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CNN Live Event/Special
CNN International: Solar Eclipse Crosses North America; Nasa Conducting Several Eclipse Research Experiments; Russellville, Arkansas Experiences Total Solar Eclipse; Partial Eclipse Visible In Atlanta. 2-3p ET
Aired April 08, 2024 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[14:00:00]
ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Now, and I can tell you that there is this beautiful crescent that has been created by the sun and the moon. The moon started taking over the sun at about the 3 O'clock mark, and right now, there's this amazing crescent, you could probably hear the crowd as well.
And then, all of a sudden, you see just a little tad of cloud cover. So, it's almost like in the movies, but other than that, I can tell you that every now and then, there's this cool breeze -- did you see just that, my scarf -- every now and then, there's a cool breeze and then we have the sun.
It feels and looks more like that twilight zone than anything else, the colors don't look exactly how we normally see the colors. So, we're definitely experiencing the eclipse right now, totality, not yet, only a partial eclipse.
RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: And Rosa --
FLORES: I'd like to take you up on those questions.
SOLOMON: Yes, I'm going to e-mail you some of my questions that I'd like you to look into the crystal bar in south --
RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: What's going to happen to Tesla's stock in the next three weeks?
SOLOMON: Yes, seriously.
QUEST: Sorry.
SOLOMON: Well, we'll for an answer on that. But Rosa, I saw this cute little boy behind you, I'm curious sort of like the ages of people you're seeing out there, how young they are. Just sort of give us a sense of the lay of the land and who is out there?
FLORES: Absolutely. Look, there are infants, there are grandparents who are out here. There are multiple generational families that have decided to make this eclipse a family reunion. There are people from all over the world, Israel, Wales, other parts of Europe, New Zealand, from all over the place and they're descending on Kerrville, Texas. And in part, it's because Kerrville, Texas, is the X that marks the
spot. And here's why. There has been two eclipses in the past six months. There was one in October and the one that's happening today. And if you look at the paths of totality, they make a cross.
And In the center of that cross is Kerrville, Texas, where I am right now. And people believe that there is this sense of -- oh, and there's that cool air again, did you see my hair? I feel a little -- like a cool breeze, it's the oddest thing. And so, people believe that there's this strength and energy here.
And that's why they're descending onto Kerrville, Texas, now. But like I mentioned, there was this scare that there was going to be massive thunderstorms. And you can see all around me, there are no thunderstorms. And so, people are actually able to enjoy the eclipse at least for now.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I don't like that cool wind, and it kind of scares me. I hope that the clouds stay away so that we can keep enjoying the eclipse.
SOLOMON: Yes --
FLORES: Rahel and Richard, back to you.
SOLOMON: Really fascinating, Rosa, because obviously I'm in studio, so really cool to kind of get that on the ground view that the wind, the color is changing and just the sense of all the people who are out there. Rosa Flores life for us there in Kerrville, Texas.
Before we go back to Richard, I want to -- I have Tom Riddle here with me. Tom, it's been so good to have you in the last few hours, just sort of explaining all of this stuff -- just sort of picking up what Rosa picked up on there. The color is changing. What's going on there?
THOMAS RIDDLE, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, ROPER MOUNTAIN SCIENCE CENTER: So, you're -- the visible light spectrum is being affected by the shadow of the moon crossing over the sun. And so, you're going to start to see kind of more of a muted colors --
SOLOMON: OK --
RIDDLE: And it's really fascinating. Again, there's the subtle changes that begin to occur like the wind. And there are things that are huge, like, hey, something is happening, so pay attention.
SOLOMON: Yes --
RIDDLE: And it's --
SOLOMON: These all senses --
RIDDLE: This is where you need to be, exactly --
SOLOMON: Yes --
RIDDLE: Really need to be on the moment here.
SOLOMON: Love it.
RIDDLE: Put those devices down.
SOLOMON: Yes.
QUEST: OK.
SOLOMON: Put your devices down, but pick up your glasses.
RIDDLE: That's right, absolutely --
QUEST: Yes, right, you've got the model there --
SOLOMON: Yes --
QUEST: Right in front of you, we're going to show you, we are now just four minutes away from totality. And this is what's going to happen. All right, Bill?
BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Yes.
QUEST: As totality happens, we've got -- we're going to start seeing some shadow bands.
