Take back full control of your mind and attention from distraction. Make this a great event. And on behalf of the federal highway administration, thank you very much. Afternoon, my name is duane brown. We are coming to you live from the Iconic Museum here in the nations capital. Our first briefing featured assets and being prepared. You dont want to miss this. It is about the science. We have interesting things happening in the science community. We will have briefed recitations and then we will open up with questions starting here at the museum and on phone lines and social media. Solarec 99 years in the making. Im waiting for the scientists. They have me excited. I will introduce our panelists we have social media, send those questions and, eclipse 2017. Im excited about the science so let me introduce you. Thomas, back again. Nice red. I think that means something. Administrator at nasa headquarters. Angela, and supple investigator of the eclipse ballooning project. Coast,ut to the west linda, executive director. Director of solar physics in the division of sciences at the National Science foundation in arlington, virginia. Titles. She has many at theor of Astrophysics University of columbia. Astronomer, National Solar observatory in tucson, arizona. We will facilitate that discussion. Im excited to be a part of this panel because science is such an important part of seeing an eclipse. Angela i would like to start with you. We are talking about observing the eclipse from the edge of space. The goal of the ballooning project is to connect to a basic human sense of wonder by providing live footage from the edge of space. How does this edge of space footage come about . How did the idea come about . Four years ago i was doing my daily perusal of the news and i saw story about a pilot who accomplished the difficult task of getting his plane into just the right place at just the so thatme over an ocean his passengers could see the total Solar Eclipse from the air. Whyirst reaction was, huh, would they do that . Why would they not just sit in a boat and wait. . There must be Something Special about seeing an eclipse from the air. I thought about that. If an eclipse is more interesting from the air, what would it be like from a highaltitude balloon . Where you can see the curvature of the earth and the blackness of space . I did research and i found out that one group had taken footage from a highaltitude balloon of a total Solar Eclipse before with a go pro from australia in 2012. The footage from that vantage point, seeing the shadow of the moon crossing across the earth was spectacular. If you can show the first video please. This is footage of students at launching balloons. I work with nasa education i also knew there were over 100 student led highaltitude ballooning programs across the country. The idea occurred to me that we could bring the student teams together and provide aweinspiring edge of space footage to the public for the 2017 total Solar Eclipse. But i knew that for the footage to really have an impact, it would have to be live. Took the Nasa Science Mission directorate and space grant and teamed them together to create the eclipse ballooning project. A project that at the time, we had no idea how to do. No one had ever live streamed video from one highaltitude balloon of a total Solar Eclipse , let alone dozens across the continent. An affinity for solving tricky problems is what draws of into science and engineering fields. If you can play the next video please. We have over 50 student teams from across the country, ready to stream highaltitude video from dozens of locations across the path of totality. , imaginationring sparking footage with the public, live. We hope you check out our footage on in eclipse day. Thank you. Thank you so much, angela. Linda whok it over to is talking about taking this opportunity to learn and inspire the next generation of scientists. Linda, take it away. Hi, thanks, great to be here. I wanted to talk a little bit about not the current eclipse coming up but one from the past that was really interesting to forming my society, the Astronomical Society of the pacific. I think it is interesting to look at in terms of science. Scientistsse tells something new about the sun. And allows scientists to use new techniques. This one is no different. The scientists will talk about that. But ng about eclipses prior to photography, studying the beautiful corona was observed but you could not photograph. They sketched. I thought about that. I realized, that is difficult. It is pitchdark during an eclipse. Your heart is racing. Here you are trying to sketch the corona or you would have to do it from memory. There was an eclipse in 1889 the new years day eclipse. Which passed through california it did not go through coasttocoast. North of San Francisco and took a curve and through montana and the dakotas and into canada. Eclipse, there was a astronomers who joined forces with a Photography Society in San Francisco. Brandnew. These were folks who got their cameras and were super excited about this technology. They went north into the country. Shows one of the first photographs ever taken of an eclipse. This one is a time exposure. Showing the different phases, the partial phases of approaching totality. Imagine how excited this photographer was to develop this plate. And for the first time, capture the partial phases of an eclipse. This was remarkable. Is that thed after group of amateurs and professionals went back to San Francisco a month later. Shared their photographs, shared what they learned, they