“This eclipse will be a beautiful, once-in-a-lifetime event in the sky that will bring us all together,” says Walter Freeman, an associate teaching professor of physics in the College of Arts and Sciences. (Photo by Angela Ryan)
Walter Freeman’s “Introduction to Astronomy” classes always end the same way they began, with Freeman advising his students that, ultimately, “we look at the stars because they are pretty and they illuminate who we are as humanity.”
That humanity will be on full display at 3:23 p.m. on Monday, April 8, when the University campus community and Central New York will experience a total solar eclipse—a naturally occurring phenomenon when a new moon finds itself precisely between the Earth and the sun—creating nearly 90 seconds of pure darkness during the middle of the afternoon.
The philosophy Freeman instills in class varies greatly from when humanity’s first encounters with solar eclipses, when people believed the sun powered their lives, and the events in the sky were closely associated with religion and mythology. Since the timing of the sun, moon and stars’ motions were documented to both keep time and navigate, anything that led to the sun’s disappearance, even for a few seconds, “served as harbingers of doom and gloom, an omen of terror,” says Freeman, an associate teaching professor of physics in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Walter Freeman
Freeman uses stargazing and phenomenon like the upcoming solar eclipse to demonstrate to his students how the advancement of astronomy over time teaches us a valuable lesson on “the development of our capabilities as people,” Freeman says. As scientific advances are made, society has come to comprehend the sheer brilliance on display during a total solar eclipse.
“This will be a beautiful, once-in-a-lifetime event in the sky. Science gives us a means to predict and understand eclipses. But beyond that, physics takes a back seat here. The eclipse isn’t a scientific event as much as it is a human event. Everyone will be able to appreciate what happens in a poetic and artistic way. That will be beautiful, and it will bring us all together,” Freeman says.
Campus community members are invited to participate in this rare occasion—the next total solar eclipse in Syracuse isn’t predicted to happen for another 375 years—through a series of on-campus events.
The Department of Physics, in collaboration with the College of Arts and Sciences, is hosting various eclipse-related activities on the Quad from 1:30-4 p.m. Physics students will lead assorted make-and-take projects and demonstrations across different locations. Telescopes will be available by Carnegie Library, and guided Holden Observatory tours and eclipse-related presentations are being offered in the Stolkin Auditorium. Be sure to visit the Arts and Sciences eclipse website for more helpful information.
Additionally, join the Barnes Center at The Arch and Hendricks Chapel on the Quad from 2:30-4 p.m. for an immersive solar eclipse viewing event featuring a sound bathing experience and guided meditation, a viewing of the total solar eclipse, and a celebration of Buddha’s birthday ritual with the Buddhist chaplaincy.
Leading up to the eclipse, Freeman spoke with SU News about what makes this total solar eclipse different, where the optimal viewing areas are for experiencing maximum totality and why people should focus on who they’re watching the eclipse with instead of striving for that perfect social media post.
Whenever you have a total solar eclipse, you may get to witness the maximum duration of totality depending on how well the moon and the sun are lined up, but there’s no difference between what will happen in the sky on April 8 and what happened in August of 2017. Except this eclipse is taking place here. We have solar eclipses all the time, it’s roughly once per year, and they usually occur over the ocean or somewhere else in the world and most of us won’t have the opportunity to see it. But not this time.
I was scrolling through a list of upcoming solar eclipses that was compiled by someone who does calculations on this at NASA, and it seems the next one in North America is in 2033. But you’ll have to drive to Alaska to see that one. And for the next one observable without driving to Alaska? It’s supposed to be in August of 2044. This one is right here in our backyard.
Make sure you have proper eclipse glasses for viewing the total solar eclipse, and don’t look directly at the sun during the partial eclipse, when the moon does not cover some parts of the sun.
There’s a band that will experience maximum totality, and the closer you are to the center of that band, the longer the duration of totality. The band goes from the southwest portion of the country up to the Northeast, so if you’re looking for a longer duration of totality, go west or go north. Buffalo and Niagara Falls are each right near that center, and as you go north, the amount of time increases.
My advice isn’t so much about the latitude and longitude, but the people you’re watching with and where you’re taking this in. Sharing that moment of catching a total solar eclipse, that’s what makes this moment special. It’s about gathering with the people who mean the most to you. Be present and in the moment and try to make the most memories out of the event.
From a safety perspective, make sure you have proper eclipse glasses for viewing. Don’t look directly at the sun during the partial eclipse, when some parts of the sun are not covered by the moon. That can really do damage to your eyes.
The sun will be vaguely southwest, not right on the horizon but in the southwestern sky, so keep that in mind if you’re trying to set up a photograph with natural features. Think carefully about how much time you want to spend taking pictures during the eclipse. Your own memory and eyes will remember a special event like this more than any post to social media.
Plus, it’s tough to capture good photos of the eclipse because the sun is smaller than you think. The sun is as big as the moon. Imagine trying to take a photo of the moon with your iPhone. You won’t get a good photo of the moon or the eclipsed sun, and you could end up damaging your phone.
The way humanity interacted with these eclipses in the past is a microcosm of the human story. Eclipses are a true natural phenomenon where we can find humanity and beauty, and not bad omens.
As we come to understand our world and the ways we can interact with the natural world, we understand that eclipses give us joy. The eclipse started out as a scientific phenomenon, but really, it’s a human phenomenon where people can find meaning, beauty and connection.
