An image of the sun during totality captured by members of a faculty-student team from Southern Illinois University Carbondale on April 20 in Australia.
April 26, 2023
Media Advisory: SIU faculty, students can discuss studying eclipse in Australia
CARBONDALE, Ill. – A group of faculty and students from Southern Illinois University Carbondale are returning from Australia, where they witnessed the April 20 total solar eclipse in preparation for a similar event in Southern Illinois next year. And they are eager to talk about their adventure.
Reporters, photographers and news crews are welcome to interview representatives from the group. We are including a few photographs and videos, as well, to give you an idea what they did and saw. You are welcome to use them.
The research team and student study abroad teams left for Australia the week of April 10. They observed the eclipse in Exmouth, a peninsula north of Perth and the only area in the path of totality.
Faculty members who made the trip include Cori Brevik, assistant professor of practice in the School of Physics & Applied Physics; Harvey Henson, director of SIU’s STEM Education Research Center; Chris Mandrell, research assistant with the STEM Education Research Center; and Bob Baer, specialist in the School of Physics & Applied Physics.
While in Australia, the teams trained to participate in the Dynamic Eclipse Broadcast (DEB) Initiative and the Lunt Solar Systems multiwavelength telescope feeds. Both projects collect scientific data and will provide telescope feeds for NASA EDGE programming produced in cooperation with WSIU and SIU during the April 8, 2024, total solar eclipse, as well as the October 14, 2023, annular solar eclipse, which is when the moon passes between the sun and Earth at the farthest point of its orbit and does not completely cover the sun.
SIU team members and others experience the darkness brought on by totality during a solar eclipse in Australia April 20.
SIU team members train on using special telescope in preparation for a solar eclipse in Australia April 20.
SIU team members take measurements during a solar eclipse in Australia April 20.