had such a great time forming this community, they decided that evening to form a society. The Astronomical Society of the pacific. While we were once a small provincial society located in San Francisco, this is our 100 year, now we 128 are national and we are dedicated to outreach and education and helping people of , everybody, learn astronomy and be able to share the knowledge with others. That is what we are about. Andhis particular eclipse you will hear this later from the scientists as well is going to excite a lot of people. Many watching may choose astronomy as a career. I did in 1979. A partial eclipse of thesun was visible in San Francisco i was a broadcasting major. I took a bunch of tools to the Student Union and showed people how to watch a partial eclipse safely. Most people didnt know it was happening. Eclipse glasses which are very important for viewing the partial phases and people were amazed that they could look at the sun and see it. Id ways to project the image onto cardboard using pinholes and allowing a single image of the sun to appear on a piece of white cardboard. You can have a lot of fun. If you have a lot of holes like a colander you can project many images of the partial phases. That got me hooked. I decided to become an astronomer and educator because it was really revelatory for me to change the lives of people who were watching the eclipse with me. Let me show you about what will happen with this eclipse. If i can have the slide. Many of you have seen this. This has shown the path of totality starting in oregon and in 1. 5 hours, the shadow will traverse the u. S. And exit in the carolinas. What i would like you to Pay Attention to are the partial phases. There are many millions of people who will not get to the path of totality because of time, money, lack of resources, transportation. There are a lot of reasons people can travel. The eclipse will be just as magical for them if we can provide them for materials they need to see the eclipse safely. We can use this as a teaching moment. An opportunity to reach out to youth across the country and teach them astronomy. As this partial is unfolding. If you take a look at the map, all of the continental u. S. Sees at least a 70 partial eclipse. 70 of the sun will be up scared by the moon. Find the place where you live on the map. , atlanta, in detroit new orleans, the rural parts of new mexico. All of you are going to be able to experience this partial. At the Astronomical Society of the pacific we are interested in reaching underserved communities and children who represent communities underrepresented in science. We want to make sure those kids are engaged fully in the eclipse even if it is partial so they might decide to become an astronomer like i did. Oft i have, is some examples , activities that the Astronomical Society of the pacific has developed and disseminated across the country to make sure kids are engaged. Let me give you an example. In the interest of time. Up, is a scaleng model of the earth and moon on a series of rulers. Let me explain. This is the moon this is the earth on that side. You will notice that the earth is a one Inch Diameter marble earth laides away, end to and 30 times, is where we placed the moon. It is a quarter of the diameter of the earth. This is a scale model. You might be surprised because lots of the pictures and images, you normally see, that earth and moon are closer together. But this is the actual distance in size. That is a learning experience in and of itself. Now we can use this to model what is going to happen in terms of the shadow of the moon hitting near and what that will look like. You have everything to scale. The sun and shadows will work to scale too. You take this outside and you and youactual sun manipulate the stick so the shadow of the moon is cast on the earth. I cant do that in the studio because i do not have the sun but i have a photograph. This is a photograph showing what the earth will look like if you line things up properly which is pretty easy to do. If you look carefully, what i love about this model, the very dark shadow you are seeing in the middle of this marble representing the year, is the total eclipse location. If you live on the earth in that super dark shadow, you get to see the total eclipse of the sun. Of may notice on the outside the very dark circle is another shadow, not as dark. That is where you will see the partial eclipse. Using this activity, you are learning about shadows, the penumbra shadow, the dark light shadow. You can do a lot of things with this model. Many activities that the Astronomical Society of the pacific has developed and disseminated. Two rangers and parks,ibraries, museums, schools lots of different places with support from nasa and the National Science foundation. That gives you some idea of how you can reach kids across the u. S. To make sure everyone is engaged so that astronomy can be inclusive. And a wonderful experience for all. Thank you so much, linda. Somere going to talk about of the most amazing telescopes looking at the sun and the space weather. Things most people dont know is that the National Science foundation is the steward for all groundbased astronomy in the united states. Nasa does the space raised stuff and we do most of the groundbased stuff. We do this there are national laboratory. One of those is the National Solar laboratory that matt works at and the other is the National Center for atmospheric research. My firsthings like live, this is a Beautiful Image of the sun. Why does nasa or the federal government even care