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Recapping the Eclipse and Watch Out for China · Made of Stars

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Warning. The following podcast contains an entertaining look at astronomy, physics, and
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space news throughout the known universe. Listeners have been known to learn about astronomical
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phenomenon the scientific method, and expanded vocabulary to include terms like quasar asterism and
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uranus. Listen, that's your own risk. Go ahead. When made of
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stars, made them stars, made sizes. When made of stars, you
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could be from high they would New Mexicomus. Where a stars? When we
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are made of stars. I'm West Carrol, joined by my good friend doctor
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Seans from Columbus State University's Coca Cola Space Science Center. Hey Sean, Hey,
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well, it's good to be here today. Glad to have you back
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on this side of the country. I am happy to report. And over
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the course of the day during the eclipse on Monday, I was telling folks
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that you know, telling them the bad news that you had potential to have
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booked this trip more than a year out to go to Waco, Texas and
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you're there with family to experience totality for this eclipse. And then there was
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severe weather in the forecast for the day and I was telling people I was
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actually on campus on main campus for Columbus State with Jill and the boys checking
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out the eclipse, and some of Jill's coworkers there were coming out and I
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was telling them and they were like, oh, it's so bad for Sean.
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I hate it. Well, the big news, the good news and
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all of this is that no, you were able to experience totality and then
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maybe have to dodge storms. I don't know what happened after that. Yeah,
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we we We never heard the Overweight opera singer, you know, sing,
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so that didn't really happen. Right. So we we had been watching
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the forecast. It looked very dismal. I was with my brother in law
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and my sister in law. My brother in law is an avid weather follower,
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and he was just telling me, man, it's just it looks terrible.
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This is just not going to happen. We're not going to get clearing.
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And I'm like, well, I've seen it break apart many times.
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I have seen forecasts fall down, and I have seen sky events that I
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was not supposed to be able to see. So I'm going to just remain
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optimistic. And you know, we held that optimistic energy and we focused it
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like a laser beam at the clouds and it just melted them away. It
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just melted them away. I mean they weren't completely gone. We were kind
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of playing peek a boo in and behind some some clouds. But we got
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to see the event, and we took pictures all the way through it.
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We got to see totality. Yes, a big, fat, anoying cloud
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did move in front of the sun exactly during totality, but it was three
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and a half minutes and the cloud covered it for probably two of those,
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so we saw, you know, thirty seconds on one side and roughly a
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minute on the other side. So we actually did get to see totality and
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were by and large very pleased. And how about the weather after? Did
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you guys have to hunker down or did it get severe where you were?
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I know there were some parts of Texas that had some nasty weather where they
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were dodging tornadoes and possible tornadoes. I guess yeah. We definitely had thunder
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showers on site in Waco that evening, Monday evening. Honestly, the weather
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the next day, driving out of Waco, we drove to back to Houston,
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Texas, where my son lives, and then flew out of there to
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fly back to Atlanta that day was challenging. So there were lots of really
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heavy rain showers and thunderstorms on Tuesday, which made it more difficult for travel,
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but by and large, you know, the weather cooperated, so I
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was happy with the result. Let's say it that way. And I know
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we have a long stretch coming before we'll have an eclipse of that kind here
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in the States, a big gap. However, I do feel like maybe
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some of our listeners might be in other parts of the world when an eclipse
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happens. And this is the point where normally when we talk about an eclipse
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in totality, you say, yes, don't be a fool and missed the
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opportunity to see totality as I was definitely having eclipse envy of anyone I knew
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who was in that area, and I thought, man, I didn't plan
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this out well at all. But this is again one of those experiences that,
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as I've heard you say before, and this isn't your first time in
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totality, and that says a lot that you were like, I'm going to
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go out of my way to do this again. I was in my very
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early fifties. I saw the first time and so I had not seen an
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eclipse in totality until that time. The notion that eclipses they're kind of all
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the same, and if you see a ninety five percent eclipse, that's almost
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as good as totality, which kind of was my attitude prior to twenty seventeen
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when I saw my first total eclipse. I will tell you that I'm just
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wrong about that, right, So if you're feeling that same way, like
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I've seen an eclipse, I've seen partial eclipses, I've seen almost a totally
