Southeast professor explains eclipse phenomena at Marble Hill museum

MARBLE HILL, Mo. — The Bollinger County Museum of Natural History hosted Solar Eclipse Day, featuring a presentation Saturday by Southeast Missouri State University physics professor Peggy Hill.

Focusing on the scientific elements of an eclipse, Hill taught children and parents about eclipses and the characteristics of one.

After covering the differences in partial and total eclipses, Hill explained the difference between various regions within the shadow cast by a solar eclipse — the umbra being land fully in shadow, and the penumbra, which is land slightly in shadow.

According to Hill, a total solar eclipse, like the one Aug. 21, occurs once every 375 years on average.

The presentation also touched on safe methods to view the solar eclipse, including some viewing devices made from household objects such as tape, foil and a cereal box.

Southeast Missouri State University physics professor Peggy Hill gives a presentation Saturday during Eclipse Day at the Bollinger County Museum of Natural History in Marble Hill, Missouri.BEN MATTHEWS

Hill urged her audience to spend the approximate two minutes of darkness to take in the experience and put down the cameras and smartphones. She suggested referring to NASA for images and video of the event.

On Aug. 21, Hill will be working with 60 other teams involved in the Citizen CATE Experiment, which aims to film the eclipse for research purposes.

The Citizen CATE Experiment seeks to overlap each total solar eclipse location’s 2 minutes and 40 seconds of darkness into one 90-minute film of the eclipse as it travels across the United States.

After the presentation, educational activities were held upstairs in the museum’s Children’s Laboratory.

At one table, Jackson residents Ariel Barr and Caitlyn Cutler, both 9, sat discussing partial and total eclipses while making bracelets for the eclipse from UV beads that glow in sunlight.

“For 1 minute and 40 seconds, I get to see a total solar eclipse,” Caitlyn said.

Caitlyn left with two sets of free ISO-approved eclipse glasses — one for her and one for her dad.

The upcoming eclipse will be Ariel’s first time viewing a solar eclipse.

“I hardly knew anything about eclipses,” Ariel said.

Ariel said she learned not to look at the sun through pinhole viewers, but rather to look at a reflection of the sun using them.

bmatthews@semissourian.com

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