Dean and guest Michael Zeiler, a geographic information systems specialist and creator of greatamericaneclipse.com, discuss the upcoming total solar eclipse on April 8th, 2024 in Looking Up’s triumphant return!
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:
Looking Up is transcribed using a combination of AI speech recognition and human editors. It may contain errors. Please check the corresponding audio before quoting in print.
Dean Regas 0:01
The United States will be shrouded in darkness under the shadow of the moon blocking out the entire sun, a total solar eclipse, the likes of which hasn't been seen in the continental United States for seven years, we'll be joined by an expert in Eclipse mapping to help us understand where we need to be to view this incredible event. But we'll have to clear up some Eclipse terminology first. From the studios of Cincinnati Public Radio, I'm your host, Dean Regas. And this is looking up the show that takes you deep into the cosmos, or just to the telescope and your backyard to learn more about what makes this amazing universe of ours so great. This week, our special guest is Michael Zeiler, and Eclipse cartographers so to speak, and the publisher of great American eclipse.com.
Dean Regas 1:07
So we have this amazing, incredible astronomical event, probably the most exciting astronomical event in all the universe, a total solar eclipse is going to be coming over the United States on April 8 2024. Now, when you have a total solar eclipse, and you see those great pictures of you know, this black hole with these wispy cloudy things coming around it, that's called the corona that is the outer atmosphere of the sun. And it appears during these total solar eclipses, most of the time, it's just too bright out there, the sun is too bright. So you can't see this Corona. And the corona of the Sun is this weird place in the first part, because it's actually hotter than the surface of the Sun itself, the Sun's surface about 10,000 degrees, but the corona is a million or even more degrees. And for astronomers, they don't actually know why that is there. We're still trying to figure it out. But that's one of the cool things you can see during a total solar eclipse, you can't see any other time is that Corona. Now, there's also some other terms that might be thrown around, and one of them is the umbra. The Umbra is the moon's shadow that is cast onto the earth, during the total solar eclipse, that shadow like reaches all the way down to the earth. And, and so you might even see some pictures of this from satellites, they can take pictures of the Earth and show the shadow hitting the ground, which is really, really cool to see. The thing is you got to be in the right place at the right time and what's called the path of totality. And this is like a really, really narrow path. So even though almost the entire United States will be able to see part of the Sun blocked out to see a total solar eclipse, it is incredible. When you have a total solar eclipse, that Umbra is going on to you, so you are in that part of the shadow. But if you're outside of the path of totality, then you get an only part of the shadow hits you. And that's called the penumbra. So, really, the most important thing is be in the Umbra absolutely positively.
Dean Regas 3:26
Now, I know that the April 8 2024 total solar eclipse is going to get all the press and you're gonna get everybody's attention and rightly so. But there is a warm up a practice eclipse that you can get ready for on October 14 2023. Now, it's not going to be a total solar eclipse. It's going to be a partial solar eclipse, but a unique one because now the moon's changes its distance from us. So sometimes it's a little closer to us and sometimes a little farther from us when it's too far away from us to block out the entire sun, oh man, it creates this other weird kind of cool Eclipse called an annular eclipse. And so what it looks like is you'll see the sun up there with the moon inside of it. It's like a halo effect. And it is a really rare thing to see I've only seen one annular eclipse, and it it was pretty cool. Well plus I got to see it from a cool place. I went out to Reno Nevada. And so I saw it at the foothills of Lake Tahoe. And that was pretty memorable to see this thing and so it doesn't block out the entire sun but does get a little darker outside and a little cooler, but you still have to use protective glasses because even if 1% of the Sun is showing, you still need to protect your eyes from this. So the annular eclipse on October 14th is I'm kind of looking at it as the practice as the rehearsal for the total solar eclipse on April 8 2024. So that means get your like protective glasses now before this Get ready to take some pictures, prepare doing some solar practices always good. So if you want to see the annular part where the moon Nestle's inside of the sun, the path goes from Oregon very narrow path to, by the way from Oregon, through a great national parks like Crater Lake is gonna go through Utah, New Mexico, and Texas. And so it's another one that you can maybe mark on your calendar make a little vacation on October 14, to head out to those Western states to check it out.