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eclipse. They're pretty cool. No, it's a different experience, friends,
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It is a different experience to be inside that shadow and be able to take
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your glasses off and look up at the Sun unprotected during those moments of totality
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and see that crazy, weird sci fi movie looking thing hanging in the sky
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and have that experience. Now, listen, I think all the eclipses are
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cool, and I'm very happy for all of the hundreds of people who came
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to the Coca Cola Space Science Center here in Columbus, Georgia and experience the
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partial eclipse here, which we had approximately eighty percent of the Sun's disc was
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covered from this location. I know that's fun. I know that people enjoyed
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it. I think my team on site here did a fantastic job handling both
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the media and the large numbers of people. But we're on the podcast right
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now. So just between you know, Wes and me and you listeners out
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there, friends, get inside the total eclipse shadow once in your life,
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even if you have to, you know, renew that passport or whatever,
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jump a flight and go to Iceland next year. I mean, I don't
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know, go somewhere and go see this thing. I think I think the
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a nearcoming eclipse is going through the Gibraltar area. I don't know, find
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a place that you don't mind traveling to get in the clips path, because
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friends, it's just different. It is not the same experience, and it's
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extra. Let me just say it is a fantastic thing to see with your
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eyes and a memorable thing that you're gonna just have nothing to compare it to.
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For me, I've seen all manner of sky phenomenon take place. I
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was watching the night that comic shoemaker Levy nine hit Jupiter, for instance.
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My wife and I were on the coast during the lineaed meteor storm that took
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place several years ago. We were in Savannah watching it from the beach and
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when meters just fell like snow. I've seen the Great Commets of nineteen ninety
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six and nineteen ninety seven, so I've seen some really cool stuff. The
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only thing that really compares to this total eclipse is a really prominent auroral display,
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like if you see the northern lights and you see them in a manner
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where you're outside of city lights, you really see them that's up there.
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That's hard, that's hard to compare it to. Again, the Great Comet
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of nineteen ninety six, which was called Yakutake. It stretched forty degrees on
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the sky, which is really is kind of unimaginable. But really, honestly,
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those are the only two events that even come close to total eclipse,
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and I'm not sure I wouldn't pull the trigger for total eclipse over either of
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those two experiences. So it really is something very interesting, very unique,
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and just take it from me, get inside a total eclipse once in your
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lifetime. I think there were some people who they were really excited about the
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eclipse, and we've talked many times about what a great gateway comments and eclipse
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and things are for getting people interested in astronomy, and that's one of the
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things that we really enjoy about them the most, other than actually being able
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to experience it, but we like that fact that it gets people interested.
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There were a lot of people on Monday here at local time by about four
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o'clock that were like, Okay, can we stop saying the word we don't
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want to see the photos anymore. We're tired of hearing about it, the
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amount of national news coverage that they were getting NonStop. Anyone listening now,
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though, I feel is pretty comfortable in our nerd zone as far as being
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interested in some of this. So I want to talk a little bit about
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some of the other things that were visible during the eclipse, because there were
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these little pink spikes that you could see. Now Bailey's beads is another thing
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that people were able to experience, and maybe they were curious, like what
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is that? What am I seeing? And then of course this filament,
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this pink thing that you were able to see. There's been more solar activity
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relating to that as well since the eclipse. Yeah, so this eclipse took
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place reasonably near solar maximum, which just means the sun is just more active,
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and even if you just had the standard solar glasses, you might have
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been able to see some little specks on the Sun. If you held your
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cell phone up and shot a magnified picture through your solar glasses. You know,
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I'm talking about like the regular paper ones that you probably purchased for two
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or three dollars. You could probably image the sun spots on the Sun,
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because on the day of the eclipse there were some fairly significant sunspots on the
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Sun, and any kind of images that you see of the Moon moving on
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to the Sun that are out there online now during this eclipse, well you'll
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be able to see those sunspots pretty clearly. Now, a sunspot is basically
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a magnetic storm on the Sun. So it's not too surprising since the Sun
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had all these sun spots on it, that less than forty eight hours after
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the eclipse took place, there was a massive coronal mass ejection, a big
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explosion on the surface of the Sun caused by a feature called a prominence or