WEIR: The shadow bands start to spread around, right? It starts to get a little bit darker, a little bit darker depending on where you are in relation to totality.
QUEST: Right, hard to see, Tom, the shadow bands only.
RIDDLE: The shadow bands are going to be reflected on white surfaces, clear surfaces. So, look for those, they're going to look like snakes. Some people call them shadow snakes. So, look for those. They don't always see them.
QUEST: Right, and then we get to totality, which is just three-and-a- half --
SOLOMON: That is what -- yes --
QUEST: Minutes away --
WEIR: Right --
QUEST: The Baily's beads.
WEIR: Oh, yes, I love this part. This was discovered by an astronomer named Baily, that's the name. And you can see that is the result of mountains and valleys on the moon. So, the light shooting through the uneven surface, of course, the moon not a perfect cube ball, all kinds of typography up there, and that's what you get as we head towards total coverage.
[14:05:00] QUEST: OK, looking at the picture of where we are at the moment, how
far out where -- I know we are 2 minutes, 54 seconds away, but when would we expect to start seeing some Baily's beads, Tom Riddle?
RIDDLE: Right before totality. So, we need to be looking at that carefully, but it should be just a few minutes -- excuse me, a few seconds before --
WEIR: Few seconds, yes --
RIDDLE: Totality --
QUEST: And the famous diamond ring -- no, not Rahel's engagement ring which is --
(LAUGHTER)
WEIR: Nearly as stunning, this one in the sky --
QUEST: Right here, yes --
WEIR: Nearly as stunning.
(LAUGHTER)
QUEST: Right. When do we see this?
RIDDLE: That's going to be the last thing that we see right before totality, so, we're going to look for that, wow --
QUEST: So, Baily's beads is before --
RIDDLE: Right before.
QUEST: So, it goes Baily's beads, diamond ring --
RIDDLE: Diamond ring --
QUEST: Totality. Have I got that right?
WEIR: I think so, yes --
QUEST: And then totality --
WEIR: That's where we're at --
RIDDLE: Here we go.
WEIR: And that's when you can see that corona, unlike any other time in human existence and the way NASA is able to capture this, it's so incredible to see the uneven atmosphere of the earth. The sun is not round either, it spins in very bizarre shapes.
SOLOMON: All right, guys, just hold on for one --
QUEST: Yes -- SOLOMON: Because we actually want to go to the ground in Mazatlan, we
want to go to the observatory's commercial manager, Marianna Deleon Epinna(ph) who is joining us now. And Marianna(ph), as we understand, totality is just moments away, where are we with that and what can you see?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello world, welcome to the observatory park. Here we are around 500 people ready in Cacao(ph) for money. We are very excited, dark, we cannot believe it. All of the birds suddenly shut down, we have my cows and parrots and flamingos and everything is quiet.
I think a lot of the people that is here behind my back because this is an iconic play --
SOLOMON: Oh --
QUEST: Oh, we've lost that.
SOLOMON: Well, and you know, we should point out that all of the folks who might be trying to send messages, who might be viewing, that might impact --
QUEST: Yes --
SOLOMON: Cell towers.
QUEST: We are now under a minute away, Tom Riddle, I want you and Bill Weir, talk us through, please, the next 40 seconds.
WEIR: If you are on the ground, Tom, feeling this, what's it like?
RIDDLE: Oh, my gosh. The anticipation is incredible. We started counting down at about 20 seconds, but I'm getting chills right now even just sitting here in the studio. Where -- here we go.
WEIR: Can you -- just a tiny edge there. The Baily's beads would come --
RIDDLE: Wow --
WEIR: Any second now if we get any, and this is the activity now that we're in solar maximum. The surfaces it's on is at its most active of an 11-year cycle. And those with the powerful-enough telescopes might be able to see as ejections happening? Oh, here we go.
(CHEERS)
RIDDLE: Here we go.
WEIR: Wow.
QUEST: Totality has arrived, there it is, as the lenses change, and that's the diamond ring -- well, anyway, here we are.
WEIR: There it is. QUEST: Yes!
WEIR: That's it.
RIDDLE: That's it.
QUEST: Totality has arrived --
RIDDLE: And there's -- you can see some -- looks like prominences along the edge.
WEIR: Yes.
