Exploring Upcoming Eclipses

Our Team ...

Al Evans (WIU Graduate Student)

Amisha J. Rane (WIU Graduate Student)

Gabriel Sojka (WIU Physics Major)

Drew Hecox (WIU Engineering Physics Major)

Punya Paudel (WIU Graduate Student)

Kenneth Vanzuiden (WIU Physics Major)

Matthew Clayton (WIU Physics Major)

E. D. Araya (WIU Professor)

This outreach activity:

Join with the WIU Physics Department faculty and students on a computer-based activity exploring upcoming eclipses. The activity is intended for general public, including K-12 students.

Introduction: Solar Eclipses

The book Astronomy (OpenStax; Fraknoi et al.) is a great free textbook that we used in our PHYS101 Introduction to Astronomy class.

Section 4.7 of the book is about eclipses of the Sun and Moon. The following figures from the textbook do a great job explaining the concept of solar eclipses (partial, total and annular)

Activity 1: Stellarium - Seeing the Future and the Past

https://stellarium-web.org/

Stellarium is a free program that can be used on the internet or downloaded. The program allows the user to observe the night sky at various locations, times, and dates. A user can look at a specific object of interest by searching it or observe just how it currently is.

Step 1:

Reproduce the following steps to learn how to use the online version of Stellarium:

a. Direct your browser to (right-click, open in a new tab or window) https://stellarium-web.org/

b. Set Macomb, Illinois as the observer's location (click on the bottom left corner):

c. Set the date and time, for example, 5pm (17 hours), January 1st, 2000 (click on the bottom right time/date box):

Note: the following screen-shots were obtained in CST, so you should shift the time by one hour if your current time is CDT.

d. Drag the sky image to see the sky from different directions, set it to south (S) to reproduce the following screen-shot:

Step 2:

Use Stellarium to see how the sky will look like tonight at 10 pm.

Activity 2: Upcoming Eclipses

Two solar eclipses are coming up that will be observable from the US, an annular eclipse on October 14th, 2023, and a total solar eclipse on April 8th, 2024. Here we include two figures showing the path of the eclipses. People along the central bands will be able to see the annular and total solar eclipses, the farther away people are from the bands, the less of the solar disk will be covered by the Moon.

For more information about the 2023 October Annular Eclipse visit: https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/eclipses/2023/oct-14-annular/overview/

For more information about the 2024 April Total Solar Eclipse visit:

https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/eclipses/2024/apr-8-total/overview/

Step 3:

We can use Stellarium to predict how the eclipses will look from Macomb and other cities. For example, let's see the total solar eclipse of August 21, 2017.

The total solar eclipse was observable from Carbondale, Illinois at approximately 13:21 hours (1:21pm, CST).

Just as we did above, let’s use Stellarium web (https://stellarium-web.org/ ), set the location to Macomb, Illinois, and the date to August 21, 2017, 13:21 hours (1:21pm, CST).

Use the mouse to drag the view window to have the Sun at the center of the screen, then use the scroll button of your mouse (or two finger motion in your mouse-pad) to zoom in and see what the eclipse looked like. We obtained the following view (the eclipse was partial as observed from Macomb):

Note: the following screen-shots were obtained in CST, so you should shift the time by one hour if your current time is CDT.

Now let’s change the location to Carbondale, Illinois (same date and time), and repeat the process (drag the Sun to the center of the screen, and zoom in). We got the following view (the eclipse was total as seen from Carbondale):

Remember: the screen-shot above was obtained in CST, so you should shift the time by one hour if your current time is CDT.

Step 4:

Use Stellarium to explore how the eclipse of October 14th, 2023 will look as observed from Carbondale, Illinois, at 11:24 am CDT.

Zoom-in to the Sun as exemplified in the figures above. This is going to be a partial eclipse as observed from Macomb, if you want to look at it, you will need special solar filters. Never look directly at the Sun without appropriate protection!

Step 5:

Use Stellarium to explore how the eclipse of April 8th, 2024 will look as observed from Carbondale, Illinois, at 14:01 (2:01 pm) CST = 13:01 (1:01 pm) CDT.

Zoom-in to the Sun as exemplified in the figures above. This is going to be a total solar eclipse as observed from Carbondale.

It is safe to look directly at the eclipse during the total phase, but you will need special solar filters to see the eclipse before and after the total phase. Never look directly at the Sun without appropriate protection!

Total solar eclipses are the most beautiful astronomical phenomenon we can see without the need of special equipment. Make sure to travel to the path of totality to see the eclipse!