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a filament, which are really the same thing. They're a giant loop of
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gas that is sticking up off the solar surface. When we see them in
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projection against the face of the Sun. We call them a filament. So
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this filament collapsed. It's think of something you know that stands off the surface
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of the Sun, maybe six or seven earths high, so that's the diameter
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of the Earth could fit underneath it half a dozen times. Think about a
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structure that large, all full of just magnetically trapped gases or plasmas from the
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surface of the Sun. Think about that thing collapsing. Suddenly it breaks and
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it all falls down onto the solar surface. Well, that causes a reasonably
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energetic ejection of material off the solar surface. And as that material moves out
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into the Solar system, we call that a coronal mass ejection. That's because
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mass is ejected through the Sun's corona, which is the part of the Sun
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that you're seeing during the eclipse, by the way. And so all of
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this material shot off the surface of the Sun on April tenth and cause us
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a shockwave that rippled not only through the Sun's atmosphere but out through the Solar
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system. You can read more about this on spaceweather dot com. Check it
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out in the archive for April eleventh. If you're looking, if you're listening
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to us in the future look back at the April eleventh edition. But something
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that Wes mentioned, which is when you have one of these kinds of filaments
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sticking off the sun, but they're seen against the edge of the Sun,
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they get a different name. They're called the prominence. Now they're the same
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object, but we see it differently, so we come up with a different
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name for it. So it's a prominence because it's prominently sticking off the edge
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of the Sun. So there was a very large prominence on the solar limb
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during the eclipse, and people saw this as they photographed the Sun during totality,
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as either a kind of a pink spot or a pink bump on the
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bottom of the Sun. And so where I was in Waco, we saw
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this as well, and I thought to myself, Oh, well, that
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is that's a particularly deep Bailey's bead. What Wes mentioned Bailey's beads a moment
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ago. That's a location on the jagged edge of the Moon where a crater
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is exposing more of the of the Sun's bright photosphere than normal, So you
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get these kind of bright little beads around the edge of the of the apparent
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limb of the sun during the eclipse. Certainly Bailey's beads were visible during this
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eclipse, But this pink thing that I saw and that other people saw was
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not that. It was a very large prominence sticking off one edge of the
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sun. Now, apparently lots of people went to social media and actually even
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reporting commenting on this feature that was in photographs during totality, and a lot
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of people called it a solar flare. They said, oh, wow,
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you can see a solar flare off the edge of the sun during the eclipse.
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That's really cool. Well, then, you know, I mean,
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science is words are important, So science is very specific, and scientists when
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they use these words, they have to point out when people are using the
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wrong nomenclature because that's what we were all taught to do in grad school,
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right, So so scientists get a tad snippy sometimes when people don't use the
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right words. So there's an article on Live Science within the last forty eight
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hours as recording this show, just a couple of days after the eclipse that
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kind of says, oh, no, people, you're using the wrong word.
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That wasn't a solar flare, you silly novices. That was a solar
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prominence, and then all the Sheldons of the world go, yeah, that's
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right, that's not a flare. Oh okay, when you were talking about
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the way scientists speak. You know, there's there's been a number of criticisms
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of the show The Big Bang Theory over the years about some of the ways
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that some of the characters were written. But if they got nothing right in
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that show, it's the way Sheldon talks to other people about science. I
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mean, yes, you get into the you know, the shall we call
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it, you know, the dark underbelly of the scientific community. So when
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you get into that kind of a group where scientists are talking to each other,
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Sheldon's just not that far off. I think he's a well written character.
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I think they really looked into it. Somebody was advising that team of
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writers about house I just really talk to each other, and they kind of
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brilliantly pull it together. So yes, imagine the Sheldon character going, oh,
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I'm sorry, you're not really using the right word there. It's really
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not a solar flare. It's a prominence anyway. So fact, yes,
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and I just wanted to make because we've talked about we have a listener of
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this show that is does a great job with his photography, and I'm gonna
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I'm gonna tell everyone if he says that we can share some of this stuff
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on the Maid of Stars page, we will, but just referring him to
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his Facebook page. Joshua Carson is his name, But I mean he captured
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the prominence you're talking about. I mean, just did a great job.
