Bowling Green State University professors used the Ohio State Fair as an opportunity to apply science to a real-world phenomenon headed our way next Spring.
Dr. Kate Dellenbusch, teaching professor with the Department of Physics and Astronomy, led two sessions helping prepare attendees for the upcoming total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024. People within a 124-mile-wide band in Ohio will experience the total solar eclipse with Bowling Green being right in heart of the path (which you can see on the state’s website), also known as path of totality. The last total solar eclipse that was visible in Ohio was in 1806, and after April’s event, the next total solar eclipse in the state will be in 2099.
Titled “Get Ready for the Total Solar Eclipse with BGSU,” the University’s events took place last week as part of The Heart of it All: Ohio Space and Rocket Zone STEM immersion activities.
Participants learned how to make pinhole projectors out of cereal boxes to use for safe eclipse viewing, participated in a hands-on activity that explored the relative sizes of the sun, Earth and moon, and experienced a gravity well that simulated gravity and the warping of spacetime by mass. The event also provided attendees with a chance to peer through Falcon-themed solar eclipse glasses and they took home handouts on the phases of a solar eclipse as well as space-themed posters featuring Freddie and Frieda Falcon as astronauts.
Dellenbusch was joined by fellow teaching professor Dr. Glenn Tiede.
Check out the eclipse’s path over Ohio with this video:
