The McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center looks forward to welcoming Jacob Garside as our February 2024 Super Stellar Friday speaker. Jacob is currently a second-year student at Plymouth State University here in New Hampshire, pursuing a B.S. in Meteorology. He has been a part of the Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Project since 2022. He was also a NASA Space Grant intern at the Discovery Center during the summer of 2023, and his campers are well prepared for the April 8 eclipse.
During his presentation, Jacob will teach us all about solar eclipses and the Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Project. These phenomena have puzzled humans for over ten thousand years, with most ancient cultures believing them to be the work of angry gods. Nowadays we can use science to figure out what’s going on during solar eclipses, and can even use meteorology to gain a better insight into exactly what the atmosphere is doing. The goal of the Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Project is to create a high-resolution data set using weather balloon data collected during solar eclipses in 2023 and 2024. Using data taken in 2023, we can analyze and predict what the April 8 eclipse will look like. Jacob’s talk on this subject will take place on Feb. 2, and doors will open at 6:30 p.m. with the presentation beginning at 7 p.m.
Super Stellar Friday is a monthly event hosted by the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center. Along with a guest speaker presentation, attendees can look forward to exploring the exhibits, watching our popular planetarium show, Tonight’s Sky, and weather allowing, look at the stars with New Hampshire Astronomical Society.
The McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center features 21st century interactive exhibits on aviation, astronomy, Earth and space sciences, an all-digital, 10K full-dome planetarium and a wide variety of science, technology, and engineering and mathematics programs. The engaging, robust educational programs are geared towards families, teens, seniors, students, community groups and lifelong learners. For more information, visit http://www.starhop.com.