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You can catch it down perfectly, right down at the bottom. Looks very
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similar to the image that you shared with me, and you even talked about
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being able to capture I don't know if this is going to come through for
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you, but being able to catch that activity on the sun, I mean,
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he was able to catch that too early on and he did a great
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job with these photos. So kudos Joshua, Man, you nailed it with
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this. But he was in Texas as well, so thankfully, thankfully he
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didn't go all that way just to be clouded out. I'm Joshua if you're
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out there listening, and thank you for listening. By the way, I'm
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really glad you got those photographs, and I'm glad the weather gave you a
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break. Buddy. You know, all of us who were in Texas were
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all a bit nervous and on the edge of our chairs. We're trying to
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see, is there somewhere we can drive within the time, you know,
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radius of reasonableness to get into the eclipse shadow from the Greater Waco area,
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and we all just said, yeah, no, it's going to be trouble
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with traffic and just difficult. There's no place that's really that much better in
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terms of forecast. So we wrote it out, baby, and we saw
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it, and we're super happy we did. So. Yeah, Josh,
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I'm glad you got an image because that means it was clear for you as
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well. Let's talk more about the Moon, because we got some exciting news
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at least for one Japanese astronaut that yes, someone other than an American is
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going to set foot on the Moon in the future. And the person who
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will, well, they've decided it will be a Japanese astronaut. That's that's
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the country that will next be represented, unless, of course, China's China
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beats is there, which or you know, Elon Musk takes somebody that he
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knows. I guess if Elon Musk himself goes, I mean he's now an
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American, but he's originally South African, So I mean, there's a couple
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of ways you could write that. I mean, yeah, I think Elon
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Musk could be the first South African on the Moon. I think that's not
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entirely out of the realm of possibility, but okay, but in terms of
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formal articulations, there you go. It looks as if the Japanese will be
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writing to the Moon with the Artemis astronauts during the Artemis program aboard the Orion
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space capsule. That's what's that's what the Ink is still drawing on a new
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agreement between the United States and Japan, and Japan is developing a new pressurized
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lunar over which is a little bit funny to me because I know of some
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American companies that are working on that same thing. Okay, but all right,
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in the spirit of cooperation and cooperatition and all those kinds of things,
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the Japanese are working on a pressurized lunar rover, and they must be a
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little further along in terms of developing this vehicle that will allow astronauts to travel
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around on the Moon's surface safely, much like Mark Wattley in the movie The
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Astronaut was driving around on Mars something of some kind of a vehicle like that
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that astronauts can just kind of truck around on the surface and watch out for
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those crater potholes. Anyway, so Japan is developing that vehicle, and in
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exchange for providing that vehicle so that American astronauts included could have a ride around
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on the surface of the Moon, a couple of Japanese astronauts are going to
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get to travel with the Artemis astronauts to the Moon, and so one of
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them will be first. I don't know who it is, but whoever that
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first Japanese astronaut is as long as no one else beats them to the Moon.
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As West pointed out, they will be the first non American to set
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foot on the service of the Moon. So it's kind of a cool deal.
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It's kind of a cool story. It's a great collaboration because that puts
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the resources of the Japanese Space Agency behind developing the rover so that NASA can
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spend its resources on other things. And all that NASA has to provide is,
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you know, a couple of seats, you know, to fly up
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to the Moon there. So anyway, so it seems like a good collaboration
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that's beneficial for both agencies. President Joe Biden had this to say. He
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said, quote, the science and education ties between Japan and the United States
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stretch up to the Moon, where two Japanese astronauts will join future American missions
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and one will become the first non American ever to land on the Moon.
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That according to President Joe Biden. So so I'm not sure exactly if he
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used the same inferences that I did, but something to that effect. This
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is what Joe said. So it's a good deal. It's a good deal
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for both countries. The agreement does not specify on what Artemis lunar landing missions
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the Jackson astronauts will ride, so that's a little bit. It's like,
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yeah, well, sure, we're going to take you to the super Bowl.
