0:00

Hey, space nerds! We hope you enjoyed

0:02

the grand finale of our Sun series

0:04

last week. But we couldn't get

0:06

enough of the Sun, so today we're back

0:08

with a little treat. A bonus episode. This

0:13

is NASA's Curious Universe. Our

0:15

universe is a wild and wonderful place.

0:18

I'm your host, Patty Boyd. And I'm

0:20

your co-host, Jacob Pinter. In this podcast,

0:22

NASA is your tour guide. On

0:25

April 8th, a total solar eclipse

0:27

passed over North America. 40

0:29

million people tuned in to watch NASA's

0:32

live stream. And millions more traveled to

0:34

the path of totality themselves to experience

0:36

it in person. And you

0:38

better believe we weren't going to miss

0:40

it. Our audio team fanned out across

0:42

the U.S. from Texas to Ohio to

0:44

bring back dispatches from the path of

0:46

totality. Today, we'll hear from space nerds

0:48

we met in the wild. We hope

0:50

you enjoy reliving this special day with us.

0:53

Whether you got to see the eclipse in

0:55

person or experience it through NASA's live broadcast.

0:58

And to kick off the celebration,

1:00

here's Christian Elliott, Curious Universe producer.

1:02

Hi, Patty. Hi, Jacob. Christian,

1:04

we sent you to Texas for the eclipse, right? That's

1:06

right. Like millions of people across the country,

1:09

I was on a pilgrimage to the path

1:11

of totality. Flying and then

1:13

driving hundreds of miles to experience what

1:15

I hoped would be four and a

1:17

half minutes of magic and the best

1:19

shot in the country at clear weather,

1:21

according to long-term forecasts at least. This

1:25

is Christian Elliott, Curious Universe producer. It's

1:28

Saturday, April 6th. I'm

1:31

in Dallas, Texas, and

1:34

just got in the rental car to

1:36

drive down to Kerrville, Texas, which is

1:38

five hours south, where

1:41

we're going to be for totality.

1:43

My partner Summer was with me and we

1:45

had plenty of snacks for the drive. Sure,

1:48

I'd love to do a haul. Oh, I

1:50

didn't even two days go in the bag. Here

1:53

we have some dark chocolate covered espresso

1:55

beans. We've got our

1:58

latte in a can. Oh, I

2:01

forgot about it. Sounds like you had plenty

2:03

of caffeine. Yeah, for

2:05

that drive, it was necessary. I

2:08

was a day early. Since I was reporting

2:10

for NASA, I wanted to capture all the

2:12

lead-up for this big celestial event. Hey, are

2:14

we going the wrong way out of one

2:16

way? I hope not, but maybe. Anyway,

2:19

eventually I reached the flowery rolling

2:21

hills of southern Texas and the

2:23

Kerrville Folk Festival. The Kerrville

2:26

Folk Festival sounds like a music festival, Christian, which

2:28

is not a bad place to watch the eclipse.

2:31

Yeah, so my first stop was this music

2:33

festival. It was at a ranch just outside

2:35

of the tiny town of Kerrville. It's

2:38

an annual event, but this year they

2:40

were calling it the Kerr-Clips Festival. Good

2:44

morning! Good morning! How's it

2:46

going? Good. I'm headed over to the

2:48

meadow area, big meadow area, to do

2:50

an interview. An event? Yeah. All

2:53

right. Hey, meadow is

2:55

just that way. Okay. Now,

2:57

for a lot of people, an eclipse

2:59

is an amazing, emotional thing to see.

3:02

You might make plans weeks in advance to

3:04

get to totality and see it, just like

3:07

these festival-goers had. But I

3:09

was there to meet scientists. And for

3:11

them, this is serious business. They

3:13

make plans years in advance, and they

3:16

set up all this scientific equipment for

3:18

a brief, few-minute glimpse at the sun's

3:20

atmosphere. It's corona. They travel the world

3:22

following the moon's shadow, and each time,

3:25

they only get one shot at getting

3:27

it right. Amid

3:30

the guitar circles and tents, we

3:32

ducked under a rope and eventually

3:34

found Ben Bose. Hello.

3:36

Hello! Christian? Yes.

3:40

I'm Ben. Good to meet you. Ben, good to

3:42

meet you too. I'm pretty good. Yeah. Ben's

3:44

a solar physicist who studies eclipses. This

3:46

is his sixth one. He's been

3:48

to places like Antarctica to view them.

3:51

He works with this 40-person team of scientists

3:53

from across the world. Over

3:55

here, we have, this is just our base camp, you

3:57

know, the human element of physics.

