Image - speaker plus eclipse images
Image - speaker plus eclipse images

Andrew Fraknoi: Two Eclipses of the Sun

Two eclipses of the sun are coming to North America during the 2023–24 school year—an annular (“ring of fire”) eclipse on October 14, 2023 and a total eclipse on April 8, 2024.  People in two narrow paths will have the full eclipse experience each time. Everyone else (an estimated 500 million people, including all of us in the Bay Area) will see a nice partial eclipse, where the moon covers a good part of the sun.

Dr. Andrew Fraknoi will describe how eclipses come to be (and why they are total only on Earth), what scientists learn during eclipses, exactly when and where the eclipses of 2023 and 2024 will be best visible, and how to observe the eclipses and the sun safely. 

MLF ORGANIZER

George Hammond

NOTES

A Humanities Member-led Forum program. Forums at the Club are organized and run by volunteer programmers who are members of The Commonwealth Club, and they cover a diverse range of topics. Learn more about our Forums.

In Association with Wonderfest.

Everyone who attends this program in person will receive a free pair of safe-viewing glasses for the eclipse (which enable you to look at the sun without eye damage), courtesy of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

Fraknoi photo courtesy the speaker' eclipse images from NASA.

Speakers
Image -Andrew Fraknoi

Andrew Fraknoi

 

Chair Emeritus, Astronomy Department, Foothill College; Former Executive Director, Astronomical Society of the Pacific; Astronomy and Physics Lecturer, Fromm Institute at the University of San Francisco and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at San Francisco State University; Lead Author, Astronomy

Image - Gerald Harris

Gerald Harris

President, Quantum Planning Group; Chair, Technology & Society Member-led Forum, and Member, Board of Governors, The Commonwealth Club of California—Moderator