With the eclipse nary a fortnight away, final instrument testing is gathering pace. A team led by Harvard University PhD student, Jenna Samra, met at NCAR's Research Aviation Facility in Broomfield, Co on Tuesday to perform one of their final tests before the big day.
UCAR's Science Education Office has launched a new web site about the eclipse with links to materials about the Sun written in language suitable for K-12 students, and games and interactives related to the Sun and elipses.
Alongisde the FTIR experiment in Wyoming, HAO scientists will also be experimenting with a newly available visible/near-IR camera technology which we believe may have utility for future applications in solar physics research.
Shown are a few solar emission lines which MIGHT be observed during the total solar eclipse. Note that the absorbing presence of water vapor in the earth's atmosphere makes a few of them very unlikely.
Initial test spectrum at 12cm Optical Path Difference (OPD) of a globar source (1200ºC Blackbody), Indium Antimonide (InSb) detector at 5µm taken in <5 seconds.
Greetings from the High Altitude Observatory! In anticipation of the rapidly approaching August eclipse, we would like to let everyone know what we are doing in preparation. Toward this end, we welcome you to our new eclipse blog.
View videos of past colloquia