4:00

Yeah, this is our observing tent. We

4:02

then led me into this big green

4:04

ruthless tent full of equipment 16

4:08

telescopes with solar filters split between

4:10

two stands Tables covered with

4:12

laptops each one showing an image of

4:14

the Sun from each of the telescopes

4:17

So anyway here we have two mounts each

4:20

of these has eight telescopes Each

4:23

one of these telescopes is doing a slightly different

4:25

thing. Sure. We've got in there if I take

4:28

my shoes off Yeah, yeah, please Each

4:31

telescope stand holding eight telescopes in

4:33

a custom metal frame off to

4:35

one side had this long Orange

4:37

cylinder way off to the other

4:39

side like a waiter balancing a

4:41

tray of drinks Yeah,

4:45

so this counterweight is actually just PVC pipe and

4:47

then we just go to our location look around

4:49

for rocks And this is just full of rocks

4:51

right now Local

4:53

Texas local Texas rocks are

4:56

our counterweights then there those

4:58

cables are run to a set of laptops

5:00

So we have each laptop runs each

5:02

pair of telescope gonna say lots of

5:04

laptop. Yes lots of laptops PSA usually

5:07

doesn't like us very much because they're

5:09

like you have how many laptops with

5:11

all of these instruments Ben's team was

5:13

set up to get a look at

5:15

the Sun's corona. That's impossible outside of

5:17

an eclipse This is super cool

5:19

But I know from experience that when you're watching

5:21

an eclipse on the ground You can know the

5:23

right place to be at the right time years

5:26

in advance But it all comes

5:28

down to getting clear weather on the big

5:30

day. Yeah, you're right and Unfortunately,

5:32

the weather report was not looking good

5:34

here Ben had chosen Texas Hill

5:36

Country for the same reason that I had

5:39

because long-term Forecasts predicted clear

5:41

skies, but now it was cloudy.

5:43

So how how important is it

5:45

to get clear skies tomorrow?

5:49

Here. Yeah, So that's the one major

5:51

downside to being here on the ground.

5:53

Is That we really are at the

5:55

mercy of what our atmosphere would like

5:57

to give us. with the eclipse you

5:59

get? One shot every year, year and

6:01

a half or so and so for

6:04

us. We get very sad when they're

6:06

cloud because it it does. Definitely camper

6:08

camper The data. They have clear skies

6:10

when they set everything up, but today

6:12

when they hope to calibrate the equipment

6:15

that was cloudy. but luckily they had

6:17

a couple of backup. For.

6:20

Starters, there were two other teams like

6:22

bands stationed on the ground with telescope

6:25

set up in Mexico in Arkansas. But

6:27

even if our three ground stations you

6:29

know, with a hypothetically all three could

6:32

be clouded out, it's It's not impossible

6:34

that that happens. Ah, but that's why

6:36

we also have the Kite Mission which

6:38

is in Southern Texas. They are Christian.

6:41

Can you explain this trade mission? Yeah,

6:44

this is there other eastern the whole. They're

6:46

going to translate huge paid with instruments

6:48

on it. way up above the clouds

6:50

it actually looks had a similar to

6:52

the classic drawing. you see a Benjamin

6:55

Franklin with the key on the site.

6:57

It's a bit like that. where does

6:59

that? The large try to the top

7:01

than the key is like the instrument

7:03

hanging partly down men as a long

7:05

table. the runs to the ground only.

7:07

this guy was flying over a mile

7:09

in the air and if that wasn't

7:11

high enough, Nasa was planning to flights

7:13

to W B. fifty seven of research

7:15

planes even higher. The idea was

7:17

that someone somewhere would be able to

7:19

see the sun no matter the weather.

7:21

Since they only have one son at

7:23

this every eighteen months or so, they

7:26

can't leave anything up to chance and

7:28

the seem chases eclipses for science. But

7:30

of course they also do it because

7:32

they love it. My favorite eclipse so

7:34

far that I've seen was twenty seventeen.

7:36

Ah, and I saw the Corona stretching

7:38

across the sky and I had this

7:40

really profound moment of feeling like I

7:42

was in solar system. I could really

7:44

see it all laid out before me.

7:47

and it was no longer some abstract

7:49

idea that from school teacher draws on

7:51

a blackboard says this is how it

7:53

is the gulf okay sir it was

7:55

there it was just it was this

7:57

very powerful emotional moment even i'm getting

7:59

emotional thinking about it. For

8:01

some team members this would be their first eclipse.

8:03

I talked to one researcher who'd

8:05

just flown in from Hawaii. Being from Hawaii

8:08

you're kind of always surrounded by astronomy.

8:10

It's kind of just like deeply rooted in our

8:12

culture. She had some nerves leading up to this.

