two more weeks until the celestial show in the sky we've been waiting 7even years to experience a total eclipse of the sun will cast an arcing Shadow path from the southern border to Niagara Falls South Florida will see a partial eclipse though millions in the US will be in that path of totality and aside from the serious wow factor the total eclipse is a once- in-a-lifetime chance for scientists to discover things about the Sun that they have yet to learn with us today the CEO of frost Museum i
n Miami and did you know lucky for us Dr Doug Roberts is an astrophysicist Dr Roberts great to have you well thanks for having me I'm laughy be here I think um we I think our producers are being funny and just put me in total darkness okay um so you will be the first astrophysicist I think ever on our program so I'm very excited about that so I will say I was I went to the total eclipse to cover it in 2017 and it was so cool cool Factor high but I want to hear from you is what kind of scientific
opportunity this one this year next month is going to be well every time that a solar eclipse happens the moon completely covers the Sun for a few minutes and when that happens scientists can appearer uh and actually see the sun's atmosphere without being Blinded by the Light What's called the Photosphere which is the part of the Sun that we see so uh when that happens that CH chance alignment we have the ability to explore the the sun's atmosphere and waves that uh we can't uh you know the mos
t most of the rest of the time of um when we observe the Sun how how do how do you do that well they have different telescopes essentially look at sort of the Fingerprints of the sun um the composition of the gases how they're moving um and that the sun is a is a variable object so it changes sometimes it's it's uh uh throwing out a lot of winds sometimes it's not as much wind and understanding that helps us understand its effect on the solar system actually the cosmic rays and and high energy p
articles that are expelled in the sun interact with our atmosphere and our and our um magnetic field around our planet to cause the northern lights and um potentially damaging um uh satellites and radio communication so the more we understand about the physics of the Sun the more we can prepare for and uh and make sure that what the spacecraft we have in orbit are are safe and so you you can't do that and unless the sun is blocked um some some some observations can be done um with spacecraft the
y're actually um in orbit around the Sun but o other observations really need that um uh you to block the light of the Photosphere to see because um you said you saw the eclipse in 2017 so if you see it with your eyes you see it just looks totally different and it's that difference um that allows you to see that that kind of uh it's called the sun's Corona that's that is really impossible to see with the brightness of the Photosphere you know what I thought was really interesting about this year
NASA and some of the research groups probably that you're talking about are relying on sort of Citizen scientists to do some of the research so they'll be relying on what like like lay people's um camera shots or or video and and what what good will what will they be looking for there what good will that do yeah so there's a citizen science project that NASA did in 202 or 2017 eclipse and they're doing again this year where anybody who's observing the eclipse can take photos of it and upload it
um uh through a website at Nasa that where NASA scientists will then be able to uh again look at the at the eclipse as it moves across the the the the planet so if NASA were to set up a telescope and observed one location they would get a great shot from that location but that only lasts for a few minutes and and then that sun sh the the shadow passes to another location so if we can have citizen science which is basically everybody who has a phone a smartphone looking at the eclipse during dur
ing the moment of totality along the eclipse path then they can cap capture all all the information to um uh get a better understanding of what the phenomenon was going on you know when we were there we actually chose Columbia South Carolina last time I want I know you can't see your television but Darby our director has put me in total darkness he has put me in an eclipse okay um so uh when we were there in Colombia the the in the path of totality totality was I think 2 minutes and and some cha
nge and that was certainly enough time to you know feel the kind of lavender Aura and hear weird bird chirping and for everyone in the field with us to sort of gasp in the glow um but this time it's going to be a bit different totality is actually four and a half minutes almost twice and there are some other changes too the moon is closer to the Earth well talk about like what's different this time yeah so um the basically the moon goes around the the Earth um in not quite exact Circle so someti
mes it's closer to the Earth during an eclipse and sometimes it's further um actually there was an eclipse last October where the sun where the moon was was more distant and so its angle in the sky didn't quite cover the Sun and that was what was called an annular Eclipse um and so uh the eclipse this time this the moon is closer um uh and it's actually closer as you said than 20 2017 so it covers more of it and also it as you say the eclipse lasts longer so um that will allow for one of the coo
l things that happens during Eclipse you probably observed was um the you know the animals around start reacting to the what looks like Twilight or dust instantly and so it's a you know crickets will start cricketing and and frogs will start will start cro croaking and frogging frog frog and so they'll that all happens long the longer the eclipse goes on the more the animals are kind of and the more you feel actually the temperature might drop 10 or 15 de in in that in a cou in two or three minu
tes so the four-minute Eclipse actually will feel more more and also people go to Great Lengths to see eclipses and so um they'll you know you would go there and so you you would pay whatever money you could to extend that for one or two more minutes so going to the longer eclipse is definitely worth worth doing if you have a chance uh we were there then and that day I started planning for seven years later we're going again that's what everybody says I I I did the same thing I was there in Miss
ouri um where I or in Nebraska rather when I saw the eclipse and uh and as an astronomer as the first one I T saw in 2017 and that was exactly my thought too was when's the next eclipse let's do it again listen Dr Roberts real quickly I know that the frost museum is doing a big deal Eclipse program quickly tell us tell us about that yeah so the weekend before the eclipse again the eclipse on APR Monday April 8th uh it starts around uh uh 1 1:45 in the afternoon till 4 4:15 uh during the weekend
before we're going to have a special planetarium show and educational activities telling talking about the history of eclipse how to observe it safely we have these Eclipse classes um you can you can um get at the Museum um and we'll have sell telescopes to watch it um we'll also have live feeds from NASA showing the eclipse um in totality from various locations and actually and then the week the Sunday before we're working with alra Orchestra and presenting kind of a a orchest orchestral perfor
mance and art and astronomy art including some information around the eclipse with some educational activities that sounds amazing that sounds great Sky Geeks let the flag fly abut Dr Roberts great to have you on the program enjoy your Eclipse thanks so much well
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