Kaufman, Texas – Westminster University researchers traveled to Kaufman, Texas with their telescope in hand to capture the 2024 solar eclipse. They’re studying the corona as part of NASA-funded Dynamic Eclipse Broadcast (DEB) Initiative.
Physics Associate Professor Julia Kamenetzky was joined by physics major Max Lynch, and chemistry major Quincy Stewart as part of the DEB research team from Westminster. DEB is a collaboration of citizen scientists who have been training to be part of the collective capturing eclipse images from across North America. There are over 80 teams throughout mainland US, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Canada.
“We had a cloudy start to the morning but did our best to get set up and pointed with the sun just peeking in and out of the clouds. The sky cleared up beautifully just before totality and we got our data,” said Kamenetzky.
The research team set up camp outside their hotel. They were able to capture some images of the eclipse which they then uploaded to the interactive DEB website map. The images will now be used to process data from all 80 research teams.
Chemistry major Quincy Stewart says the images will help scientists study the Sun’s inner corona, its lowest atmosphere, which is only visible during a solar eclipse.
“Ultimately, we want to create high-definition resolution images by stacking images at multiple exposure times and data acquisition sites. This will allow us to create a comprehensive picture of the corona. We’re also interested in creating radial brightness profiles, to see how the brightness of the corona changes as we move radially outward from the sun,” said Stewart.
The research will help scientists investigate the interactions between the sun’s surface and its corona by measuring the velocity of material in polar plumes, coronal streamers, and solar mass ejections.
Funding for Westminster’s participation in the project came from the Utah NASA Space Grant Consortium (UNSGC).
Physics major Max Lynch, and chemistry major Quincy Stewart
Physics Associate Professor Julia Kamenetzky
DEB Website Map Images