8:15

This day had been on her calendar for so

8:17

long and it would all come down to a

8:20

few critical minutes of science. I'm in

8:22

charge of the computers for this telescope

8:24

here and it'll since it'll be

8:26

my first eclipse I'm really worried

8:28

that I'll start crying and won't

8:30

be able to press the right

8:32

buttons. And just before

8:35

I left the clouds

8:39

cleared a bit and the team jumped

8:41

into action calibrating their instruments. We might

8:43

have just lucked out right now. No

8:46

I'm gonna put these on here but I need to know

8:48

when those are done. I made myself scarce and let them

8:50

work. That hole right there.

8:53

I can't that just be over us all

8:55

day. So where did you

8:57

go next? Then I headed from

8:59

this ranch over the rolling hills and

9:02

into the town of Kerrville to Shriner

9:04

University to meet another scientist. He

9:08

was staying at

9:19

a little cabin behind an observatory. My

9:22

name is Alan Hale. Most

9:25

people know me or know my name at least

9:27

because of a certain bright comet that was

9:29

in this guy a quarter century ago. That

9:32

time has long gone. Alan

9:35

Hale. The Alan Hale who

9:37

co-discovered Comet Hale-Bopp? He's pretty

9:39

famous. Yeah exactly and that's

9:41

a good story. So he got into

9:44

comets as a kid. He's observed some

9:46

700 comets throughout his

9:48

life and when he was

9:50

younger he was putting in hundreds of

9:52

hours trying to discover a comet on

9:54

his own. Just scanning the sky every

9:56

night. Then he gave it up until

9:58

one night in 1995

10:01

when he started looking again on a whim. It

10:21

was a brand new comet. But

10:30

that's funny. Alan

10:33

got to name it and when it

10:35

got closer to the sun, it turned

10:37

out to be super bright. There's this

10:39

comet scientist saying, bet on a horse,

10:41

not on a comet. They're unpredictable, they

10:44

can fizzle out or explode or just

10:46

end up being very dim. Well, it's

10:48

a good thing Alan bet on that

10:50

comet because everybody could see

10:52

it. And discovering it changed his

10:54

life. It made my

10:56

life very interesting. I bet. For

10:58

quite a while. I mean, it got to the

11:00

point where we turned the ringers off all

11:02

the phones in the house and not only... He

11:05

met the vice president, he was

11:07

on the Today Show flying city

11:09

to city and meeting astronauts like

11:11

Buzz Aldrin and Star Trek stars

11:13

like Patrick Stewart. Hale-Bopp really launched

11:15

his career. Well, I mean, lots

11:17

of people have discovered that

11:20

even to this day it's probably been seen by

11:22

more people than any climate in history. But

11:25

now, that was 25 years ago,

11:27

now I'm a question on Jeffery.

11:32

Now things are different. Most comments

11:34

get discovered by automatic survey programs,

11:37

not by I from backyard telescopes

11:39

or by folks like Alan scanning

11:41

the skies. But he hasn't given

11:43

up and he was here to do something pretty unique,

11:46

to try to spot a sun grazing

11:48

comet from the ground during an eclipse.

11:51

Sun grazers are those comets that we heard

11:53

about earlier in the series, the ones that

11:55

the Soho Observatory in space can spot. So

11:57

Alan was trying to see one from the

11:59

ground. Yeah, exactly. He was working

12:01

pretty closely with Carl Batoms, the scientist

12:04

who runs the Sun Grazer Citizen Science

12:06

Project that we talked to earlier in

12:08

our series. He had orbital

12:10

experts lined up to measure the positions

12:12

and tell Alan where to point his

12:14

telescope. This is important

12:16

research because we don't have that

12:19

many good ground observations of sun

12:21

grazers to calibrate SOHO's detections from

12:23

space. He'd been trying since the

12:25

seven and

12:30

he hadn't found one yet. The timing has never

12:32

worked. The timing has to be almost perfect. We

12:35

have to have a fundraiser

12:37

appear so that it's

12:39

right and close to the sun during

12:41

totality and then they move in and

12:44

disintegrate. There's a

12:46

very narrow window when one of these is

12:48

visible and it just has never worked. So

12:51

this sounds like a long shot. Yeah,

12:53

it definitely was, but Alan saw this

12:55

as his last best chance. He's

12:58

getting older and doesn't travel much and

13:00

of course the next eclipse in the

13:02

US is decades away. So

13:04

I wished him luck and headed out. Wow,

13:07

it's pretty cool to know that while everybody was

13:09

looking up at the sun and moon during the

13:11

eclipse, there were all these scientists looking up too

13:14

and trying to discover new things. So

13:16

we've got these scientists, they're all ready to go, and

13:18

on the actual eclipse day, Christian, I don't want

13:20

to spoil the surprise, but I know that you

13:22

made a last-minute change in your plans. Yeah,

13:25

so funny story. You know how

13:27

earlier in this series, Fred Espenak

13:30

aka Mr. Eclipse, he

13:32

said that to be an eclipse jaster you

13:34

have to be ready to drive hours right

13:36

before the eclipse to run from bad weather.