about solar science . Dont we know all the questions have we answered all of them that we want to ask . The answer is no. Perspective we look at a helioy and also from stearic connection within our geo Space Sciences section. From the astronomy perspective, we look at the sun as a star and it is our nearby laboratory that we can use to study stars like our sun and try to expand that to stars that are further away. Much further away. We also look at the sun and its interaction with the planets in our solar system. Xoere are a number of e Planet Systems outside our solar system, 2000 confirmed, 4000 unconfirmed. We want to apply the experience we get to those xo Planet Systems. The helio figure out sphere and the interactions between the sun and earth in regards to space weather. The sun has interesting phenomena like solar flares, solar wind, all of those things are collectively known as space weather. Please a lot of that space weather occurs in this region of the corona. That is the thing we will see during the total Solar Eclipse. Here is an image. That is where a lot of the action is so matt will talk about his science that he will do from the ground with his citizen project. There is a gap now in what is in the coverage of the corona. Especially this nearby corona that we dont see. Another thing we are doing at are National Center for atmospheric research, we will fly a jet as the eclipse is happening along the path of the eclipse and use an instrument called an air board infrared spectrometer. Take images of the corona during the eclipse. Slide, as i last mentioned before we are the steward of groundbased astronomy. Two differentave Construction Projects within nsf. One is the large telescope in south america into a in chile. That will observe stars and galaxies over the course of several days and repeat that over and over again. Other one, the one i am involved in and the one that is important for solar science is the telescope here, called dkist telescope. It will be the largest solar telescope ever built. Four metere a diameter mirror which is 14 feet across. So you can imagine the amount of solar light we can collect with that type of mirror. Incrediblea highresolution machine. That is really where the interesting science were getting down to it. With that i will hand it back to thomas. Thanks so much. Truly exciting what is happening with that telescope. Many of the stories about eclipses, dont actually have to do with astronomy but have to do with nature, the atmospheric effect. Angela, you will talk about that. Why dont you tell us about your work . Thank you thomas. So we have heard a lot about how coronand looking at the and doing research on the sun itself and engaging with the public. What i will talk about is in between all of that. We want to do research on the impact of the eclipse on the ground. The atmosphere, the animals, the plants. We can use that to engage the public. In some cases, to encourage people to become scientists and others to turn them into fans of science. Lets start with the atmosphere that first video. Over the course of the day, the sun comes up and it goes to the highest point and goes back down. We get Different Levels during that time of elimination. Of illumination. During an eclipse this changes. This is showing as the sun is moving across the sky and being eclipsed. A decrease in sunlight. That will have effects. If we start with the atmosphere, you can imagine that as you block out the sun with this big rock, the moon, you will decrease the temperature. It gets colder when clouds come in front of the sun. The temperature will drop. Be done still a lot to in terms of understanding the magnitude of that drop and how it changes across the course of the eclipse. Also that drop generates air pressure changes with air currents. There will be experiments being done that will involve measuring temperatures and air currents as the eclipse passes over the u. S. Involvinginvolve us the public in collecting data. We can move on to the second photograph. This is showing you a bird in the sky during an eclipse. Animals reacted differently during different times of day. From previous eclipses, you get animals interacting with the change in light. And temperature. For instance, we know that swarms twilight birds and will make lots of noise and showing you they are ready to go to bed. Then it goes dark and they settle down. That will happen probably during the eclipse but different types of birds will interact. Differently farm animals, they go back to the barn. Insects may start chirping. One of the things we want to do is to be able to collect data. Not only will this be done on the basis of universities like schools with animal and plant , but also torams the public with apps and programs, we want to collect what all these animals are doing as it gets dark. Even before it gets dark, with the change in the sun, what do the animals do, what do we see and hear . Moving on, to the last slide. This is showing you how the eclipse interacts with a plant. This is a treat. The leaves overlapping, making little pinholes. Each of those act as a pinhole camera. Youre seeing lots of images of that partial eclipse. That is one way. That is just visual and cool to see. Some plants will do things at night. Up, someers that close will unfurl during darkness. As well as looking at animals and what they do as we get eclipses, we also want to study plants. There are different ways in which we are seeing how our own Natural World is interacting with that change in light. It helps us to understand not only how it is all