QUEST: Look at that --
RIDDLE: You see those in that --
QUEST: From the NASA -- from the NASA pictures --
RIDDLE: Wow --
WEIR: Wow, isn't that cool? That energy coming off of there, those solar storms, they -- what's amazing is they actually increased density and drag in the atmosphere if they're strong enough, which can shift, knock low-earth orbits out of or satellites out of orbit. It's why Skylab fell early back in '79, it was solar activity.
QUEST: Just look at it --
RIDDLE: Look at this --
QUEST: Great. I suggest -- difficult, there it is. Let's try to enjoy it for a minute.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
[14:10:00]
SOLOMON: So, Tom, for those watching at home, taking this in, and maybe in the path of totality themselves, and you're watching this. At what point -- because maybe right now you don't need your glasses.
RIDDLE: No, you don't.
SOLOMON: So, when that moment changes, let us know because I think it's important for people at home to understand sort of when that critical --
RIDDLE: Yes, so --
SOLOMON: Moment is.
RIDDLE: So, right as the -- as you'll start to see on the opposite side, from the first crescent, you will start to see a sliver of light, and that's the sun coming back through, and it's time to put those glasses back on. I mean, you start to see the Baily's beads, perhaps see another diamond ring, and then put those glasses back on.
The prominences here are fantastic. This is a -- and you'll see some -- look, you'll see some cloud cover right there, right? But this -- it still breaks through.
SOLOMON: What's it like for you? I mean, you've devoted your life to science. What's it like to witness this, even if on a screen?
RIDDLE: Yes, so it's -- I think Richard hit the nail on the head, and that it's the humanity of it all. It's the deeper meaning of things, we've talked a lot about that of that shared experience. I'm even sharing this experience with you guys. You know, it's -- it really -- for me personally kind of centers me and who I am and where I am.
QUEST: What's that on the bottom right that we can see?
RIDDLE: That looks like a prominence -- I'm trying to see.
SOLOMON: When you say prominence --
RIDDLE: It's like a -- it's like a flame -- like a -- with a plasma has come through -- I'm sorry, I'm kind of speechless right now, I'm thinking about my friends who are going to be seeing this, they're not in Mazatlan, but they're coming. So -- but it's --
WEIR: If you think about that plasma, like magnetic fields and they're twisted like strands and ropes, and they rip apart --
RIDDLE: Right --
WEIR: And then snap back together, and that extra energy that burst out is what you see -- wow, look at that --
RIDDLE: Right --
WEIR: And --
RIDDLE: Yes, so, glasses back on.
QUEST: And the power -- as the filter is going back on the camera, whoever is operating that camera has now -- is putting the filter back on quickly. But the power of that sun even at a sliver on the far right side, the moment it comes back, even a sliver is so powerful --
RIDDLE: Right --
QUEST: That we have to now change the filters on the cameras and continue.
WEIR: I was reading that what that -- these solar flares, one of them has enough energy to power humanity for tens of thousands of years. They say, you know, one second, there's --
QUEST: All right --
WEIR: Enough sunlight to power us for a year, tens of thousands of years because of that thermonuclear reaction up there.
SOLOMON: Can I -- can I ask you both having witnessed eclipses before, does it ever lose its sense of awe, or is everyone sort of different than the last?
WEIR: I think the guy -- the captain we talked to out at sea, who's been to 80 or whatever --
SOLOMON: Before --
WEIR: Is they're all different, right?
SOLOMON: Yes --
WEIR: And they probably take on personalities based on who you're with and where you are in the world --
SOLOMON: Yes --
WEIR: They're also significant in their own way.
SOLOMON: What do you think, Tom?
RIDDLE: Yes, I've just been blessed to experience one and ready to do another one. Already, I'm like, wow, it seems like -- so, Spain, like when is that?
QUEST: Next year --
SOLOMON: OK --
RIDDLE: Yes, and --
QUEST: I'm getting e-mails from all around the world of people watching this, richard.quest@cnn.com and who has just written to me, she's not even touched this. She says "I have tears in my eyes and goosebumps". Wow. Extraordinary.
SOLOMON: I can't -- I have goosebumps, and I mean, I'm just -- you know, maybe it's your awe that I'm -- that I'm sort of picking up on energetically.
QUEST: Right.
