astronomy

Ohio astronomy park honors astronaut John Glenn

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I’ve spent the last week chatting with astronauts and other whip smart folks who work for NASA and its international equivalents on the shakedown cruise for the new Viking Orion ocean ship that boasts retired astronaut Anna Fisher as its godmother.

Fisher was able to invite about 100 of her friends on board this cruise and I was among a small group of incredibly fortunate journalists to tag along for the adventure.

In a panel and in one-on-one chats many of the more than two dozen current and former astronauts on board shared stories about being in space and, throughout the cruise, astronauts and non-astronauts alike had a chance to check out the skies from the ship’s decks and in its high-tech planetarium.

Today I leave the ship and all the astronauts behind and fly home on an airplane – not a rocket ship. But I’ve got my eyes on the skies and I’m pleased to learn that on Thursday, June 21 – just in time for the summer solstice – a new astronomy park honoring super-hero astronaut and Ohio native John Glenn will open in rural Logan, Ohio, about forty miles southeast of Columbus.

Courtesy NASA

The John Glenn Astronomy Park (JGAP) will not only allows visitors to explore the night sky, but it will also offers daytime study with a  Solar Plaza to study the Sun, Earth and the North Celestial Pole, among other celestial features. The 80-foot in diameter Solar Plaza highlights the Sun’s orientation to the Earth as it changes throughout the year and is encircled by a low wall with notches offering framed views of the Sun on key days.  The new park also has an enclosed 540-square-foot observatory with a retractable roof  to  permit night sky viewing.

(All photos courtesy of the John Glenn Astronomy Park, except for photo of John Glenn, which is courtesy of NASA and the  planetarium photo, which is courtesy of Viking Cruises).

 

Getting ready for the eclipse

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Courtesy NASA

Like everyone else, I’m pretty darn excited about the Great American Eclipse taking place on August 21.

I’m luckier than most. Not only do I live not far from the path of totality, but I’ve been invited to join Alaska Airlines on a special flight that will leave Portland International Airport early Monday morning and head out over the ocean to meet the eclipse as it heads towards the west coast.

The plane will be filled with astronomers, airline employees, special guests and media representatives. And while I won’t have one of the highly coveted seats on the right side of the plane where passengers are promised a straight on view of the eclipse from their seats, I’ll have a front row seat for the festivities leading up to the flight and at least a sliver of a galley window during the flight.

There won’t be WIFI on the flight, so I won’t be able to do any live reporting – but my story and some of my photos from the adventure will be on USA TODAY, here on StuckAtTheAirport.com and on social media soon after we land.

In the meantime, I’m getting ready by watching this video taken by a passenger on Alaska Airlines Flight #870 in 2016, when astronomers convinced Alaska Airlines to change the course of the  course of a flight from Anchorage to Honolulu just a bit so that eclipse chasers – and regular passengers booked on the flight – could get  a view of an eclipse taking place over the Pacific Ocean.

 

Alaska Airline’s eclipse trip

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Alakas Airlines ecllipse

Photo courtesy Alaska Airlines

 

Here’s a great eclipse photo and (below) a video taken from an Alaska Airlines plane during the total solar eclipse on March 8.

To get those photos – and make a planeload of eclipse chasers happy – Alaska Airlines actually changed the path and the timing of Flight 870 from Anchorage to Honolulu so that it would intersect the “path of totality” – the darkest shadow of the moon as it passes over the Earth – at the exact right time.

I think it was definitely worth the trouble!

Video courtesy Mike Kentrianakis / American Astronomical Society.

Want to see a total solar eclipse? There’s one coming up in August 2017 that will sweep across the United States. Start planning now with tips offered on the eclipse2017.org website.