A group of Pitt researchers are heading to Texas for a unique chance to study an eclipse this week. But on a recent evening at the Allegheny Observatory, they first needed to figure a few things out.
“For one thing, we have to make sure we can launch balloons in the dark,” said Sandhya Rao, a professor of physics and astronomy in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences.
Rao was standing on the observatory grounds on a partially cloudy evening while a half-dozen students busily worked under a nearby tarp. The students were releasing weather balloons, following their trajectories and tracking the data they received from the balloon’s instruments. They asked questions of Rao and David Turnshek, professor of physics and astronomy and director of the observatory, but mostly turned to each other for help.
“It’s definitely a collaborative team,” said Giana Deskevich, a sophomore physics and astronomy student. “We share roles.”
That group makes up half of the Shadow Bandits, a dozen students in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the Swanson School of Engineering who chase eclipses to answer scientific questions and learn what it’s like to work as a group of scientists in the field.
These next six months are special ones for the team, with eclipses visible in the lower 48 states on Oct. 14 and Apr. 8. Those in a narrow band that sweeps southeast from Oregon will see a “ring of fire,” or annular eclipse, when the moon and sun are in alignment in October. In April, a similar band sweeping southwest from Maine will see the moon completely block the sun, what’s known as “totality.”
Just outside of San Antonio is the one spot where those two bands intersect — where onlookers will be able to see the sun and moon in perfect alignment for both eclipses. So the Shadow Bandits are going to Texas.