interconnected but how much we rely on the sun and about ideas about things we do with plants and animals on the ground every day. Thank you so much. Dot, some of the science we with professional astronomers summer with amateurs. You have an exciting project. The thing that excites me the most is that millions of people across the country in the path of totality can walk out on their porch and their slippers and collect worldclass data. Andcan go in your backyard using modest instruments and collect Important Research data. If we go to the first slide. Experiments eclipse involves over 200 volunteers stationed at 68 points across the country. They have identical equipment and will take data. At any given site you will see the corona for about two minutes. The corona is big it changes, but slowly. In two minutes you cannot see changes we want to study in solar wind. But as the shadow crosses the country, combining the data into a movie, we can observe the corona 493 minutes and see changes we cant we can observe the corona for 93 minutes and see changes we cant always detect. Due to generous donations from federal, and private sponsors we had students go to indonesia last year and get onthejob training. They came back to the u. S. And now they have trained. For the august event. Our volunteers have their equipment, they are practicing on the sun and the moon as we speak. How does this data fit into the big picture when we study the sun . How does eclipse data fit in . Some of the Nasa Missions have a data gap. That is in the lower part of the corona where we want to study the solar wind. Here we are superimposing data from the indonesian eclipse onto a set of nasa observations that shows exactly where our data will fit in. There is interesting physics and exciting things. The sun is hiding from science in the data gap. That is what we are trying to do. We talked about the spaceweather impact and how effects on the earth take place. When we are trying to understand solar storms and space weather, it is similar to understanding whether on earth. If you want to know if weather will hit a particular city and when it will hit, you need to understand the wind. We are studying the solar wind to better predict what happens in space with spaced arms space storms. We know from nasa measurements that wind accelerates in this data gap. But we dont know why. If you go to the last slide, everyone accelerated today when you got on a freeway. At the bottom of the onramp, you are going slow you hit the gas pedal and merged with traffic going 60 miles per hour. Solar wind is doing the same thing in this region of the solar corona. We dont have the measurements to show how that velocity is changing and what it the acceleration is. Hopefully after we collect our data with no clouds, we will come back after the eclipse and tell you what is pushing on the gas pedal. In this part of the corona. Exciting research you will do with so many students. Hopefully our future colleagues. Over, i will it ask one question from each of you and i will go in the same order as we just did. What do you expect is the most important impact of this eclipse . For me, the most important impact is an opportunity for us together to come together as a country. Everything that is going on in the country, the earlier panel mentioned the separation between science and the public. This is an amazing chance to open the publics i too wonder eye to wonder. Getting people thinking about the most amazing phenomenon on earth. The total Solar Eclipse. Just getting people to wonder. Incorporating that about thinking about our cosmos. To come together in that human way. Sense of wonder. Linda . I think that was stated perfectly. The only thing i would add, what i said earlier, that this really is an opportunity to reach children that we have not reached before with stem education. I like to say that astronomy is a very democratic science. The same laboratory that arches over the sky for scientists is the same sky that is available to everyone. Whether you live in cities or the countryside or no matter what part of the world you are in. This is an opportunity to engage the citizenry in incredible events that has shaped humanity for thousands of years. If we can in courage more people to get into astronomy and Space Science that is fabulous. If people want to learn more about astronomy that is fabulous as well. David . I agree with linda. We are concerned with building a new stem workforce for the nation and we are also looking for the users for our telescopes. For ally is a gateway different kinds of science and we think that this eclipse will be a wonderful opportunity to get people engaged in stem education. It will be better for the nation. Angela . I love the stuff that has been said. Encouraging people to be interested in pursuing science. I would like to go a step further. One of the things in recent years, scientists have been seen. S weirdos and not normal the public is not a fan of science. I would like to generate science fans. I like football. American football. With my accent that might not be clear. I am never going to play american football. I know the rules and watch the games. That doesnt mean that i will be professional. What i appreciate the game and i am a fan. But i would like to sees this is an opportunity to be able to grow people from across the matt . Matt to get the equipment and the training in the hands of people across the country. We would like to use the eclipse to capture their attention. You cant ignore and eclipse. It is a spectacular event. But then after