13:39

It's April 8th, about 6am. He saved

13:43

the eclipse. There

13:45

has been a change of plans. Well,

13:47

the weather forecast was looking pretty stormy

13:50

in Kerrville for eclipse day, so I

13:52

made a rash decision. Wait, last night

13:55

drove up to Dallas

13:58

from Kerrville. Just

14:00

five hours and got up here

14:03

pretty late and just

14:05

met up with the NASA broadcast

14:07

team here

14:09

in Dallas at the Dallas Ever-Eddham. I

14:11

feel like a true equestriator now. And

14:14

I was just one thread of

14:16

the story. NASA had hundreds of

14:19

scientists and communication staff spread across

14:21

the country in 14 locations

14:23

we were calling sunspots. And so

14:25

we're about to hear dispatches from

14:28

the path of totality. And

14:30

why don't we start with you Jacob? Well I

14:32

was nudging leaf blowers in the early morning

14:34

at the Arboretum in Dallas. You were

14:36

on your way to totality too, right? I

14:39

was. I ended up in Paris. Paris,

14:42

Arkansas. It's a town of 3,000 some people,

14:45

the city of lights but smaller. And

14:47

for the eclipse they were prepared for at least that

14:49

many visitors. Paris is a couple of

14:51

hours from where I grew up so I drove there

14:53

with my dad and some other family which was really

14:55

special. We strolled around the little

14:57

downtown area. You know it's one of those

15:00

picturesque town squares that's got a county courthouse

15:02

in the middle and then surrounded by stores

15:04

and restaurants. And they have fun

15:06

with the name Paris. Okay

15:08

dad, talk to me. Where

15:11

are we and what's going on? So

15:13

we are standing right next to the

15:15

Eiffel Tower replica, all 12 feet of

15:17

it. It could have been there first. I

15:19

mean we don't know. Well that's true. That's

15:23

entirely possible that Paris, France borrowed

15:25

the idea from Paris, Arkansas but

15:28

placing no bets. And the skies

15:32

are looking very favorable, high

15:34

clouds. There's even a

15:36

pancake breakfast on the other side of the square for

15:38

those that are needing to satisfy

15:40

a breakfast hunger. Well a

15:43

few hundred miles northeast of you, my

15:45

parents, were doing just that. It's

15:49

7 30 on Monday

15:51

morning, eclipse day. We're in

15:53

Mary Lou's Cafe. The

15:55

eggs are sizzling on the grill. Biscuits

15:58

and gravy are... in

16:00

high demand. He said, smell the

16:03

coffee. And

16:06

the waitress is peddling eclipse

16:08

shirts along with your coffee,

16:12

pancakes, and orange juice. They'd

16:16

listened to our Sun series and they'd

16:18

gotten really excited about the eclipse as

16:20

we covered it and so they decided

16:22

to drive six hours south to Carbondale,

16:24

Illinois to be in the path of

16:26

totality and so I deputized them as

16:28

honorary field reporters for the day. Christian,

16:31

tell your folks that they are naturals on the

16:33

radio. I will say where I was we also

16:35

had good t-shirts. I brought one home

16:38

that said, I got mooned in Paris, Arkansas.

16:41

That's a good one. I got one that looks

16:43

like a band tour shirt and it lists all

16:45

the cities in totality. I have that

16:47

same t-shirt. It glows in the dark if

16:49

you don't know. Ooh! I didn't realize that

16:51

until I like Florida's pajamas one night. I was

16:53

like, whoa!

16:57

I will also say where I was there

16:59

was music, there were food trucks, just a

17:02

super festive vibe all around. It was a

17:04

party. Even the great

17:06

folks of Paris put

17:08

up little flags commemorating

17:10

the event for the

17:12

total eclipse on their lamp posts all

17:15

throughout the square. So the

17:17

town is all in on the event

17:19

and it's a lot of fun to

17:21

see and growing excitement as we get

17:23

closer. Yeah, it was the same in

17:25

Carbondale at Southern Illinois University's Saluti Stadium.

