Great American Eclipse to cross the U.S. from coast to coast on August 21, 2017
By: miker on: Sun., June 25, 2017 07:31 PM EDT (13131 Reads)
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A total solar eclipse will take place in 2017 on Monday, August 21. The path of totality will cross the continental U.S. from west to east as indicated in the map in about 90 minutes. All of the continental U.S. will experience at least a partial eclipse. Totality will last a maximum of 2 min 40 sec at any one place. The effects in the ionosphere will be observed by the SuperDARN radars located at Christmas Valley (Oregon) and Hays (Kansas) running special modes. This effort is part of a comprehensive project funded by the NSF CEDAR program to study the eclipse that is being lead by Prof. Greg Earle (Virginia Tech).
A set of maps showing the path of totality state-by-state can be found at
http://www.eclipse2017.org/2017/maps.htm
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The partial eclipse will begin at 15:46 UT over the Pacific Ocean. Total eclipse will begin at 16:48 UT and reach the Oregon coast by 17:16 UT. It will pass north of Kansas City at 18:08 UT. The peak of the eclipse, corresponding to the longest duration of totality (2m 40s), will occur at 18:20 UT near Hopkinsville (Kentucky). Totality will end at 20:02 UT and partial eclipse will end at 21:04 UT.
Duration of total eclipse: 16:48 - 20:02 UT. Across western North America the prime time of interest is 17:10 - 18:15 UT. See animations of the eclipse at
https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/solar/2017-august-21
A web site dedicated to study of the eclipse using amateur radio has been set up by VT SuperDARN alumnus Dr. Nathaniel Frissell (W2NAF) , see
http://hamsci.org/eclipse
Also possibly of interest:
http://w2naf.com/rbnlive/
Read 25 facts about the eclipse, courtesy of Astronomy magazine:
http://cs.astronomy.com/asy/b/astronomy/archive/2014/08/05/25-facts-you-should-know-about-the-august-21-2017-total-solar-eclipse.aspx
Previous eclipse events observed by SuperDARN radars were reported in these News items:
2015 - Svalbard
http://vt.superdarn.org/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=200
2012 - Japan
http://vt.superdarn.org/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=86