the eclipse, we , would like to engage them further and keep them excited about astronomy. First, i want to make a slight correction and then, i see that angela has some interesting items that she will share. Dave, we had an interesting conversation over the last few days. He has an incredible portfolio. His portfolio is larger than the division of astronomical sciences. Angela, you have some interesting toys, there. I wanted to show a great way of being able to observe the total Solar Eclipse on the nasa website. They are 3d printed files so that you can download the files and find your nearest 3d , printer. There is one for every state. This is my home state of montana. There is a hole in the center of each state. What you can do for the partial eclipse is called your favorite state or your home state in the path of the sun and it will shine that whole on the ground. Oftentimes, we call these pinhole projectors. And then you can see that the what the path of the sun is, being blocked by the moon. That is another way if you dont have a chance to get your hands on a pair of glasses to see what , is happening with the partial eclipse. There are all the different states and also one of the united states. It is a fun way to get your hands on the eclipse. If you are joining us, we are here at the Museum Talking about the upcoming august 21 Solar Eclipse across america. We have scientists here and we , will open up for questions. Social media has tagged it eclipse2017. We have a number of questions on the phone, and we will go to social media. Seth, you have your hand up. Thank you, seth bornstein, associated press. Can you give us a sense in magnitude or figures of how much more this eclipse will be observed scientifically . Not by regular people, but by astronomers . Is this going to be the most scientificallyobserved eclipse ever . Angela, you talked about the wonder and beauty of highaltitude balloons. Learn, you hope to besides those beautiful pictures . What can we learn from highaltitude balloons . Answer youry to question first. But we did with this particular clips at nasa particular funded at nasa, we research to develop programs associated with that eclipse. Also, other research was supported through that. Thenot only will some of Research Focus on the corona, but also new technologies that will be tested, that have the potential perhaps to be flying on that balloon, or in space later. So, this is the eclipse that is most focused on, and undoubtedly the one that will lead to more research. There is actually three pieces of science we are focused twoand we are really different projects. One, providing live feeds, and one, monitoring changes in the atmosphere. Coming acrossse the country, and a dark shadow, at an average of about 1500 miles per hour, it is going to set up waves in the atmosphere. And temperature changes will also effect that. We will have a series of weather balloons in locations across the country, that will launch every 15 minutes or so, and will provide information on how the atmosphere is responding. In addition, we will get footage from the balloons and will be able to capture images of the tell uswhich can also information about how our atmosphere is responding to the eclipse. The second piece of science that is being done, is that all of our footage will go into a project called the eclipse movie project. Looking at the last little bits of light, before the full Solar Eclipse, we can actually use that data in collecting lots of different images, to learn about the surface of the sun. So, using the moons surface to learn about the surface of the sun. That is the second piece. Outthird piece is, it turns , at highaltitude where the balloons are going to be, is an analogy to the surface and pressure of mars. So we are partnering with nasa ames researchers to fly resilient bacteria on the with many different balloons across the country, but all happening at the same time, to get a feel what these bacteria go through, so we can learn that analogy for the surface of mars. Nasa has done this kind of study on the nasa balloon before, but not on multiple loans multiple balloons at the same time. So, those are the three pieces of information. Wante media here, you may to take a deeper dive into astrobiology experiments. Im going to stay here for one more question, and then we are going to go for the phone lines. Another quick balloon question, and then i will have a followup. Are the go pro cameras on the balloons going to be pointed down to the earth also, and watching the shadow of the moon. Use istechnology that we raspberry pie. So, we have a little raspberry pie computer. The cameras are actually raspberry pie computers. And the teams will be looking at Different Things. Are controllable from the ground, and this is cuttingedge technology. On most of the balloons, we will in lots ofs pointing different directions. So they can choose the camera that the balloon is spinning, to look at what they want to. We will have some cameras that look at the sun, we will have some that look at the ground. For me, it is the shadow. Looking down on earth, and seeing the shadow coming across, that is really the most spectacular. But the teams will choose what they want to show. My followup is, with looking at the shadow, is there anything scientific we can learn, is there anything about the shadow itself that will teach us something about the eclipse, earth science, or something . I think that there is. I cant answer that question in detail. I would have to followup with noaa onthe person from the earlier panel could answer