17:27

It's 830 and we've just

17:29

arrived at the stadium at Southern

17:31

Illinois University. There's a lot of decorated

17:33

vehicles here. The one right next to me says future

17:36

NASA employee totality

17:39

or bust. Okay,

17:41

this is so cool. We've got Arkansas,

17:43

Illinois, Texas. That's where I was in

17:45

the cotton bowl with a science-themed vibe

17:47

with Noah and NASA talking to lots

17:49

of families and kids. It was very

17:51

exciting. Do we have anyone else out

17:53

in the field? Yeah,

17:55

NASA held events all across the path of

17:57

totality. Miles Hatfield was at the

17:59

one that I personally had the most fomo

18:01

about. He's a writer on our Sun Science

18:03

team and he was watching the eclipse from the

18:06

Indianapolis Motor Speedway, home of the Indy 500.

18:13

Now, 11.15, a

18:16

little under four hours

18:18

until locality reaches Indianapolis

18:21

and this place is Jan and... Hey,

18:24

there are lots

18:27

to be left. I've

18:38

been gotten most final numbers but the last estimate

18:41

was something like 50,000 people were going to be

18:43

here. And

18:45

it is so wild because, you

18:47

know, people are filling up the

18:50

stands and

18:53

it's all about looking up at the sun. It's

18:56

like this huge sporting event that's just happening

18:58

in the cosmos. It's really cool

19:00

to look at. It was also

19:02

a sports event atmosphere in Illinois where

19:04

my parents were. It's a gorgeous

19:07

day. The sun is shining.

19:10

Birds are chirping in

19:12

the trees. Crowds have just

19:14

entered the stadium within the last 15 minutes. The

19:18

stage is set up. There'll be

19:20

lots of presentations. NASA

19:22

has a presence here and

19:24

we're all very excited for the upcoming

19:27

eclipse. And as people

19:29

started to flood into all these NASA

19:31

events, Jacob and I started talking with

19:33

folks. Just like us, they had

19:35

spent many hours in the car to get

19:37

to totality. How far of a

19:39

drive is that? Seven hours? Seven,

19:41

eight hours total. Yeah, we actually had

19:43

six hours drive, something easy. Decision,

19:46

you know. And I drove all the way

19:48

from Virginia Beach. So, 11

19:50

hour drive. Stopping a couple of times. Where I

19:52

was, there was a map of the US where

19:55

people could mark where they came from. There

19:57

were dots all over the country and some from

19:59

even... further away. But I just

20:01

think it's fascinating that so many people, I mean

20:03

look at the middle of where people came from. It's

20:06

just fantastic. We have two friends

20:08

in from Germany. Just visiting France and

20:10

secondly, in Puerto Rico. We

20:14

have from France, there

20:16

was Sweden, the Czech Republic, the

20:18

Living Prague, Czech Republic. Okay, well you

20:20

get the most frequent flyer miles I

20:22

guess. Also Living Prague but Slovak citizens.

20:26

Cool. So, had many of

20:28

these people seen an eclipse before? Yeah,

20:30

a couple. We ran into some old timers.

20:32

But mostly it was a lot of first

20:34

timers. And I have to say, everyone I

20:36

talked to knew a lot about eclipses. Like

20:39

much more than I knew before we started making

20:41

this series. I had the same

20:43

impression. So in Paris, I met some younger

20:45

space explorers. Apparently a local news

20:48

outlet was sponsoring a costume contest. I

20:50

saw one teenager with a homemade half moon,

20:52

half sun outfit. She had painted her face

20:54

half and half too. And there

20:56

were even younger kids in snazzy astronaut costumes. Right

20:59

down to the NASA patch on the chest. Tell

21:01

me about what's going to happen today. Like what

21:03

have you heard? I've heard that

21:05

there's going to be an eclipse today. What

21:08

does that mean? It means the moon

21:10

goes in front of the sun. And

21:13

are you excited for that? Yes, very

21:15

excited. Why? Because it's

21:17

going to be all dark. Yeah?

21:20

And it's probably my first time seeing it. Yeah,

21:22

it's my first time too. I

21:24

met a few well-informed kids too. NASA.

21:27

I love NASA. I love NASA. Yeah,

21:30

he's a little astronaut. Perfect

21:33

for him. What do you think is

21:35

going to happen when the eclipse happens?

21:38

I don't know what

21:40

will happen if the

21:42

birds will go wild. Yet

21:45

it also is going to be blackout. So

21:48

why did you dress up in your astronaut uniform today?

21:50

Because I'm going to go to the moon. You're

21:53

going to the moon? No way. When?

21:56

Tomorrow. That sounds great. Can I come with

21:58

you? A

22:02

lot of people I met had been aware of

22:04

the eclipse for months or even years. And

22:07

they knew exactly what to expect. The change

22:09

in temperature, the strange animal behavior. I

22:11

didn't notice anybody looking at the sun

22:13

without eclipse glasses, which really warmed my heart.

22:16

I was just impressed by how ready people were to

22:18

soak it all in. Well, I've heard that

22:20

from NASA, you know. It says that it's

22:22

going to get dark and stuff like that.

