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FEATURE
Eclipse, In a Different Light (Sun-Earth Day 2006)
Above: screen shot of the Eclipse, In a Different Light web site. Click the above image to visit the web site.
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For Sun-Earth Day 2006 the SECEF team decided the total solar eclipse in Africa and the Middle East would be the perfect event for bringing NASA science into classrooms, museums, and to the general public. Because the Sun-Earth Day 2005 web site had already been successful with articles organized as a mini-webzine, we continued with that approach.
The flexibility of the "Technology Through Time" articles is key to bringing engaging and informative science to our audience. The articles bring fresh content to the home page about every two weeks. This gives our audience a reason to return and learn more about the eclipse this year, and past eclipses. Content specific to the SEC Missions are spread throughout the site and articles, and with some liberal cross linking we can interject a lot of NASA science into topics that aren't typically discussed with it. This gives us a fantastic opportunity to share the SEC missions, and it gives educators a great way to bring NASA science into the classroom.
To further enhance the efforts, Sun-Earth Day will produce another live web cast. This year, we will be teaming up with our partners Exploratorium to bring images and commentary of the total solar eclipse in Turkey, to the viewers on the web. With the SECEF staff, Exploratorium, and SEC scientists all working hard to ensure a fantastic live event, we can't possibly go wrong.
Challenges
One of the biggest challenges for our team this year was deciding on a location for the web cast. Many of the countries in the path of totality would not be suitable for a live web cast due to logistics, weather concerns, or even political landscape. After careful review, Turkey was decided to be the best possible location. We are looking forward to sunny skies (until the eclipse of course), and a fantastic web cast. Having a web cast actually solved another challenge we faced this year: the solar eclipse will not be viewable by everyone in the world. Along with the web cast, the "Technology Through Time" articles will bring a wealth of experience to those who are not in the path of totality.