Dean Regas 5:38
But let's get back to the main ship, the total solar eclipse that's happening about a year from now, tricky part for us in Cincinnati here is that we're not going to be exactly in the path of totality, we're going to be at 99% blocked, the sun will be 99% blocked in the Cincinnati area. But all you have to do at least for Cincinnatians is to drive about 45 minutes to an hour away. So you go up either I 75 towards Dayton, or I 74 out towards Indianapolis. But if you're listening to this from other places, you want to like plan ahead and think about what places you want to go. There's some pretty cool spots that are on this totalities path, the totality all the way from Texas up to even like Niagara Falls, and out to there. So there's some great places that you can see this from. So how long will this last? It depends on where you are in the path of totality. So do the maximum is going to be about four minutes or so where the sun is blocked out by for four minutes. And I don't know, I don't know if you're thinking this but you might be thinking this is like, wait a second, I'm gonna like travel all the way down to like Texas and Niagra falls for four minutes. It sounds ridiculous. It does sound like this. Yo, I'm just looking up at this the moon block in the sun. I'm with you. Because I was like, Yeah, you know, I mean, this is cool. I'm sure it's gonna be good. As an astronomer, seeing my first one back in 2004. I was blown away. I mean, it is just incredible. And so please mark your calendar for this. We'd love to have everybody in the United States see this. This is something that you want to see. Because there won't be another one in the US like this for quite a while. I mean that we had the one in 2017. And, and maybe you can comment if you can remember what you did. And 2017. I always like to hear people's experiences of what they saw on they did in that last solar eclipse. And then we'll just start taking some seeking some notes for this one coming up. All right. So I hope I stressed enough how important this total solar eclipse is, and I got you motivated, and I got you thinking okay, well, alright, I better start planning ahead. Dean says I should do this. And so where do you want to go? When do you want to see it? All that kind of stuff? Well, we got a guy that can help you out quite a bit. We're joined today by geographic information system specialists. That's a pretty cool title. I don't know that was a job. It was. That sounds good. And he's an eclipse expert. His name is Michael Zeiler, who most recently has spent his time using this amazing technology to make the most precise Eclipse maps to date. Like you could zoom into street level and see what kind of Eclipse you will experience on that day. Oh, man, this is going to be good. Well, Michael, thanks so much for joining us today.
Michael Zeiler 8:39
It's my pleasure to join you.
Dean Regas 8:41
This has got to be the season that you're most excited about. We got two big solar eclipses common. I mean, this is what you do, right this is you are like the Eclipse guru, right?
Michael Zeiler 8:55
Well, yeah, I I've seen a 10 total solar eclipses. And it's for anyone with nitrous in in astronomy. It's like the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving and Christmas and Easter in the Super Bowl all wrapped up into one event because it simply is the most beautiful and the most stunning event that you will ever see in in the sky in your life. So it's something that fills us with anticipation. And we've got two great total solar eclipses coming up an annular solar eclipse coming this October 14 across the western United States, which will be a warm up act for the main event, a total solar eclipse next April 8 of 2024, which is going to blow people's minds along the path from Texas to Maine.
Dean Regas 9:52
Oh, yeah,I mean, I think that a lot of people are remembering that last one in 2017 where it came across almost the entire unit I'd states that could see it. And so was that kind of the start of the website, great American eclipse.com. Tell us about that.
Michael Zeiler 10:09
Well, the great American eclipse.com actually began right after the 2012, annular solar eclipse, because I had a small website at the time. And I published some maps of for that Eclipse, and then come eclipse day, my, my little website gets a million views. And then I realized the potential and the public interest in these eclipses and the mass that I provide. So I put, I launched great American Eclipse. And it's been going strong ever since.
Dean Regas 10:49
Well, and so this is a place where people can get, you know, very detailed maps of where they have to be to see exactly, everything. So it gives everybody a nice preview.
Michael Zeiler 11:01
Yeah, I'm actually a retired cartographer, I work, I had a long career for the leading GIS company and called EZRI. And when I was preparing to see the eclipse in 2009, the existing maps didn't meet my needs. And so I decided to combine my personal interests in astronomy and, and solar eclipses, together with my professional interests. And so I I'm having a great time making beautiful and detailed maps of the solar eclipses.
Dean Regas 11:44
And I mean, when you like, zoom in on these, you can see like, exact like roads that you need to be on and you know, where you'll see totality versus not quite totality. And, yeah, and the center line of where you want to be. Well, so I got to ask, Where are you going to be on October 14 this year?
Michael Zeiler 12:08
Well, I've seen three turtles, and I'm sorry, I've seen three annular eclipses already. And this will be my fourth. And so I'm going to go for something a little bit different. And I'm going to the northern edge of the path of annular eclipse. And the reason I'm going there is because there's a certain phenomena that will be accentuated if you're on on either the northern or southern edge of of the path. And those are called Bayleys speeds. So I'm sacrificing the duration of the beautiful, symmetric annular eclipse the ring that you'll see during that Eclipse for what are what is going to be an amazing light show of the beads of sunlight along the lunar limb that's going to last between 30 seconds and a minute. If you're in the center of the annular eclipse, then you'll see it for a few seconds. But on the edges, you'll see it for a long period. And so that's what I'm going for.
