Solar Eclipse Viewing

The "Great American Solar Eclipse" will occur the morning of Monday, August 21, 2017. Many astronomers are traveling to the path of totality for views of the total solar eclipse. A group of us will be headed to rural Oregon to view the eclipse, and we want to perform outreach in one of the small towns near where we'll be going. Fossil is the county seat of Wheeler County in central Oregon, with a population of about 500. A colleague, Dr. Ian McGreer, attended Wheeler High School 20 years ago, and has arranged to get us access to the high school gymnasium and football field. We will host this event two days prior to the eclipse and include activities ranging from two 30-min lectures to stargazing to interactive activities demonstrating the phases of the moon, why eclipses happen, and how to make a pinhole camera. We will also provide hundreds of pairs of eclipse glasses.