that question in more detail. Angela, are you there . I am here. Do you have an answer to that , because you are thinking about these shadows . There is a couple of Different Things there is one of the things is that, we are now at the point where we are looking at the shadow and understanding exactly where it is going. Being able to see it from the outside and from the inside at the same time, is going to have on how we look at the shadow effect. But the shadow itself, i think what it is going to do is test an idea that was put forward for how we determine the shape of the shadow. There are some interesting effects that have to do with, as the other angela said, you have got these craters and mountains on the moon. That you get this interesting visual effect, that the shadow of the moon is not actually circle. It is kind of an irregular polygon. So, having data that is letting us see the shadow in all is going to let us see how well did we do, and working out what that shadow would look like. We will go to the phone lines, and then head over to the socialner and media, and all the traffic, all over the world, actually, preparing for the august 21 total Solar Eclipse across america. On the phone lines, who is up first . Rebecca, are you there . Hi, can you hear me . Loud and clear. I have a couple of questions. Im wondering, first of all, why you all think this will be an event that gets people interested in science and unites people. What about this event will create that kind of inspiration for people . I will start with you, matt, before i go to angela. I have only seen two total eclipses. And i have seen it by trying to do science on both of them, so my perspective might be a little skewed. I think the corona is the most beautiful thing you can see in the sky. The corona is just fantastic, fill a mentor he and delicate mentary and delicate, and also. The second thing is, the sun is not supposed to go away in the middle of the day. You get this primal feeling like something is wrong. It is a wonderful feeling. You can actually get a threedimensional sense of where you are at. Suppose, if you are adamant about not being affected, you might be driving down the road and trying to about 90 but i think of the people in your path are going to be awestruck by this event. What matt said is great. People are affected viscerally,ly by this. Eclipses,e who chase and have seen dozens of them, will still be wowed by this. People are excited about the idea. This is one of those things where, even if you havent seen one, you are aware of the concept. Once you start to hear more about it, people get excited. I have been going all over the talks, trying to help people get excited, and also get ready, because it is going to be such a huge event. And people were, i wasnt sure but i heard you talking about what was going to happen, and now and excited. I think what we are going to see be there are people who will , this will be a onceinalifetime opportunity for a lot of people. It is expensive to travel the world for these things. And they will be so blown away by how amazing it is. And, just the overall feeling of, it is not just visual. It is an overall experience. They will be changed by it. Next question on the phone. Taylor . Hi, can you guys hear me . Loud and clear. I am from wk and s in west kentucky. Wkns in western kentucky. We want to know where nasa is going to be posted during the eclipse. We have heard rumors you guys are going to becoming too kentucky, where the greatest totality is going to be. I will take it over to alex he is our expert who has been thinking about this for, how many years . A lot of years. A lot of years. Nasa has a lot of places across the country. Starting in salem oregon, and moving all the way down to charleston. In wyoming,es idaho, nebraska, missouri, and kentucky. So, what you need to do is go to nasa. Gov. 7. Go to the education outreach locations, as well as all the different people who have registered their events, to share with nasa and share with everyone in the country, about what is going on. Are a lot of unofficial sites as well as other ones that nasa is helping to support, and promote. Typese a total of eight of things happening in that area, phenomenal things happening. I want to make sure you go to the website to get the specific details. And charleston, that will be eclipse central. That is what we are calling it right now, but charleston will be our home base. Gov eclipse. Com. With us at to follow nasa, we can give you specifics, but there are lots of things across the country, particularly in western kentucky. Phone foreign any calls before go to jason . Chelsea, on the phone. I have a question for angela. So, you talk a lot about Student Research and the involvement with nasa space grant. Will the removal of the office of education a reduce reduce student involvement in the future . Im working very hard with folks at nasa and also with our legislatures, to make sure that our very valuable Education Programs do continue to exist. If that elimination happens, that would have a huge, negative impact. As i said, this is a collaboration among many entities, the nasa space grant, and lots of Different Centers involved, as well. So, that is something we are really working on. Speak, we are working to save important parts of nasa education. We are working very hard to maintain those really impactful programs. Take one more question on the phone, and then we will go to social media, and wrapup. Rap up. Do any of you have a sense of how many observatories, professional telescopes that will be studying