Students Share the Experience of Totality
Posted on May 21, 2024 by Arts and Sciences
In what seems to now be a growing tradition, the 麻豆直播鈥檚 physics department joined the Honors College on a field trip to experience the total solar eclipse on April 8. They shared a similar adventure back in August 2017.
More than fifty faculty, staff and friends traveled to Hector, Arkansas, northeast of Russellville. This was the closest predicted spot in the 鈥減ath of totality,鈥� where the moon鈥檚 umbra (Latin for 鈥渟hadow鈥�) would travel from Mexico to Maine over the course of two and a half hours.
The group experienced 鈥渢otality鈥� for more than four minutes, using eclipse-viewing filters and several telescopes. Physics professor Dr. Albert Gapud captured the students鈥� .
Among the group were seven students who were taking (or had completed) Gapud鈥檚 Introduction to Astronomy class (PH 101). Freshman Daniel P. Smith described the moon鈥檚 silhouette 鈥淸g]azing down on us from the sky [as] a pitch black disk surrounded by a blazing white ring of light. The corona, looking like a pure cloud of glowing smoke, shot out of it in all directions into thin spikes. I felt in that moment something鈥hat seemed as if it should only exist in fiction.鈥�
Keeping a careful record over the four minutes, Smith also reported a temperature drop of 45 degrees. Freshman Noah P. Oliver IV, who brought his own 10 inch Dobsonian reflecting telescope, captured clear views of the corona and prominences in the chromosphere which are visible only during totality.
Afterwards, graduating senior Diala Bouriaque, while amazed by the experience, also poignantly echoed much of the group鈥檚 sentiment that 鈥渢he trip is not about the process, nor even the destination. It's about the people who come along with you.鈥�
Dean Doug Marshall from the Honors College witnessed, for the second time, the experience鈥檚 deep impact on the students. He鈥檚 hopeful that this eclipse-trip tradition will continue, with sights set on the 2045 total solar eclipse 鈥� this time, closer to home, over central Alabama.