Experience history, see the inescapable cosmic drama with your eyes, and feel the distinctly disorienting encounter around you.
Carmel, Indiana is preparing for the Total Solar Eclipse like nowhere else. Midwest GeoSciences Group will be there to help people experience it, see it, and feel it.
There's a lot of activities happening this week beyond the eclipse, scroll down to learn more.
Dan shares his insights on Monday's Eclipse
Why Carmel:
(1) The City of Carmel, Indiana sits directly on the path of TOTALITY and (2) is planning an amazing series of events that's designed to maximize the eclipse experience.
Plus, the City of Carmel viewing access areas are free. (many surrounding cities are selling tickets for accessing their areas)
Science Carmel is helping people prepare for the event in order for everyone to maximize the experience.
Preparation begins a few days before the eclipse with meetings, parties, and lectures. There are public and private watch preparation parties along with some public lectures to help ensure we understand the astronomical science behind the event. For example, there will be some astronomical moments you want to witness such as the Solar Corona during Totality.
Viewing Access Real-time video screens at Civic Square Gazebo will monitor the moon's shadow as it approaches Carmel.
Join the thrill, the science, and the fun at Civic Square Gazebo. Local and national astronomy experts will be on hand to help ensure everyone gets to experience the eclipse.
Midwest GeoSciences Group is building a Total Solar Eclipse Viewing Station. Watch the eclipse occur on a screen at Civic Square Gazebo.
Rain or Shine: Plan Your Experience in Carmel Even if the weather is cloudy or rainy, the eclipse will occur and darkness will be observed because we will be in the moon's shadow.
Carmel has designed activities, real-time monitoring, and entertainment to create a "stellar experience" at Civic Square Gazebo regardless of the weather. Plan to arrive early and dive deep into a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Live video feed to Civic Square Gazebo
Activities There's always a lot happening around Carmel. Besides eclipse activities, the NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four and Championship Game will be broadcasted on the "big screen" at Midtown Plaza.
Carmel's official Eclipse viewing location is at Civic Square Gazebo from 10am - 5pm. Attendees can enjoy a festival atmosphere featuring food and drink vendors, a variety of live music performers, educational information and live updates by eclipse experts, and a view of the eclipse. Multiple viewing screens will be provided to witness the eclipse experience from the sky above. This is a free, public event.
Visitors and residents are also encouraged to take advantage of the city's walkability and explore the districts along the Monon Greenway including Carmel City Center, the Arts & Design District and Midtown Plaza for unique shopping, dining and social experiences. The big screen at Midtown Plaza will feature broadcast coverage of the eclipse.
Hydrogeologic/Environmental/Engineering Course Midwest GeoSciences Group is teaching a two-day professional continuing education course, Modern Contaminant Hydrology. The course is designed for hydrogeologic, environmental, and engineering professionals and scheduled for Tuesday-Wednesday, April 9-10 in The Palladium.
Don't wait.
Plan ahead now. Reserve hotel rooms early and get familiar with Carmel and the location of the Civic Square Gazebo.
Hint: Carmel is an exceptionally bike-friendly city. Bring your bike to Carmel, keep your car parked at the hotel, and then ride your bike to Civic Square Gazebo!
You don't have to wait until the solar eclipse to learn about astronomy. Do some research now in order to maximize your experience.
Have fun.
A solar eclipse is special and many astronomers find it more exciting than a lunar eclipse. Witnessing the solar corona during the Umbra is an amazing vision along with the night-like darkness that occurs on the ground.
There's lots of things you can do to have fun with moon, stars, and sun now. For example, build yourself a pin-point box viewer and practice with it beforehand so you're prepared for the big moment.
Dr. Tom Sale is coming to Carmel. Yes, it's true!
Tom Sale will co-lead a brief public astronomical lecture along with giving live on-site announcements at Civic Square Gazebo as we lead up to the Umbra. Following the eclipse, Tom Sale and Dan Kelleher will teach a professional education ground water course at The Palladium for environmental and engineering professionals. More info here.
