Solar Eclipse Viewing

The "Great American Solar Eclipse" will occur the morning of Monday, August 21, 2017. While Pasadena will not have views of totality, it will get a good partial eclipse cover up to ~70% of the solar disc. Obviously, many of us will be traveling to the center line to observe the total solar eclipse, but we are still planning an event to occur on campus. The event will take place on Beckman Lawn and in the Beckman Institute.

Please consider volunteering to help out with this event. Responsibilities will be very easy, in that you'll mostly just be handing out eclipse glasses and answering questions about the eclipse to enthusiastic attendees. For those wanting more responsibility, we will have a few telescopes with solar filters setup, so you can help adjust them to point at the Sun. Lastly, we'll also have a computer set up in the Beckman Institute Auditorium to go back and forth between different live feeds of the eclipse from Cahill's view using an H-alpha telescope, to NASA's eclipse live stream and possibly a five-minute presentation to given every 20 minutes.

Outdoor Activities for Volunteers (on Beckman Lawn)

• Instruct attendees on safe viewing of the eclipse (not directly without protection)
• Hand out eclipse glasses (~1000 pairs)
• Show views of the Sun with 6" and 8" dobsonian telescopes with solar filters
• Show views of the Sun using a Solarscope
• Show people how to make pinhole cameras with aluminum foil and cardboard for projection
• Explain to attendees what is happening during a solar eclipse
• Answer questions about the eclipse, astronomy, etc.

Indoor Activities (in Beckman Institute Auditorium -- seats 200)

• Project views of NASA's eclipse live stream
• Project views of our own live stream tracking the Sun in H-alpha from the roof of Cahill
• Give a 5-minute presentation describing what is happening during the eclipse every 20 minutes (presentation will be provided).

Eclipse Schedule

• Set up for event: 8:30 - 9:00AM
• Penumbra Entry: 9:05AM
• Penumbra Maximum 10:21AM
• Penumbra Exit: 11:45AM
• Clean up: 12:00 - 12:30PM

Please contact Cameron Hummels (chummels@caltech.edu) if you are interested in volunteering/participating in this event.