The Ring of Fire is hours away!

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Feb 26

2017

by Pedro Saizar

During these last two days, we had intense activity here at the Trelew Astronomical Center in Argentina. Several groups of astronomers visited us and had a few great lectures. Groups came from Brazil, Perú and various provinces from Argentina. Others are going stright to Camarones for the main event, and we shall surely meet them there.

Photo: Prof. Ian Davie, MSc in Astrophysics, talking about the less famous moons in our Solar System, this afternoon at the Trelew Planetarium.

In addition, there will be other events in Sarmiento and Facundo, which are fartehr West. As I write this, I am waiting a friend from Buenos Aires, who is the Celestron representative in Argentina. He is bringing a 9.25" Evolution telescope to get the best possible images. In addition, we have several other telescopes for both direct imaging and projection viewing.

Also, of course, there will be hundreds of solar glasses safe for solar viewing. These had been brought to us by Astronomers without Borders thanks to donations from many generous donors. Many will remain here in Trelew and the rest are on their way to Camarones. We also gave about 100 pairs to those viewing the eclipse in Sarmiento.

The key word will be "share"! View the eclipse and pass them on to brother, sister, mom and/or dad. And repeat!  Meanwhile, look at the landscape, look through little holes or at our telescopes and have safe fun!

Reports indicate that Camarones is already flooded with visitors, and many are just camping near the observation site. Others will travel a few miles further South to watch the perfect, symmetric ring.

"Each eclipse is different and I'm awfully curious to see how this one will turn out to be", said Alexandre Amorim, a brazilian astronomer with a long experience in eclipse hunting.

AWB solar glass distribution:

200 in Trelew
700 in Camarones
100 in Sarmiento

The other half (1,000) remained in Esquel-Facundo.

As Internet conectivity is poor from Camarones, we will attempt to upload live images through www.SLOOH.com

I will also try to post to Twitter, time permitting: www.twitter.com/planetario

Please expect my next report sunday evening or monday morning with all the pictures from this (for us) extraordinary event!

Please wish us good luck!