CWC Lander Community Enrichment Classes Spring 2017 | Page 14

What is an Eclipse and Why is This One So

Important?

Come join us for this informative presentation. Learn more about eclipses and how as totality approaches, you will see the astonishing sight of day turning to night and the sun’s corona blazing in the sky. The moon completely blocks the sun, daytime becomes a deep twilight and the sun’s corona shimmers in the darkened sky.

Tuesday, Mar 7, 6:00-7:30PM

(Repeats Monday, July 10)

CWC Lander

With Suki Smaglik

High Altitude Ballooning Project

Come and learn about the student experiments that will be conducted during the August 21st eclipse. Students will conduct high altitude balloon (HAB) flights from 15-20 locations across the total eclipse path, from Oregon to South Carolina, sending live video and images from near space to the NASA website. Video and images of a total eclipse from near space are fascinating – and they’ve only been taken once before, in Australia in 2012. It’s never been done live, and certainly not in a network of coverage across a continent. WREET is the only K-16 team in the country! Come hear about this, and other, citizen science activities around The Great American Eclipse.

Wednesday, May 17, 6:00-7:30PM

CWC Lander

With Suki Smaglik

What is a Star?

Is our sun special? Its energy warms our planet and makes it habitable. However, our sun is but one of billions of stars in the Universe. So, what is a star? Are they all the same? Where do they get all of their energy? How do we know? Understanding what’s in a star is a bit of a detective story. This presentation will include some interactive activities to help you

understand our sun as a star.

Monday, Apr 3, 6:00-7:30PM

CWC Lander

With Suki Smaglik

The Citizen CATE

Experiment

The Citizen CATE Experiment will use a fleet of telescopes to observe the total solar eclipse of 21 Aug 2017, and the Lander Valley HS Astronomy Club is leading one of the observation sites! As the shadow of the moon travels across the continental USA, citizen astronomers from more than 60 sites will take images of the brightness of the inner solar corona. While the totality phase of the eclipse will last only 2 minutes at each site, the combined Citizen CATE Experiment data set will reveal for the first time how this part of the solar atmosphere changes during 90 minutes.

Monday, May 1, 6:00-7:30PM

CWC Lander

With Joe Meyer, Mark Roy & LVHS Astronomy Club students