Tom Sale, PhD, PE is currently Emeritus Professor of Civil Engineering and Past Director of the Center for Hydrology in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Colorado State University.
Tom is a recognized astronomy enthusiast leading field trips to various solar and lunar eclipses along with other astro- and geoscience events. He recently led a Solar Eclipse Field Trip to Utah for the October 14, 2023 ring of fire. Tom's back deck at home has some of the most impressive telescope equipment in the State of Colorado.
Tom contributes to Midwest GeoSciences Group in a variety of ways. Although Tom's main focus is teaching ground water courses, he led an astronomical field trip in 2012 for Midwest GeoSciences Group near Adelaide, South Australia. On April 8, 2024, he will be co-leading the astronomical education and live on-site announcements at Civic Square Gazebo in Carmel.
Tom Sale was just awarded the 2024 INNOVATOR OF THE YEAR AWARD at Colorado State University for his innovations on environmental remediation.
Dr. Sale leading observation of the Oct 12, 2023 annular eclipse in Utah.
Photo Credit: Tom Sale
Circular shadow cast through a cottonwood tree during the Oct 12, 2023 annular eclipse in Utah. Photo Credit: Tom Sale
Licensed stock video ID:638368934
Cool Apps: Solar Snap: a filter and app to enable safe and effective smart phone photography.
Total Solar Timer App: will calculate your exact contact times once you are at your final observing location. Then it will run a script based on those contact times with audible countdowns to important observing events before, during and after totality and give helpful photography reminders.
Midwest GeoSciences Group thanks both Celestron and Astronomics with helping us build the TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE VIEWING STATION. This is an amazing combination of both telescopes and technology. A first of it's kind, right here in Carmel.
Literary Suggestion:
Here's a classic short story by the popular writer, Annie Dillard who experienced, on February 26, 1979, a total eclipse from the Yakima Valley in central Washington State. She described her impressions of the eclipse in an essay, "Total Eclipse," first published in the magazine Antaeus and then in her collection, Teaching a Stone to Talk (1982). Dillard describes a nearly overwhelming emotional experience as suggested in this quotation:
"It materialized out of thin air - black, and flat, and sliding, outlined in flame. The heart screeched. The meaning of the sight overwhelmed its fascination. It obliterated meaning itself."
This essay was selected for inclusion in The Best American Essays of the 20th Century.
Special thanks to Dr. Maureen Muldoon for making this fantastic reading suggestion.
Early Scientific Schematic:
by Alessandro Piccolomini Treatise: De la sfera del mondo e Delle stelle fisse (1540)
Ask Yourself: How fast will the moon's shadow move across Carmel during a total solar eclipse?
Because the Earth is a sphere that rotates on its axis, the speed of the moon's shadow during the total solar eclipse varies in different locations.
According to NASA, the steps to take to roughly calculate how fast the moon's shadow is moving by you are:
Record the time when the Umbra arrives (totality begins).
Record the time when Umbra departs (totality ends).
You can calculate the time in seconds it took the moon's shadow to pass over you by taking the difference between these times.
Then you can convert that time into decimal hours.
The moon's elliptical shadow is approximately 114 miles wide and about 131 miles long. Using the long axis in the direction of movement, you can then divide the time you got in hours into miles at your location.
Then you have speed of the moon's shadow traveling across the earth. You know what's awesome? You can estimate it now with the reported time information and then check it when it actually happens!
What different ways can you observe a solar eclipse?
There's many ways to observe a solar eclipse such as special eclipse glasses, special telescopes and viewing stations, and simple shadows on the ground. Yes, it's true...test it for yourself.
Check out the photo below. Can you determine what makes the shadow?
Pictured is Jani Radebaugh, American planetary scientist and professor at Brigham Young University, donning her DragonFly Mission shirt in sartorial splendor with a series of tiny eclipse shadows during the recent partial solar eclipse on October 14, 2023.
How do you have fun with an eclipse?
That's one way we do it at Midwest GeoSciences Group. LOL
Tom Sale, PhD, PE is currently Emeritus Professor of Civil Engineering and Past Director of the Center for Hydrology in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Colorado State University.