22:24

You know, from what I hear, and you probably

22:26

know more about it than I do, that the temperature's

22:29

going to change about 20 degrees if you're wearing green

22:31

and red. That that, you know, color will look different

22:33

to you. It freaks out the bees. It

22:35

freaks out the birds. It freaks out. I'm just

22:37

looking forward to seeing, like, the magic everyone talks

22:39

about. I don't know. Just, like,

22:41

the energy of the eclipse. I

22:44

feel like I could benefit from

22:46

it, whatever it is. I

22:49

think, you know, just to have some quiet,

22:51

have all the lights out, and experience it with

22:53

all these other people. And I'm really excited to

22:55

hear the oohs and the ahs. And that's

22:57

the thing I'm looking forward to now. And

23:02

it sounds like it was clear where you

23:04

were, Jacob. But I gotta say, I was

23:06

running from clouds already by going to Dallas.

23:08

And then that morning, it was still not

23:11

looking good. The clouds just kept coming in

23:13

more and more, and people were stressing about

23:15

it. It really was stressful, because so many

23:17

people were trying to make that last minute decision. Should

23:20

I stay or should I go? I'm

23:22

sure someone around here somewhere will get

23:24

a good look. I'm

23:26

really hoping it's off. Right. Maybe

23:29

a mile over it. Maybe right here is

23:31

where the cumulus clouds end up, right? It

23:34

took a couple hours for the moon to move

23:36

over the sun. And anytime there was a gap

23:38

in the clouds, everyone would look up with their

23:40

glasses on. I know. Yeah.

23:43

I love it. If the sky stays this

23:45

way, I will thank NASA and the Goddard

23:48

Space Flight Center. So we

23:50

were busy talking to folks, finding these space

23:52

nerds out in the wild. And

23:54

then everybody settled down to

23:56

just experience totality in Dallas,

23:58

Paris, and Carp. in Indianapolis.

24:00

And now we'll let the experience

24:03

speak for itself, the

24:05

eclipse through the eyes and ears of

24:07

NASA. Time is now 2.54. We

24:11

are a little over

24:13

10 minutes until the total solar eclipse.

24:17

They've opened up the tracks so that people can

24:19

stand on the speedway and watch the total

24:21

solar eclipse. We're

24:30

here in Cleveland. We're just waiting for totality

24:32

to hit. That's Steven

24:34

Logan, a producer at NASA's Glenn

24:36

Research Center in Cleveland. He

24:39

agreed to record for us, too. Everybody's

24:41

gathered and waiting. The energy in the

24:43

atmosphere is something I've never

24:45

experienced before. Starting to get chilly. And

24:49

we're starting to count down here in a little

24:51

bit for complete totality. We

24:54

are about five minutes from totality now

24:57

here in Carbondale. There's

25:00

15,000 people in this stadium. Everybody's

25:03

looking up. Everybody's still got their

25:06

glasses on. Everybody's anticipating the

25:08

moment when they can take them off. We're

25:14

getting close. What

25:17

are your thoughts at the moment, Zoe? The

25:20

clouds are blue. Folks

25:23

in Dallas have been stressing about the

25:25

clouds. And just before totality, as the

25:27

moon covered up more and more of the

25:29

sun, it's clear. Your glasses on. Look

25:32

up again. We are eight minutes from

25:35

totality. This morning, we promised

25:37

you clear skies for totality.

25:39

And you look, we're keeping

25:41

it. We're keeping it here.

25:46

They told us that the clouds would maybe go

25:48

away. They did. They went completely away, like, you

25:50

know, just where we're looking. All

25:53

over, people felt the temperature drop,

25:55

and the sky turned steely blue,

25:57

and the colors change. And

25:59

horizon. which will grow to the edge in

26:01

all directions. Gosh,

26:03

oh my gosh, it's suddenly getting dark.

26:07

It's much faster. Oh

26:09

my god, this is crazy. The lights

26:11

are starting to flicker because they're not really sure if they

26:13

should come on or off, but it's starting to get dark

26:15

too. It's feeling a lot cooler. You're feeling a lot cooler?

26:17

I am. This is great. We've

26:19

lost about 10 degrees. So much cooler. We

26:21

almost feel it's like night time or

26:23

evening. It's amazing how much

26:26

cooler it's gotten already. And they kept an

26:28

eye out for animals acting strangely. We're

26:31

I think 4 or 5 minutes away from

26:33

the totality. It's definitely darker. It's definitely cooler.