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Well, I don't know if it's this year's super Bowl. Which do
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you think will happen first super Bowl in twenty eighty four. Do you think
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we'll have a Japanese person on the moon first or Tom cruise at the ISS.
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I don't know which is going to happen first. You want tickets to
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the super Bowl, the twenty seventy five Super Bowl, Yes, Oh great.
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Nice. So anyway, I'm assuming it's not quite that kind of a
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deal. They probably had some informal language in the agreement that said it might
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be one of the sooner flights rather than later flights of the Artemis program.
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So anyway, that does have a contingency in it that Japan meets certain important
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engineering benchmarks to get their vehicle ready to go. So it's kind of a
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quid pro quo exchange, you know, rookie contract kind of you know,
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performance clauses in there. So anyway, there you go. Yeah, well
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I mentioned China and this next story from space dot Com it kind of scares
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me a little bit. I'm gonna be honest as it pertains to China working
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on a number of things that quite frankly, yeah, I mean they scare
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me. I think they should terrorize all of us. You know. I
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hope that people listen to our podcast because it's fun, right. We like
22:42
to have a fun time talking about space stuff here. I'm made of stars,
22:47
and we don't get into heavy topics very often. But because you're listening
22:52
just because it's fun, maybe you don't have deep dives into space news very
22:55
often, and there's just some things that you probably we should know. So
23:02
General Stephen Whiting is a commander of the US Space Force and he was speaking
23:07
at the thirty ninth Space Symposium on Tuesday, and he had some interesting things
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to say. Among others, he said this, frankly, China is moving
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at a breath taking speed. What he's talking about, friends, is with
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their space program. So General Whiting went on to say, since twenty eighteen,
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China has more than tripled their on orbit intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance satellites.
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Well, at this point, the average listener might be saying, well,
23:41
okay, I mean, so they just want to be a space faring
23:45
country. You know, space is up there for everybody. We all just
23:48
need to share space, and you know we can we can explore that final
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frontier together as we all move out into the And they're playing and they're playing
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a little bit of catch up anyway, right, Yeah, we were,
24:00
we are. We have the We clearly still to this point have the lead
24:03
in space, we think. But anyway, okay, yeah, so so
24:11
we're we're on the the United States of America and it's space programs and it's
24:14
collaborators with European Space Agency and Japanese Space Agency and Canadian Space Agency and a
24:19
variety of our other very close collaborators. We have the lead, I would
24:26
argue. Still, but General Whitey went on to say these things quote and
24:33
with these systems, they've built a kill web over the Pacific Ocean to find
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fixed track and yes, even target the United States and allied military capabilities.
24:45
Unquote. Wait a minute, yeah, kill web. I don't, I
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don't. I don't like those words. I mean, you know, none
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of the words really sound great. After and with the systems after that,
25:02
it seems to go right, But particularly the words kill web are the ones
25:06
that really just jump out at you. Yeah, let's go back and just
25:08
review. What are the systems we're talking about again, whether intelligence, surveillance
25:12
and reconnaissance satellites. Okay, it doesn't sound too bad. But then the
25:19
term kill web gets defined, or at least it's used by General Whitening.
25:25
So what does it mean? Well, this is according to the United States
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Marine Corps says, quote, a kill web, in case you're wondering,
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is a dynamic network that seamlessly integrates intelligence and warfare capabilities across various domains,
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including land, sea, air space, and cyberspace. That's according to the
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United States Marine Corps. And I'm quoting from an article from space dot com,
25:51
which is a fairly non military website. It's just a you know,
25:56
for space enthusiasts. But that's where this story is coming from. Friends.
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We can't be blind and can't be naive as to what's taking place in the
26:07
geopolitical environment around our world that then spills over into the space environment as well.
26:15
So if you are all for the peaceful exploration of space together as allied
26:22
peoples from around the world or nations cooperating, you have to be able to
26:26
understand that some players in this environment might not have your best intentions in mind.
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And it's at least possible. I would say that General Whiting would say
26:44
more than possible that China is one of these players. And so General Whiting
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went on to say, and that's not all. China has also quote built
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up a range of counter space weapons from reversible jamming all the way up to
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kinetic hit to kill, direct assent and co orbital ASATs. Now, what's
27:07
an ASAT. That's an acronym. It stands for anti satellite weapons. These
27:14
are space based weapon systems or technologies. So these are things that are that
27:22
are being developed. That's not a speculation, that's not a Hey, wouldn't
27:27
it be bad if that is? No, China is actually putting in a
27:33
concerted effort to add this to its overall shall we call it arsenal of space
27:41
exploration equipment. So these are weaponized space systems, and China is developing them
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again according to General Whiting with quote breathtaking speed. So just be advised informed
27:56
space enthusiasts out there that not everybody is exploring space for fun or for science.
28:07
That's a good thing to be advised of. I am now off my
28:11
soapbox. There you go. All right, well, this is a good
28:14
place to take a break. I think after a quick break, we'll talk
28:18
about the world's largest digital camera. All right, The world's largest digital camera
28:42
is now complete. Yeah. The last time I took my digital camera on
28:48
vacation to Alaska, I thought I had the world's largest digital camera. I
28:52
was toting that baby around, thinking, Wow, this thing's big. It's
28:56
really making my next sore from this strap. But this digital camera is even
29:03
bigger. This is, in fact, it's the world's largest. I think
29:06
West said that. Yeah, No, next strap for this one. No
29:08
next trap for the I mean, unless you have a really next you're not
29:14
gonna want to put this baby on a next trap because it is five and
29:18
a half feet by nine point eight feet. So imagine, you know,
29:22
a six x ten a six foot by ten foot camera with a front lens
29:29
cover of over five feet across the diamond or the lens, and it weighs
29:34
about sixty two hundred pounds, which is what I felt like my camera weid
29:38
as I was hiking around in Alaska with that camera last time. I thought
29:42
it weighed about sixty two hundred pound, but this one really does. And
29:45
it's about the size of a small suv. Now, why would you want
29:48
a camera like this? Certainly not to take on vacation when you're gonna try
29:53
to hike up a mountain. You just don't want this one for that purpose.
29:56
It's one time up the mountain and then just leave it there from now
30:00
on. And that's exactly what they're gonna do with this camera. They're gonna
30:03
take it one time up the mountain. They're gonna mount it to the Verra
30:07
Ruben telescope. I'm sorry, they're gonna mount it at the Vera Ruben Observatory
30:14
on the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, the LSST, which is now called the
30:18
Simonyi Telescope because KARLS. Simonyi had donated some extra money. Anyway, So
30:26
this Simonyie Survey Telescope is gonna have the largest camera ever built that we just
30:32
described moments ago, six x ten, basically sixty two hundred pounds, but
30:37
also an enormously large resolution with also an enormously large field of view. So
30:47
let's talk about that for a second. Typically telescopes we think of them as
30:52
zooming in. It's like the ultimate zoom lens. Right, You're zooming in
30:57
on some object that's so tiny because it's so far away, and you want
31:03
a really high resolution image of that very very distant galaxy or what the ego
31:10
nebula, or you know, some other kind of object out there in space.
