10 years of the Solar Eclipse Task Force: Lessons Learned
AAS Summer Meeting #244 June 10-11, 2024
Lessons Learned from Plans and Preparations for the 2017-2024 Solar Eclipses
Splinter session June 11, 2024: 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM
The AAS Solar Eclipse Task Force spent a decade bringing a wide variety of stakeholders together to prepare citizens of, and visitors to, the United States, Canada, and Mexico to safely experience and enjoy the August 2017, October 2023, and April 2024 solar eclipses across North America. Chief among its activities was organizing planning workshops across the country at which astronomers, formal and informal educators, event organizers, government and emergency management professionals, representatives of the tourism industry, and others gathered to share best practices and help each other prepare their communities for an influx of visitors.
Now, with the eclipses behind us, it’s time to look at how well prepared North America actually was for three major solar eclipses in seven years. What successes and failures stand out? What should we have done differently at the local, state, and/or national level?
In addition to exploring important lessons learned, the talks below address how best to preserve those lessons as a legacy, so that communities planning future large events can benefit from our collective experience.
June 11, 2024: Ten years of lessons in nine expert talks
Introduction: Dr. Angela Speck
Dr. Kate Russo: Local Community Preparedness
Dr. Kate Russo: Local Community Preparedness
Dr. Angela Speck, who has chaired the AAS's Solar Eclipse Task Force since 2014, is also professor and chair in Physics & Astronomy, Univ. of Texas, San Antonio. In her introduction to this session, she reviewed the purpose and method of the SETF's past 10 years of activities, and set the stage for the lessons we're passing to those who will be managing eclipses in the 2040s.
Dr. Kate Russo: Local Community Preparedness
Dr. Kate Russo: Local Community Preparedness
Dr. Kate Russo: Local Community Preparedness
Dr. Kate Russo, founder of Being In the Shadow and author of numerous white papers and books on community preparedness for eclipses, presented her main lessons learned from several decades of helping communities around the world make the most of their good fortune to be in the path of totality.
Click here for the video, click here for the transcript, click here for a PDF of the slides.
Debra Ross: The Magic Happened on the Ground
Dr. Kate Russo: Local Community Preparedness
Laurie Radow: Traffic and Emergency Management
Debra Ross was chair of Rochester, NY's eclipse task force and co-chair of the American Astronomical Society's Solar Eclipse Task Force. Her talk, The Magic Happened on the Ground: Unifying Disparate Communities for Eclipse Success in Rochester, NY, explores how Rochester's task force defined success, as, in part, the growth of the relationship network among many disparate communities. This talk shows how they measured this success, and how this can translate to other communities.
Click here for the video, click here for the transcript, click here for a PDF of the slides.
Laurie Radow: Traffic and Emergency Management
Michael Zeiler: Prediction vs. Reality of Visitation to the Eclipse Path
Laurie Radow: Traffic and Emergency Management
Laurie Radow, retired transportation specialist from the Federal Highway Administration, spoke about traffic challenges for the 2024 eclipse. She affirmed that the rapid change in the technology of traffic management precludes our ability to make good predictions for the 2028 eclipse in Australia, much less what to expect in 2040s North America.
Click here for the video, click here for the transcript, click here for a PDF of the slides.
Michael Zeiler: Prediction vs. Reality of Visitation to the Eclipse Path
Michael Zeiler: Prediction vs. Reality of Visitation to the Eclipse Path
Michael Zeiler: Prediction vs. Reality of Visitation to the Eclipse Path
Cartographer Michael Zeiler, who is a founder of GreatAmericanEclipse.com, examined traffic trends from the 2024 eclipse, comparing his predictions with what actually happened. He concluded that significant factors were at work beyond the parameters in his calculations that made the difference in traffic patterns and bottlenecks for the April 8, 2024 eclipse, and he elucidated what those factors were.
Click here for the video, click here for the transcript, click here for a PDF of the slides.
Dennis Schatz: Preparing Schools and Libraries
Michael Zeiler: Prediction vs. Reality of Visitation to the Eclipse Path
Michael Zeiler: Prediction vs. Reality of Visitation to the Eclipse Path
Dennis Schatz, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Learning Innovation, along with his colleague Andrew Fraknoi from the University of San Francisco, have spent the past decade compiling useful materials that classroom teachers and informal educators, especially librarians, have used to educate their constituents about the science of eclipses and safe viewing strategies. Much of their focus in 2023/2024 was to encourage teachers to have their students be solar eclipse “outreach agents.”
Click here for the video, click here for the transcript, click here for a PDF of the slides.
Katherine Troche: ASP Eclipse Ambassadors and Night Sky Network
Katherine Troche: ASP Eclipse Ambassadors and Night Sky Network
Katherine Troche: ASP Eclipse Ambassadors and Night Sky Network
Kat Troche, from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, spoke about the ASP Eclipse Ambassadors program. This program was designed to create Eclipse Ambassadors from both on and off the path of the 2024 eclipse., to engage underrepresented communities and involve them in eclipse science and astronomy. The original idea was to pair undergraduate students with amateur astronomers, and for both of them to engage in outreach programs with their communities, with the goal of reaching 100,000 people.
Click here for the video, click here for the transcript, click here for a PDF of the slides.
Dr. Greg Schultz: ASP’s Eclipse Stars
Katherine Troche: ASP Eclipse Ambassadors and Night Sky Network
Katherine Troche: ASP Eclipse Ambassadors and Night Sky Network
Greg Schultz, Senior Scientist and Educator at the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, presented a summary of the Eclipse Stars program that ASP coordinated for the 2024 eclipse.
Click here for the video, click here for the transcript, click here for a PDF of the slides.
Dr. Rick Fienberg: Eclipse Glasses Insanity
Katherine Troche: ASP Eclipse Ambassadors and Night Sky Network
Dr. Rick Fienberg: Eclipse Glasses Insanity
The AAS, in the person of Dr. Rick Fienberg, maintained a list of approved eclipse glasses manufacturers and vendors on the AAS website; it became the single most-accessed page on eclipse.aas.org. Here is what Rick went through as he did his best to manage this list and grapple with all of the implications thereof, including a careful investigation of fraudulent safety reports from foreign suppliers, and thwarting attempts to bribe him into being placed on the list. It includes strong recommendations for the future.
Click here for the video, click here for the transcript, click here for a PDF of the slides.
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