The Great American Eclipse
Sunday, August 6, 2017
3:00 pm
Downstairs Meeting Room
Speaker: April Whitt, Astronomer, Fernbank Science Center
A total solar eclipse last cross the continental United States in 1918. In August 2017, we get the chance to watch the celestial dance, as the Moon moves in front of the Sun, and we can observe one of the most breath-taking events in the sky. Here's a short introduction to how eclipses work, some famous eclipses in history, and information about safely observing on August 21.
Speaker Biography:
April Whitt has served as astronomy instructor at Fernbank Science Center since 1994. Her graduate work as a Morehead Fellow in Planetarium Administration at UNC Chapel Hill furthered her love of sharing the night sky with students, teachers and the general public. From Chapel Hill, she and her husband moved to Princeton, New Jersey, where April worked with Dr. Gerard K. O’Neill at the Space Studies Institute. In 1983, a dream opportunity came true when she joined the astronomy staff at Adler Planetarium in Chicago, Illinois. Organizing events for the Voyager fly-by of Uranus and Neptune, and the excitement of Comet Halley, were highlights. The Center for Astrophysical Research in Antarctica (CARA) students were a challenge and a joy during summer camps at Yerkes Observatory in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, and led to a short stint at the South Pole over Christmas 1993. April has served as Educator Fellow with NASA’s MESSENGER mission to the planet Mercury, the New Horizons fly-by of Pluto, and most recently as Airborne Astronomy Ambassador with NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). She edits two columns for the quarterly journal of the International Planetarium Society, and contributes to newsletters for three regional planetarium associations.
The First Sunday Lecture series is sponsored by the Friends of Smyrna Library and Smyrna Library.
FREE ADMISSION.
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