SOLOMON: What is that? Is it just the --
QUEST: Life --
RIDDLE: Yes, there you go, Richard. Yes, it is.
QUEST: It's life --
RIDDLE: As much --
QUEST: I can feel tears.
RIDDLE: Yes --
WEIR: Absolutely --
RIDDLE: You know, it's --
QUEST: Life --
RIDDLE: It's that innateness that's --
WEIR: Yes --
RIDDLE: Placed within each of us to search it out.
WEIR: Yes.
[14:15:00]
RIDDLE: And to experience it together. You know, this is -- these are reminders of -- look, we have so much more in common than we do than not --
WEIR: Amen, brother.
RIDDLE: And, you know, there are moments like this, pivotal moments like this --
WEIR: Yes --
RIDDLE: Where we can choose to use them to be united or not.
WEIR: Right --
RIDDLE: And I think this is a wonderful opportunity for us to take a moment to be united. And here's the thing. The challenges, yes, this is great today, but tomorrow as well --
WEIR: As well, yes --
RIDDLE: And the day after, and the day after, and the day after.
SOLOMON: Yes --
RIDDLE: Because the eclipse has passed.
QUEST: Now touring on Mexico is about to get the eclipse, and the interesting thing about here in Torreon, Mexico, I'm sure I'm mispronouncing that, and build where we could be right --
WEIR: No, I think you got that one right --
QUEST: Twenty with change.
(LAUGHTER)
QUEST: Right, so, the interesting thing, as far as I can tell is that Mazatlan, the totality was 4 minutes, 17 seconds, but Torreon is the longest, and hopefully, Steve Tumbler(ph) will tell me exactly when totality arrives in Torreon. But this is going to be the longest, at 4 minutes, 28 seconds.
It goes sort of then down after from El Paso to Dallas to everywhere -- then it will head up towards El Paso and to Dallas, Texas.
SOLOMON: Yes, and we should point out, I mean, 4 minutes is much longer than the 2017 eclipse.
QUEST: Yes --
SOLOMON: So, this is an opportunity not just for more people to witness the eclipse, but for a longer duration of time.
WEIR: And a lot more science to get done depending on where --
QUEST: Yes --
WEIR: They are --
RIDDLE: Absolutely --
SOLOMON: Yes --
QUEST: Happening now in Torreon, I'm told totality is just about to arrive, and they will have the longest of this eclipse, 2024 --
SOLOMON: Oh --
QUEST: Four minutes and 28 seconds.
SOLOMON: How about we see how the animals are reacting. Let's turn to our Ed Lavandera who is live in Texas. He's at the Dallas Zoo where totality there is expected to begin within the hour. Ed, one thing that we heard Tom Riddle tell us a little bit earlier is that it doesn't necessarily take full totality for the animals or the conditions on the ground to start to shift. Give us a sense just based on what you can see right now, how the animals are reacting if at all.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we are about 23 minutes away from totality, and we're already getting -- given the indication of the disruption in the atmosphere, if you will. We're talking to a couple of zoo officials here and we've seen out in the distance over there, you might -- there are some guinea fowls, which are these birds that kind of like run around the ground and they were kind of scurrying around kind of crazy like a little while ago.
And there's been a great deal of louder bird chatter here in the last few minutes. So, that has been kind of something that has changed so very subtly and very slightly, but definitely different from what we've seen in the last hours. I mentioned we're about 23 minutes away from all of this happening here in the Dallas area, and we're going to be keeping tabs on the animal reaction to all of this.
And so, there's -- you know, what are they going to do? How are they going to react to this? There's not a lot of research that has been done in the last century over all of this, because there's just simply not that many opportunities to do so.
So, they're really, you know, kind of crowd-sourcing reaction throughout the entire path of this solar eclipse to kind of document the animal reaction and what we might see. But here, we've already been able to see the cloud cover, is held off dramatically compared to what many people were worried about. The temperature is starting to go down just a little bit, so, I can really sense that we are approaching, getting closer and closer to this spectacular moment.
This area behind me, you see here, this is a Tobago; the giraffe kind of interesting, they're trying to figure out what they might do. Some animals might kind of herd around their young to protect them because they might think that it's a dangerous situation once it goes completely dark, others might put themselves to sleep, others might start mating or others might not care and think we're all just going crazy for nothing.
So, we will -- kind of highly anticipating and anxiously anticipating how all of this is going to unfold here in about 20 minutes or so.
SOLOMON: All right, we'll let you continue with Tobago; the giraffe there behind you, Ed, and we'll check back with you in a moment, thank you, Ed --
WEIR: You know, another interesting one, spiders, the spiders that hunt during the day, start taking their webs down because they think it's night.
QUEST: So, Torreon, Mexico, is now experiencing total solar eclipse. If you have just joined us, you're almost welcome. This is the longest of all the totalities that we will see at 4 minutes and 28 seconds. And it's a moment I think for Tom Riddle and new -- Bill Weir, to talk us through what we're seeing.
[14:20:00]
RIDDLE: Yes, so, we're seeing the corona right now as we already talked about earlier. This is a wonderful opportunity for us to do some research on this. As Bill said, you know, it means crown and it is majestic. It's aptly named. The -- wow, that's just impressive.
WEIR: Yes, it's fun to talk about it, not in relation to a virus and we're fond of the Mexican beer, but this corona today is all about --
SOLOMON: Well done, friend, well done --
RIDDLE: That's well played.
WEIR: That earth's atmosphere, which is so mysterious and actually affects life down here.
QUEST: Let's listen in if we can just hear anything of the sounds from Torreon.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE) what do you hear? What do you like about this? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
QUEST: Amazing.
SOLOMON: Look at the sky.
QUEST: It's fascinating to watch this, to just experiencing no Baily's beads. Now they'd been gone in Torreon, and there it goes, 4 minutes and 28 seconds, it doesn't last long.
SOLOMON: Tom, can I ask maybe a silly question, how dark does it get? Is it sort of like pitch black darkness, because you also sort of see the sky there. What's ahead --
RIDDLE: No, you can see, so it's almost like looking at a sunrise or dusk 360 degrees. So, it's not going to be pitch-dark, but it's going to be like sunset, and it's -- as you can see, that's clear now, it's probably -- it looks like we're starting to possibly move back -- move back away, what's called C3.
Thus when you're coming out of totality, that's third contact. And if that's yes, that's the right one. You start to see getting lighter again. This is the moment when you need to start putting your glasses back on. There's -- there we go with the diamond ring --
QUEST: Oh!
RIDDLE: There we go, and glasses need to be on --
QUEST: Still, that's --
WEIR: Historic, isn't it?
RIDDLE: That never gets old.
QUEST: I know you guys, the camera woman who has to change the lens so that the camera doesn't get damaged.
WEIR: It's a good chance to remind everybody even if you do have the safety goggles, do not use them to look through a telescope if someone is set up and they don't have the proper filter on the telescope. You can end up just burning a hole in non-lenser glasses and then maybe do some damage to your eyes.
SOLOMON: What about your phone? What about your iPhone? Is that OK?
WEIR: That's a good question --
RIDDLE: No, there's special techniques and I'm not versed, well-versed enough on it to speak to it, but there are some things you can do with your cellphone --
SOLOMON: OK --
RIDDLE: To -- but right now I wouldn't.
SOLOMON: Yes.
RIDDLE: I mean, I've filmed it with my cellphone and it just looks like you can't see it at all --
WEIR: Yes --
RIDDLE: Without a filter, you have to have a filter. That's the word I was looking for -- it's rincon(ph).
WEIR: Yes --
RIDDLE: But --
WEIR: It's sort of like the northern lights, the aurora borealis --
RIDDLE: Right --
WEIR: In-person is a much --
SOLOMON: Yes --
WEIR: More vivid experience depending on where you are --
RIDDLE: Right --
WEIR: And people want to photograph it --
RIDDLE: Yes --
WEIR: But it's one that must be seen to be lived with. And those are directly related to that solar energy we've been talking about. That's -- those are created by those in the ionosphere.
QUEST: It is actually the -- as I understand it, having been up to see the things, it's actually the earth and the sun and the atmosphere having a battle for the -- you know, in terms of --
RIDDLE: It's the way to put it --
QUEST: So much less --
(LAUGHTER)
QUEST: OK, look at this --
WEIR: That's a cool filter, look at that.
QUEST: Yes --
WEIR: Like a --
SOLOMON: Speaking of colors, Tom, I heard that some colors look more vibrant sort of during an eclipse, some colors look darker. What --
RIDDLE: They can --
SOLOMON: What's that?
