Telescope chain spanning U.S. will create unprecedented eclipse video

The last time David Gerdes saw the sun get blotted out, he was 15. 

"If you didn't know what was going on, it's easy to see why people were terrified of eclipses," said Gerdes, now 53 and a physics and astronomy professor at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. "It's a very overwhelming sensation to be in the middle of this world that suddenly goes dark." 

With a little telescope he made in his basement, Gerdes persuaded his friends and science teacher in winter 1979 to travel from Ohio more than 1,300 miles to see the solar eclipse in Manitoba, Canada. On Monday, they'll reunite at a ranch near Corvalis, Ore., where Gerdes will join an unprecedented experiment he hopes will inspire other future scientists.

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A chain of 68 identical telescopes across the U.S.will be pointed at the sun, aimed to capture a roughly 90-minute video of the solar-eclipse totality — when the moon covers the sun — as its shadow crosses from Oregon through South Carolina. 

The Citizen CATE (Continental-America Telescopic Eclipse) Experiment will depend on dozens of volunteers, including high school and college students across at least 10 states, each to record the roughly 2-minute segments to be stitched together. Scientists hope to learn more about sun storms that eject blasts of energy capable of inflicting massive damage on Earth's power grid. 

Ordinarily, the sun is far too bright for instruments to analyze its corona, where gas above the surface flows quickly amid extremely high temperatures — as hot as 3.5 million degrees Fahrenheit, compared with the sun's surface, which is about 10,000 degrees, according to the NASA website. But with the moon neatly positioned over the sun, the corona is much easier to see. 

"The source of coronal heating has been a scientific mystery for more than 50 years," according to NASA. Monday's experiment is hoped to shed some light on it. 

Llanee Gibson, 17, an incoming senior at Weiser High School in Weiser, Idaho, has practiced "every single weekend" this summer to capture the eclipse in her group's telescope at 11:25 a.m. Mountain Time (1:25 p.m. Eastern), Aug. 21. 

"We're really nervous," she said, explaining how her group will try to keep the telescope centered on the eclipse as it gradually drifts across the sky.

She plans to attend Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colo., next year, and is considering science majors. When she was younger, Gibson studied astrology, which led to constellations and astronomy. When she moved to Weiser two years ago, she learned it was in the path of Monday's eclipse. 

"Everything just lined up perfectly, and I knew I had to be on this team," Gibson said. 

The sun's corona is "the most beautiful object that you see" in the sky, said astronomer Matt Penn with the National Solar Observatory in Tucson, Ariz. He's the chief scientist for the National Science Foundation-supported Citizen CATE Experiment, and he's been preparing for this eclipse for three years. 

Working on the project has been a highlight of his career, Penn said, adding that he's enjoyed working with a diverse group, including students from about 27 universities and 22 high schools. 

He's previously taken data from two other eclipses.

"The fact that the sun goes away during the day is just sort of fundamentally disturbing," Penn said. "There's that sort of emotional aspect to it." 

With most of Earth's surface covered in water, eclipses usually pass over areas where there aren't many people. Previously, the longest chain of similar telescopes spanned only three sites, so Penn said that even if only 20 of the 68 telescopes get clear skies Monday, it'll be much more data than previous efforts gained. 

As humans have increasingly become dependent on electricity, the potential for solar storms' destruction has increased. In 1989, one caused a power outage affecting millions of people in Quebec, Canada. Penn said storms in the 1800s were even bigger.

"Currents from (a) storm in the 1860s were so strong that the sparks ran away with themselves and actually burned down telegraph stations," Penn said. Today, similar storms could cause hundreds of billions of dollars in damage, he said. 

He'll be in Weiser — on the high school's running track — to see the eclipse, because historical climate data indicate it has the second-best chance for clear skies (Madras, Ore., is first, by a bit), he said. 

"There's always an extreme amount of pressure," Penn said of capturing the eclipse. 

The experiment has received wide support, with over a dozen sponsors contributing telescopes, mounts and more. Afterward, volunteers get to keep the equipment. 

Gerden said that he hopes many will have practiced enough with their telescopes to also be able to just absorb the bizarre experience when it happens. 

"It gets cold — colder," he said. "The light is like nothing you've ever seen. It's sort of like twilight colors," but instead of the sun on one side of the horizon, "it's kind of all around you." 

The six students volunteering in the experiment from Weiser High School got their telescope in March, and they've been practicing with shots of the moon. Afterward, they upload data and receive feedback from experts.

The equipment, which is the same at every site, includes a camera that records the images from the telescope onto a laptop. There's GPS, special software and a motor drive to help keep the telescope centered. He said his role is more as mentor and guide, as the six volunteering students took an active role.  

"Our town is happy to be part of this," said Martin Hiner, a science teacher at Weiser High School, in a town of roughly 5,400 people that's expected to get much bigger as eclipse watchers arrive. "There's a lot of excitement."

The string of telescopes will follow the eclipse across the country. A little over an hour after it passes Weiser, it arrives more than 2,000 miles away in Cookeville, Tenn. At 1:29 p.m. Central (2:29 p.m. Eastern), it will pass over Tucker Stadium, where the Tennessee Technological University Golden Eagles play football.

Near the 50-yard line, nuclear physicist Mary Kidd with the university will be watching through a Citizen CATE Experiment telescope. Crowds are expected in the stands, which she said hold about 16,500 people. 

"It's really hard to know what to expect, because this event is so unprecedented," she said. "If our weather is nice that day, we expect we'll be able to fill the stadium." 

Kidd, 35, said this will be her first total solar eclipse. 

"I'm really, really excited — I've wanted to see one my entire life," she said. Two students from her calculus-based physics classes volunteered to help with the experiment. She said the experiment is well-organized, and the technology has finally made this kind of attempt feasible. 

Gerdes recalls how, as a teenager, he'd brought his little homemade telescope along with the group of nine people who stayed in the same RV. There were no smartphones with GPS to locate the totality, or apps to show cloud cover, but they were still able to drive around the clouds and catch it in time. 

"A total eclipse is one of the most powerful experiences you can have, that brings home the role that science and astronomy play in running our world," he said. "And if you think about the fact that people have known that this was coming, and known about the path of this for decades — yet we still don't know if it's going to rain or not Monday." 

Contact Robert Allen: rallen@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter.