CORVALLIS, Ore. - This Aug. 21, North America will experience a total solar eclipse when the moon passes directly between the sun and Earth. At the May 8 Corvallis Science Pub, Randall Milstein will discuss the science and history of solar eclipses and offer practical tips on how to witness the event safely.

"With it crossing so much of North America, it may become the most widely shared natural event in human history," said Milstein, an astronomy instructor and astronomer-in-residence with the Oregon Space Grant program at Oregon State University.

This is the first total solar eclipse to target the continental United States since 1979, the first to run from the North American Pacific Coast to Atlantic Coast since 1918, and the first total solar eclipse since 1776 with its path of totality completely within the continental United States.

Science Pub will begin at 6 pm and is free and open to the public. Due to high interest in this topic, note that it will not be held in the usual location, the Old World Deli in downtown Corvallis. Instead it will be in the Learning Innovation Center (Room 100) on the OSU campus. Food and beverages will not be available. Free parking is available on the campus after 5 pm.

Podcasts of previous Corvallis Science Pub events on topics such as marijuana metabolism, foreign relations and soft robotics are available at http://communications.oregonstate.edu/podcast.

Sponsors of Science Pub include Terra magazine at OSU, the Downtown Corvallis Association and the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry.

Story By: 

Nick Houtman, [email protected], 541-737-0783   

Source: 

Randall Milstein, 541-737-2414, [email protected]

    

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