26:36

Animals are moving along. I

26:39

think all the people are sitting still watching

26:41

and getting ready. There goes

26:43

a grapple. Maybe it's going

26:45

to bed. Oh,

26:48

he's just perched on the top of the tree to

26:50

better see the equipment. I'm gonna

26:52

give you. It's now 3 o'clock. We're

26:55

out on the track. People

26:57

are sitting down, laying down with their families. There

27:00

are thousands of people out here. And it's so

27:02

cool. Everyone is just looking

27:04

at it. It's about

27:07

3 minutes away from the tower. And

27:09

a sliver of the sun

27:11

is left. Everybody is kind of

27:13

just fanning up, waiting for it to take over

27:16

here. People are starting to get quiet. This

27:18

is the TV team. I am a sliver. I'm not looking at my

27:20

watch. I'm not looking at my

27:22

watch. But I've seen this. It's a really

27:24

small sliver. I think it must

27:26

be Bailey's beard soon. Oh, it's just

27:29

a tiny sliver now. And

27:36

then, the moon fully and perfectly eclipses

27:38

the sun. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa.

27:42

This is crazy. Blocking

27:46

the photosphere, plunging the world into

27:48

darkness for up to 4 and a half

27:50

minutes. Depending on where you were in the past, totality.

27:53

And there's not much you can do except cheer. This

27:55

is crazy. Wooooo!

28:02

Wooooo! Wooooo!

28:06

Wooooo! Wooooo!

28:10

Wooooo! Wooooo!

28:14

Wooooo! Wooooo!

28:18

Wooooo! This

28:20

is... this is nuts. This

28:23

is nuts. This is nuts.

28:26

Yes, you can look at it now. Oh, look

28:28

at the wheels coming out of the spot. You didn't

28:30

see the other one last year. It's

28:33

so cute. Yeah, your clip shots don't work

28:35

anymore. You can look with your eyes. You

28:38

can look nice, guys. Wow. This

28:42

is as if it's... 8 o'clock

28:44

at night. It's the corona. It's

28:46

the other world that you can't

28:48

see no more. Oh,

28:51

okay. I can see

28:53

the chromosphere. I can see a bright

28:55

world. I can

28:57

see a bright red spot peeking

28:59

out from around the corona. Wow.

29:04

Wow. This

29:06

is truly almost

29:09

a spiritual experience.

29:16

This next

29:18

level, something I've never had the privilege

29:20

of being part of, something I just

29:22

never forget. And then, hopefully

29:25

as it had started, it was over. The

29:28

sun came back, like a dimmer switch

29:30

had been pushed back up. Here

29:32

we go. It started to come back out.

29:34

Lights started to pick back up. Looks

29:37

like a sliver of fire coming back in the sky. At

29:44

every location, people cheered again. It's like they

29:46

were welcoming the sun back. What? Oh,

29:50

it's almost a big dream. I'm very

29:52

glad we're back. If you're looking at

29:54

something like that, I'll be able to

29:56

pass it. Yeah, it's just a little

29:58

bit of an evening. It's

30:03

like somebody just turned on the lights

30:05

again. It's so wild. Thank you to

30:07

the weather, whoever was responsible for this.

30:09

I'm just so excited. There's so much

30:11

nervous energy. Everybody's jumping around. Oh wow.

30:15

Well, I gotta say, I've been writing about

30:17

the sun since 2017. I'm so excited. I'm

30:19

so excited. I'm so excited. I'm so excited.

30:21

I'm so excited. I'm so excited.

30:23

I'm so excited. I'm so excited. I'm

30:26

so excited. I'm so excited. I'm so excited. I've been

30:28

writing about the sun since 2017. This is

30:31

my first success and now I see

30:33

what all the fuss is about. Wow.

30:37

It was like nothing I have ever

30:39

seen. It was unreal. It's kind of

30:41

hard to describe. So Jacob and Miles

30:43

and Steven and I, we all tried

30:45

to give folks the door a job

30:47

for us. The via, right? Yes.

30:50

Can I bother you again? Oh my gosh, of course. I just

30:52

want to know what you thought. That was probably the most amazing

30:54

thing I've ever seen in my life. Like, loved it. I've

30:56

got to ask you guys since I found you

30:59

again. How was it? Oh

31:01

my God. That was insane. That was

31:04

insane. I have no words. I mean, I'm

31:06

just so exhausted. It should have been longer. The

31:09

universe should have made it longer. All

31:12

right, Ted. Last time I'm going to bother you. I promise. What

31:14

do you think? Absolutely

31:16

spectacular to see in person

31:19

and just the photos

31:21

that we've all seen all our lives just don't do

31:23

it justice to being there in person. But great

31:25

cooperation from other nature, just a few high

31:28

clouds that did not interfere to the naked

31:30

eye viewing and really

31:32

just really neat. Get another chance

31:34

in maybe 20 years apparently, but not banking

31:36

on it being as good as this. This

31:38

was awesome. I thought so too. Thanks,

31:41

Parris. For Parris and Flo. For Parris

31:43

and Flo. For Parris and Flo. For Parris and

31:45

Flo. For Parris and Flo. For Parris and Flo.

31:47

For Parris and Flo. For Parris and Flo. For Parris

31:50

and Flo. For Parris and Flo.

31:52

Dan, after Listening Back, I think that both

31:54

of our parents were sold on eclipses after

31:57

this? Yeah, I am too. You know, we

31:59

kept getting told that the first thing you

32:01

say after totality is, where's the next

32:03

one? And I am feeling

32:05

that. Looking at maybe Spain in 2026,

32:09

just seems like waiting until 2044 would be way too long.

32:13

An eclipse chaser is born. Christian,

32:15

I have to ask, you looked out with

32:18

the weather, but how were things in Kerrville?

32:20

Did you make the right call? Yeah, I

32:22

heard from Ben and Alan afterward. Unfortunately, it

32:25

did stay crowded over there. So Ben's

32:27

team couldn't get data and although there

32:29

was a sun grazer spotted during the

32:32

eclipse, Alan didn't get to see it.

32:34

Hopefully he'll get another chance. But

32:37

there was some good news for scientists. NASA

32:39

is still combing through all the data we

32:42

collected during the eclipse, but we know the

32:44

research planes and sounding rockets all got clear

32:46

views of the sun. So there should be

32:48

plenty to study. And citizen

32:51

science was a huge success for

32:53

this eclipse. A project called SunSketcher

32:55

collected photos of Bailey's beads from

32:58

32,000 cell

33:00

phones during totality, which will help

33:02

scientists calculate the sun's size and

33:04

shape with more accuracy than ever

33:07

before. And the eclipse soundscapes team

33:09

received recordings of habitats from 700 audio

33:12

MOS devices set up by citizen

33:14

scientists across the country, which is

33:16

way more than the team was

33:18

expecting. And another 7,000 people

33:21

sent them observations. What a

33:23

unifying experience to know that millions

33:26

of people are stopping what they

33:28

do on an ordinary day and

33:30

looking up to watch this amazing,

33:32

coincidental, beautiful cosmic experience together. Totally.

33:36

You know, guys, I felt a lot of

33:38

camaraderie just sitting on some concrete steps with

33:40

a bunch of strangers all looking up into

33:42

the sky together. And I would like it

33:44

if we could all do that more often.

33:46

Thank you, Jacob. Thank you, Christian. Yeah,

33:49

thank you, Patty. I'm so glad I got to see

33:51

the eclipse. Of course. It was so much fun.

33:54

And thank you for listening to our

33:56

Sun series. Although the eclipse is over,

33:58

the sun definitely isn't going anywhere. And

34:00

neither are we. We'll be back in your

34:02

feed soon with more stories from NASA

34:05

and across our wild and wonderful universe. This

34:11

is NASA's Curious Universe. This episode

34:13

was written and produced by Christian

34:16

Elliott. Our executive producer is Katie

34:18

Conans. The Curious Universe team includes

34:20

Jacob Pinter, Julia Tilton, Maddie

34:22

Olsen, and Michaela Sosby. Christopher

34:25

Kim is our amazing show artist. Our

34:27

theme song was composed by the creative Matt

34:30

Russo and Andrew Santaguida of System Sins. Special

34:33

thanks to our Eclipse Field Correspondents, Miles

34:35

Hatfield, Steven Logan, and especially Lori Elliott,

34:37

who really has a future in this

34:39

business. Thanks also to

34:41

the NASA Heliophysics Communications team for working with us

34:44

throughout this Sun Series. And

34:46

as always, we are so grateful to you for

34:48

listening and just for being a space nerd. If

34:51

you enjoyed this episode of NASA's Curious Universe, please

34:53

let us know by leaving us a review and

34:55

sharing the show with a friend. And

34:58

remember, you can follow NASA's Curious Universe

35:00

in your favorite podcast app to get

35:02

a notification each time we post a new

35:04

episode. You know, once I took my shoes

35:06

off to go into the telescope tent, everybody

35:09

wanted to talk to the guy with

35:11

the NASA logo socks. Spiders everywhere. Nice

35:13

socks. Love it. Representing,

35:15

yeah. My

35:18

name is Christian. Christian, nice to meet you. NASA

35:20

Goddard. I love you, NASA. You have the NASA socks

35:22

on? I got the NASA socks on, yep. Represent.

35:25

You take a picture of yourself. Oh.

35:29

We've got to represent. I will turn it over. Three,

35:32

two, one. This

35:34

is an official NASA podcast.