31:15
Well, that's not what this telescope is designed to do. In fact,
31:18
this telescope is designed to take a fairly low magnification view of the nighttime
31:23
sky. But then it shows just a giant rectangle upon the nighttime sky,
31:32
and it does that with extraordinarily high resolution. So it is magnified, but
31:37
not magnified the way that people probably would typically think about a telescope really zooming
31:44
in on something. This survey camera is trying to take the most gigantic pictures
31:51
of the sky possible so that it can monitor the changes over time in a
31:59
variety of objects like galaxies, like stars, like asteroids that might be passing
32:05
through, or comments that might be zipping by, or minor planets that might
32:09
move through that field. And this ten year survey that's going to be conducted
32:15
at the Vera Reuben Observatory, with this very large telescope and camera combination is
32:22
going to give us a new view of the Southern Sky. It's because it's
32:24
in the Southern hemisphere, so it's going to be taking a long look at
32:29
the Southern Sky. It's going to be called the Legacy Survey of Space and
32:34
Time. So it's just taking a super high resolution set of images of a
32:39
very very large swath of sky so that we can both see what's there but
32:49
then also monitor changes within those objects from things like nova or super nova or
32:57
galaxy collisions or other events take place in distant galaxies and all of those kinds
33:01
of things. So so the camera is going to be a wide field optical
33:06
imaging system that can capture light from the near ultra violet all the way through
33:10
the near infrared, that includes visible visible wavelengths. So so it's it's a
33:15
giant field, it's a giant section of the electromagnetic spectrum, and it's a
33:22
really really big telescope, which means you can see very very faint objects with
33:25
gigantic resolution. So that's the goal of this new world's largest digital camera on
33:34
the Vera Rubin Observatory's Simon Ye telescope. Can it keep an eye on China's
33:39
Kill Web? No, I don't mean to go back to that. I'm
33:42
trying to stay positive over it. Can it at least tell us when mercury
33:45
is in retrograde? Yeah, if it wants to. Okay, I'm just
33:51
checking. Yeah, I would say, yes, I figure that's lighter than
33:52
the kill Web. All right, so let's uh, let's talk about,
33:58
Uh, you've meant earlier the successes of everything that went down at the Cocola
34:05
Space Science Center concerning the eclipse, as far as coverage, as far as
34:10
folks coming out to participate, And I know you're proud of the staff there
34:15
and the work that they put in for that. Is it too early and
34:19
anything else you want to add to that, But is it too early then
34:21
to start talking a little bit about summer camps. Yeah. So, first
34:24
of all, before we get entirely off the eclipse subject, and you're probably
34:28
right, people are probably getting a tad of eclipse fatigue, I understand,
34:32
but I'd like to just thank our local media that came down and covered it,
34:37
from the Ledger Inquirer, from our TV station WRBL, and we had
34:42
a TV partner in this event, which was WTVMTV, and we did a
34:46
lot of work with them, both through their live broadcasts and through their online
34:51
media, and our mutual friend Jesse was involved with that. I got to
34:54
talk with Jesse when I was still in Waco and we got to go on
34:58
their media stream live there. So let's just thank our media partners for helping
35:01
us get the word out about the eclipse, about how to view it safely,
35:06
and then build some enthusiasm and excitement for our vent down here. And
35:09
as you say, we are now past the eclipse event, so we're gonna
35:13
stop talking about that. Well, before before you completely move on, I
35:15
just want to mention concerning our mutual friend Jesse, and she'll understand this.
35:19
Yeah, she's all right, And I was thinking the same. I mean,
35:23
I don't want to inflate her head or anything. But she's all right,
35:27
she's okay, Yeah, she's all right. All right, now we
35:30
can move on, all right. So she would say she would say the
35:35
same about me. I promise anyway, go ahead. Probably probably true.
35:38
Actually, yeah, so all right, Jesse, Well there that one was
35:43
for you anyway. So as we move on then into the next season of
35:45
activities, we do have our summer programs coming up, and it is now
35:50
time to think about our summer academy and our summer camps. They're different in
35:52
this respect. We have people who actually apply for attendance and our summer academies.
36:00
That's because it's a competitive process. But if you're selected, you don't
36:02
have to pay for the experience. You get to come for free, and
36:07
you're going to be selected by a group of engineers from Pratt and Whitney.
36:10
So it's not the Space Science Center that makes those decisions. It's decided by
36:13
an external committee. And it's because our good friends at Pratt and Whitney are
36:16
actually sponsoring some of those seats within those Summer Academy programs. So our Summer
36:22
Academy is all about robotics and space robotics in particular, you'll learn how to
36:28
construct program and how to operate robots in outer space. So that's a fun
36:35
set of activities for both middle school and high school students. In addition to
36:38
that, we do have some just open to pay summer camps taking place.
36:44
Those are also robotics camps. And if you want to know more about all
36:46
of these great summer programs, jump on the website. Friends. Our website
36:52
is www dot cc SSC dot org. Charlie Charlie SamSam Charlie dot org,
36:59
CCSC dot org. Jump on that website and you can find out about all
37:02
of our upcoming astronomy programs, all of the activities taking place the summer,
37:07
including the summer camps in Summer Academy. And Shawn and I thank you for
37:10
listening, and we'll do this again next week. Overhead Door Company of Columbus
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