this thing while it is happening, even ballpark . Just curious. Thanks. The way i would answer that is start with the nasa number first. We will have 11 spacecraft that will observe it. That, we have well over 50 balloon platforms. We have three aircraft. Think there are really thousands of groundbased observatories, a variety of professional grades, that will look at this. You talked about telescopes out there, matt. Unfortunately, our Major National facilities are located in arizona, new mexico, and soontobe in hawaii. So our major nasa groundbased facilities wont be able to observe it. We there are projects and are finding another project where they will observe it from five different sites in the past. The flightdescribed that we are sponsoring through the National Center for atmospheric research. Bill, lets see we can get you a number. If we say, a whole lot, it probably wont cut it for you. Questions we cant answer, and there are still things we are confirming. On eclipse get those 2017. We are going to go to social. Jason, lets take a few questions before we wrap up. There is a lot of folks concerned about pets and animals. There is a friendly reminder from one of our social media participants who says, dont forget not to leave your pets in your hot cars, during this. The othere twitter,re, terry on is asking us how this will affect the big critters out there, grizzlies and moose . Angela, do you have an answer . I have never met one of those during an eclipse. Up in wyoming, in bear country right now. I can certainly talk to this a little bit. First of all, i want to address one of those earlier comments, which is, you know what, it is no different than any other day. Dontormal day, your pets try to look at the sun and therefore dont damage their eyes. And on this day, they are not going to do it either. It is not a concern, letting them outside. It is not more dangerous. I think that people who have pets, want to think about that. I am not going to worry about my cat. But for the big beasts, im up here and we have things like mountain lions, bears, wolves, and coyotes. A lot of them have nocturnal activities. But the nighttime comes so fast, and i dont think we have data on this. So it is going to be very interesting to actually see what happens. Remember, we go through a. Of about half an hour where it is early twilight colors, and then it goes quite dark very fast. So, depending on how fast an animal reacts to it the coming dark, it may not be an issue at all. But one of the fun things is going to be, this eclipse goes right over the Tetons National park, and a swath of wyoming. Of bison,are a lot bear, rattlesnakes, all sorts of things. Facebook, user jessica is asking, is it going to get dark like night out there, during the eclipse . It gets to be about a dark as it is about as dark as it is about half an hour after sunset. So, twilight is what you will experience. Twitter user brandon is differences are the in similarities between the Solar Eclipse in 2017, and the eclipse of 1979, for those who were around to experience it . Do you have any opinion there, angela on the phone . In terms of the way that this is going to affect the country, is huge. Grade in 1979, and it wasnt under the path of totality. But if we look at where the path went, it only had a small corner of the u. S. This one goes all the way from coast to coast. It is very accessible for people all over the country. So, we have lots of opportunities. Linda, on the phone. Asked iangela think angela answered that question very well. It is the coast to coast nature of it. He will have mentioned all these opportunities to stitch together all the photographs and all the images of the eclipse, from coast to coast it is a unique experience. Twitter user emily asks, when will another phenomenon like this occur . And april of 2024. The pass will go cap will go north to south and it will cover mexico, the united states, and canada. All these healing wonderful stories, and it really reaches down into the soul, that personal human reaching nature. And there are personal storylines here, and im going to go over to you, matt, or how the name of your organization can about. I have a 14yearold daughter who has the same name as the project. I would like her to grow up to be a nice citizen. That is how we came up with the name. Fantastic. , to thee two months day, from the viewing here. Acrossal Solar Eclipse america on august 21. Earlier, we give a shout out to the postal service. They came out with a first of its kind stamp. Go out, and get those. They are collectibles. They have been selling at the museum. You can get them at post offices and online. Again,this information, is on the nasa websites. We will put them up again. We want you to commit those to memory. Ipse2017 live broadcast, from the space station, the unique advantages from space. 7. Nasa. Gov. Nasa can we have around the plaza for the scientists, please . [applause] before we go, we are going to do what we did the last time, for the folks out there. Its safety. Get your glasses. We want you to be safe, and be prepared to read and remember, science never sleeps. [applause] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] you may have seen the mention of that nasa. Gov website. Here is a live look as they count down to mondays Solar Eclipse. Live is theirse website. Heres the tracking of the eclipse, on monday. Salem oregon, where it will first hit at 10 17 pacific time, tracking across the united states. Lincoln nebraska, 1 02 central. , 1 27 central. Columbia, south carolina, 2 41 eastern time