{"id":21052,"date":"2015-08-25T06:00:06","date_gmt":"2015-08-25T11:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/?p=21052"},"modified":"2015-08-25T02:28:54","modified_gmt":"2015-08-25T07:28:54","slug":"austin-peay-state-university-place-to-be-for-historic-2017-total-solar-eclipse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/2015\/08\/25\/austin-peay-state-university-place-to-be-for-historic-2017-total-solar-eclipse\/","title":{"rendered":"Austin Peay State University place to be for historic 2017 Total Solar Eclipse"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AustinClarksville, TN<\/strong> – On a cold February morning in 1979, a massive crowd gathered on a remote hill in Washington State to watch the day suddenly descend into darkness. For several seconds, no one spoke.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s eerie; it\u2019s getting black here. Darkness at noon,\u201d ABC News Correspondent Jules Bergman said during live coverage of the total solar eclipse. \u201cPeople are hushed in what seems almost like a ritual thing that mankind has been silenced by, in awe, since the beginning of civilization.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Austin<\/a>

Austin Peay State University Observatory.<\/p><\/div>\n

The tens of thousands of revelers had traveled from across the world to the town of Goldendale, Washington, to get the best view of the last total solar eclipse of the century.<\/p>\n

The small community, unknown to the majority of the planet, offered the ideal spot for these visitors because it was near the eclipse\u2019s center of total darkness and it was the only place in the eclipse\u2019s path to have a large telescope and observatory.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is just the most exciting thing I think I\u2019ve ever participated in,\u201d ABC News Correspondent Ron Miller said when the moon covered the sun. \u201cI can\u2019t tell you how lucky we are.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next total eclipse will take place two years from today, on August 21st, 2017, and the ideal place to witness this extraordinary celestial event will be in Clarksville, Tennessee. That\u2019s because the city will go dark for about two minutes and 20 seconds, and it is the only place near the centerline of the eclipse with a significant astronomy program.<\/p>\n

In Clarksville, Austin Peay State University\u2019s Department of Physics and Astronomy has an observatory with a 20-inch Ritchey-Chretien telescope, featuring the same optical design as NASA\u2019s Hubble Telescope, and a respected faculty eager to help visitors get the most out of this once-in-a-lifetime event.<\/p>\n

\"Austin<\/a>

Austin Peay State University Robert F. Sears Planetarium. (Taylor Slifko, APSU)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI\u2019m estimating we will have 200,000 people in Clarksville that day, over and above the regular population,\u201d Dr. Allyn Smith, APSU professor of physics, said.<\/p>\n

NASA has already contacted APSU about setting up a live feed at the University\u2019s observatory to give viewers across the country an opportunity to see the eclipse, but area hotels are already booking rooms for people keen on witnessing the event with their own eyes. With such a large crowd expected for the eclipse, APSU is working to provide them a memorable experience.<\/p>\n

Expedition: APSU<\/h4>\n

Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington, with his thinning hair and spectacles, didn\u2019t look much like an adventurer, but in 1919, the Cambridge-educated physicist traveled to the Isle of Principe off of West Africa. The Royal Astronomical Society sent him on an expedition to the distant island to witness a total eclipse and make the first test of Einstein\u2019s theory of general relativity. Principe was deemed one of the best places in the world to view the solar event.<\/p>\n

That steamy morning in 1919, as the sky darkened, Eddington and his fellow scientists busied themselves with their experiment.<\/p>\n

[320left]\u201cWe have no time to snatch a glance at it,\u201d Eddington wrote in his book, \u201cSpace, Time and Gravitation: An Outline of the General Relativity Theory.\u201d \u201cWe are only conscious of the weird half-light of the landscape and the hush of nature, broken by the calls of the observers, and beat of the metronome ticking out the 302 seconds of totality.\u201d<\/p>\n

The experiment was a success, confirming Einstein\u2019s theory, and in 2017, the APSU Department of Physics and Astronomy will use its fortunate position in regards to the solar eclipse to recreate Eddington\u2019s experiment. Dr. Spencer Buckner, APSU associate professor of physics, said the University is buying equipment, and his astrophotography classes will use the next two years to develop a process for the experiment.<\/p>\n

In 2009, the Royal Astronomical Society sent another expedition to Principe to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the experiment that, according to the BBC, \u201cprofoundly changed the way we view the Universe.\u201d That trip was largely a celebratory and educational event because another solar eclipse wasn\u2019t going to occur over the island that May. APSU\u2019s 2017 experiment, 98 years after Eddington\u2019s expedition, will give scientists the rare opportunity to recreate this famous test.<\/p>\n

The University will also spend the next two years training students and other astronomy enthusiasts on equipment so they can help guide visitors in Clarksville that summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to get with the Clarksville Astronomy Club and Del Square Psi, the student physics club, and get them trained, make sure they have equipment, and then disperse them to parks and places around town,\u201d Smith said. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to keep the observatory to the more professional community. We\u2019ll probably have two or three universities that will want to come in and set stuff up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Education<\/h4>\n

The center of the eclipse, with maximum totality of darkness, is actually about 20 miles north of the University, but that location will only remain dark for about 10 more seconds than Clarksville.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut to the south, the difference between Clarksville and northern Davidson County (Nashville) is about a minute of darkness,\u201d Buckner said. The majority of Davidson County won\u2019t witness a total solar eclipse.<\/p>\n

[320right]Because of Austin Peay\u2019s fortunate location, the physics and astronomy department is using this opportunity to educate area school children.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are developing workshops for local teachers,\u201d Dr. Alex King, chair of the APSU Department of Physics and Astronomy, said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a day workshop\u2014one next summer and one the summer of 2017\u2014giving them in-service credits.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to working with local teachers, the department is looking at providing special eclipse glasses to all school children in the Clarksville-Montgomery County area and surrounding counties.<\/p>\n

APSU Physics and Astronomy Department<\/h4>\n

Located at APSU, 40 miles north of Nashville, the Department of Physics and Astronomy has produced three Goldwater Scholars in recent years, and the department\u2019s students have conducted research, as undergraduates, at places such as the European Organization for Nuclear Research\u2019s Geneva laboratory, also known as CERN, a glass productions lab in the Czech Republic and at Fermilab \u2013 the U.S. Department of Energy\u2019s national laboratory. In 2013, APSU student Mees Fix discovered a quasar while working with his professor, Dr. Smith, at Fermilab.<\/p>\n

The department\u2019s facilities include a $500,000, NASA-funded Materials Fabrication and Characterization Lab, the APSU Observatory, the Sears Planetarium and a computational physics research lab. The department is a member of the WIYN 0.9m Consortium at the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona.<\/p>\n

In 2007, APSU became the site for Tennessee\u2019s first Governor’s School in Computational Physics. The highly competitive program is geared toward hardworking high school sophomores and juniors with an interest in engineering, mathematics and science, and allows them to earn seven hours of college credit.<\/p>\n

For more information, visit the department\u2019s website at www.apsu.edu\/physics<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clarksville, TN – On a cold February morning in 1979, a massive crowd gathered on a remote hill in Washington State to watch the day suddenly descend into darkness. For several seconds, no one spoke. \u201cIt\u2019s eerie; it\u2019s getting black here. Darkness at noon,\u201d ABC News Correspondent Jules Bergman said during live coverage of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[26534,7793,23,26537,262,26539,825,12399,7758,21606,26535,9700,26538,4950,26536,9695,9701,6699],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4xGYI-5ty","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21052"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21052"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21052\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21053,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21052\/revisions\/21053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}