October ’23 Annular Solar Eclipse – so much to do, so little time!

by on with No Comments

On October 14th, 2023, there was a gathering of people at the Chamberlain observatory for the annular solar eclipse.

The party started around 8:45am and with almost 200 people at any one time, and 375 pairs of eclipse glasses sold, there was a lot of activity in the park! The eclipse came and went, and as the moon passed across the sun the crowd too started to die down.

We also had a group of people from DAS who went to Winnemucca, Nevada to see the ring of fire. This included our own Dena McClung, who was able to capture a pretty nice picture of the event.

Dena McClung captured this image in Winnemucca, Nevada, of the annularity at it’s height.

Many events took place, with DAS members going to see the eclipse in it’s totality as well as hosting or participating in many different places. At one event, four DAS members, Mia Kuchner, Logan Knowles, Chris Hamlin, Leo Sack, and Steve Barr met at Falcon Bluffs Middle School to assist in showing the public the partial annular eclipse. They started under somewhat cloudy skies around 9:00am and the event ended in mostly clear skies at approximately 12:30pm. Somewhere between 300 and 400 people attended the event. We would have been really swamped were it not for other activities at the event. Most DAS members were busy, but not uncomfortably so. Leo Sack was by far the busiest of us and he set a record by burning nearly 200 ping pong “eyeballs” during the event. The public seemed to enjoy the event and it was also enjoyed by participating DAS members. Many pamphlets and posters about the sun, safety, and general astronomy were handed out.

Leo helps to demonstrate the danger of looking at the eclipse without a filter by putting a ping-pong ball on a stick and holding it up to the eyepiece. The ball catches fire very quickly, and he showed around 200 ping pong balls igniting that day.

In addition, Lisa Siegel and her husband volunteered with the New Mexico museum of natural history and science in conjunction with NSF/NASA/NOAA at the Albuquerque balloon museum. They spent the early-morning hours, enjoying the balloon festival and setting up their table. They then spent the rest of the morning educating visitors about the annular eclipse and the upcoming total solar eclipse in April 2024.