmosphere called the corona. 49 00:02:57.527 --> 00:03:02.932 And it looks like crazy hair moving away from moving away from the disk of the sun. 50 00:03:03.016 --> 00:03:04.234 We never, ever 51 00:03:04.234 --> 00:03:07.487 get to see that except during a total eclipse. 52 00:03:07.570 --> 00:03:11.891 So it's a very special occasion, and I hope folks make time to go out 53 00:03:11.891 --> 00:03:20.700 and actually take a look at it. 54 00:03:20.783 --> 00:03:23.303 I'm very excited, both as a scientist 55 00:03:23.303 --> 00:03:27.156 and as and as a as a person, as a regular person. 56 00:03:27.240 --> 00:03:32.128 I mean, the science opportunities are we're really excited about the science 57 00:03:32.128 --> 00:03:35.181 opportunities that we've got lined up with, of course, the sounding rockets. 58 00:03:35.181 --> 00:03:38.368 But we're also going to be having instrumentation on on high altitude 59 00:03:38.368 --> 00:03:41.371 airplanes, taking all sorts of measurements of the sun. 60 00:03:41.487 --> 00:03:44.741 But from a personal perspective, I 61 00:03:44.807 --> 00:03:46.793 this is going to be my first total eclipse. 62 00:03:46.793 --> 00:03:51.247 And I'm really excited to get out and actually experience it firsthand. 63 00:03:51.331 --> 00:03:56.519 I know that when the eclipse is happening, then, of course, the lighting changes. 64 00:03:56.519 --> 00:03:58.187 I mean, that kind of makes sense. 65 00:03:58.187 --> 00:04:01.407 But because of that lighting change, the temperature comes down. 66 00:04:01.491 --> 00:04:03.676 Birds actually morning birds start to chirp. 67 00:04:03.676 --> 00:04:06.729 I'm looking forward to hearing the robins chirping. 68 00:04:06.796 --> 00:04:11.167 Animals tend to get ready for bed and so on. 69 00:04:11.251 --> 00:04:14.087 And it's just a it's a singular moment in time 70 00:04:14.087 --> 00:04:17.457 where you get to see something along with, of course, you know, several billion 71 00:04:17.457 --> 00:04:20.710 of your other of your closest friends. 72 00:04:20.777 --> 00:04:23.062 You get to see this firsthand, this unique 73 00:04:23.062 --> 00:04:34.691 opportunity, firsthand. 74 00:04:34.757 --> 00:04:37.010 Well, first, go out and watch it. 75 00:04:37.010 --> 00:04:39.679 Go out and actually experience this for yourself. 76 00:04:39.679 --> 00:04:42.031 These things don't happen all that often. 77 00:04:42.031 --> 00:04:44.817 They happen fairly regularly, of course, 78 00:04:44.817 --> 00:04:48.004 but most of the time they happen out over the oceans. 79 00:04:48.087 --> 00:04:50.873 It's rare when they actually happen over populated areas. 80 00:04:50.873 --> 00:04:55.812 So take the opportunity and go out and witness this. 81 00:04:55.878 --> 00:04:59.699 There's going to be a number of number of events at different places 82 00:04:59.782 --> 00:05:04.504 throughout the country, mostly along the path path of the eclipse, 83 00:05:04.587 --> 00:05:09.659 where you can go out and interact with folks from NASA and educators 84 00:05:09.659 --> 00:05:15.214 and so on to actually really engage in this particular opportunity. 85 00:05:15.298 --> 00:05:19.452 And finally, again, I'll point back to the citizen science opportunities. 86 00:05:19.519 --> 00:05:23.773 These are events and phone apps and a number of other things 87 00:05:23.840 --> 00:05:27.694 where you're actually able to help help NASA's scientists take data, 88 00:05:27.777 --> 00:05:31.814 you know, measure temperatures and talk about things like how how the 89 00:05:31.831 --> 00:05:35.151 eclipse made you feel and what you witnessed in the behavior 90 00:05:35.151 --> 00:05:38.938 of animals and other people and the atmosphere and so on. 91 00:05:39.022 --> 00:05:49.048 It's a great opportunity to get involved. 92 00:05:49.132 --> 00:05:51.501 We have a lot of information out there. 93 00:05:51.501 --> 00:05:56.272 The easiest place to go is go dot nasa.gov slash eclipse. 94 00:05:56.356 --> 00:05:59.642 You can also find more information about activities. 95 00:05:59.726 --> 00:06:04.263 How to build, how to build a pinhole camera that I mentioned earlier 96 00:06:04.330 --> 00:06:07.316 and a whole bunch of other activities that you and children 97 00:06:07.316 --> 00:06:10.303 and pretty much anyone can participate in. 98 00:06:10.453 --> 00:06:12.855 So again that's go dot NASA's dot gov 99 00:06:12.855 --> 00:06:16.642 slash eclipse as well as on social media with at NASA's sun.