Dean Regas 13:17
First, I like the confidence that you are going to see your fourth one coming up. And then secondly, that is a really cool thing to see the Bailey's beads because you think of the moon as this kind of perfect sphere, but it has lumps and bumps and mountains and you can actually see those mountains blocking out part of the Sun as it goes along.
Michael Zeiler 13:37
Exactly.
Dean Regas 13:39
All right. Well, so you might have me convinced I was gonna go like try dead center. So I get that beautiful halo effect when you're looking through it. But But yeah, that Eclipse I think that's the thing is that people were kind of sleeping on the one in October, you know, and thinking about the April one, what are some good tips that you have for people to get ready for both of the eclipses?
Michael Zeiler 14:03
Well, first of all, get your eclipse glasses early. There I don't know about the October are close. But for the April Eclipse, they're certainly going to be they're going to run out so I would get those early. And then for both the eclipses. The general tips are especially for the April Eclipse is get to your destination early. And if you can stay there late. What happened during the 2017 Eclipse was there were massive traffic jams the moment the total solar eclipse ended and we can expect that again. So if you possibly can try and spend the night at your viewing location or near your viewing location because it's likely that the highways are going to be jammed up The other tip that I would give is, it's, it's going to be an amazing sight like nothing you've ever seen. And you may have ideas of doing photography. But well, what likely will happen is that you'll be so stunned at the sight of the eclipse. And you're just going to want to gaze at it with your jaw wide open. And it's better to unless you're a real professional, it's better to skip the photography. And one thing we like to do actually is use our smartphones, and turn the prop the smartphone, on a on a piece of furniture or something like that. Start the video a couple of minutes before the Eclipse, that total eclipse begins and record the sounds of your of your family and friends experiencing the Eclipse because that recording will be very memorable, you're going to be amazed at people's reaction. And it'll be wonderful to capture a recording of that.
Dean Regas 16:18
Well, that was the exact advice that astronomer David Levy gave me like, what my first eclipses is, yeah, don't try to photograph it, just take it all in, don't waste your time like taking pictures, other people are gonna take better pictures. And you're absolutely right there is these videos with the audio of people's reactions to it. And, you know, I'm a rational, reasonable person. And I knew what to expect with my first eclipses or so I thought, once the darkness falls all heck breaks loose, I mean, your your your brain turns to mush. It's really crazy, isn't it?
Michael Zeiler 16:56
Yeah, it is. And it, it's you cannot prepare yourself for for that event. It's very common for people to do things like leave their lens cap on their cameras, and, and so forth. And you'll just it's like a scene from a science fiction movie. It's like nothing you've ever seen before. And the beautiful thing about it too, is it's one of the very few times in your life that you can actually see the solar system in motion. So it brings you It connects you with with the cosmos and, and you are part of the alignment of the sun, moon and you.
Dean Regas 17:44
Man, it's I am looking forward to this. You are absolutely right. This is like the, you know, all the holidays and Super Bowl wrapped into one for us in this biz. And I think it's so great that, you know, this, the 2017 Eclipse really, I think, highlighted people's interest in this stuff. It was really one of those great nationwide events. And it is being stuck in that traffic jam afterwards and taking eight hours to get home after it. During the traffic jam. I was really frustrated and mad. But then you're like thinking this was all for an astronomical event that millions and millions of people saw. And they're all going to remember it. It's so
Michael Zeiler 18:31
yeah, I was in Wyoming for the 2017 and Eclipse. And, and an amazing fact from that Eclipse in Wyoming is that the population of the state of Wyoming tripled on a clip state and the drive back home from Wyoming. Normally to get to Colorado from that part of Wyoming takes three hours. It took us 16 hours to traverse that because there was only one highway out of the path. So that's why we say if you possibly can stay at your viewing location.
Dean Regas 19:15
Well, this has been great chatting about this. I think it's we want to get people prepared ahead of time and make a whole week of this. And a couple of weeks before the October 14 of this year and April 8 of next year. will tell us how can we find a little bit more out about you and a little bit more about the great American Eclipse.
Michael Zeiler 19:35
Well come on over and visit great American eclipse.com. We have so much information on that website. And we offer so much educational content. People are free to use any of the content on our website and share it with their friends or on social media and And we invite people to do so. And we, we just work so hard to to put these resources out there for people to share it. We are passionate about solar eclipses and we are eager to share that with with the public.
Dean Regas 20:21
Well, Michael, is there anything you want to leave us with today?
Michael Zeiler 20:24
I would say something like this. Life is short. We live on a beautiful planet. Keep looking up at the wonders in the sky
Dean Regas 20:41
Well, this has been awesome. I'm excited. I am pumped up for these eclipses. Michael, thanks so much for being on the show today.
Michael Zeiler 20:48
Sure, it's been my pleasure.