RIDDLE: And that, you know, there's a research scientist that I saw recently, he made a shirt that was half green and half red to see how the colors are affected. But again, it's how we -- it's how the light is the partial light is playing havoc on our -- on our -- the spectrum and how we pick up, how we perceive visible light.
SOLOMON: Yes --
RIDDLE: It's all about the perception.
SOLOMON: Yes --
RIDDLE: And so, that's one thing you want to be noticing as you get -- if you're in the path of totality, start to notice how the colors -- do you feel more muted?
SOLOMON: You know, I was told that green is one of the best colors to wear. So --
QUEST: You made it --
SOLOMON: You're most welcome, Richard, you're most welcome --
QUEST: Did they say lime green?
SOLOMON: They didn't, that was my little spin on it for a green.
QUEST: Well, I met --
WEIR: Somebody said dress for a total eclipse.
(LAUGHTER)
SOLOMON: Why --
QUEST: I thought I'd go with the gold of the sun.
WEIR: Yes --
RIDDLE: Yes --
SOLOMON: I like that --
QUEST: And the tediousness of a boring suit. As for the -- look, hey, Arkansas as the shot we've just been showing you a second or two ago, and now you see it again.
[14:25:00]
It is in Arkansas which we'll get totality at 1:50 -- 13:51.
WEIR: It looks like our Arkansas camera has some sort of a red filter --
RIDDLE: That's from looking at it, yes -- WEIR: Yes --
QUEST: And they will get it. And then we go from -- we go from Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, and I think in Dallas -- sorry, here in Atlanta, we get 80 percent of totality. And that happens in about 40 minutes from now. Stay with us, please, around the world --
SOLOMON: One fact about Arkansas --
QUEST: Go --
SOLOMON: Before we go to break as we look at these shots off from Arkansas, it's being built as one of their greatest tourist events and state history. They're expecting 337,000 visitors at one point. I mean, they are expecting a ton of people --
WEIR: All right --
SOLOMON: So, this is --
QUEST: Right --
SOLOMON: A huge, as we talk about the majesty of the moment, the wonder of the moment, this is also a really big moment for a lot of small businesses.
QUEST: Wherever you are, wherever you're joining us around the world, around the clock. This is CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SOLOMON: We want to welcome you back to CNN's live coverage of the total eclipse. If you were with us within the last hour, you know that we have already seen total solar eclipse in Mazatlan, Mexico. We've seen it in Torreon, Mexico, and we are being told by our colleagues in the control room that it has now crossed in to the U.S.
That total solar eclipse, we're now in the path of totality here in the U.S. We want to go to Virginia now though, and that's where NASA's experiments are being carefully timed out for this very eclipse, that's where we find CNN's Brian Todd, who joins us from Wallops Island, Virginia, where NASA has a flight facility.
And Brian, I'm not sure if it's the camera or if it's the partial eclipse or what we're looking, but it already looks like we're seeing some cloud cover there. What's it like out there?
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, hell, it's actually pretty clear day and a very exciting day here. This is how exciting it is. Look at how many hundreds of people have shown up, because you get a double whammy here in Wallops Island, Virginia, not only do you get to see at least part of the eclipse, even though we're not in the path of totality.
But you get to see the eclipse and you get to see three rocket launches, the first of which is going to begin in just a couple of minutes. It's going to be launched from over there where you see those facilities, those are rocket-launching facilities on Wallops, Island, three-sounding rockets are going to be launched. The first is in just a few minutes from now at 2:40 p.m. Eastern Time.
[14:30:12]
The second one is during the peak of the eclipse at about 3:20 Eastern Time. The third one will be at about 4:05 p.m., just after the peak of the eclipse. And these sounding rockets are designed to go up into the ionosphere and measure the disturbances during the eclipse.
Why? Because in the ionosphere, that's where all of our satellites are moving around, our communication satellites, and the eclipse itself creates a fairly large disturbance where the particles from the sun get kind of shaken up. One lead scientist in this project describes it as, it's like a boat moving into a still pond and creating a wake. So if you look at it that way, that's the kind of disturbance that this eclipse will create in the ionosphere, in these rockets.
And the instruments on these rockets that NASA is going to fire up into the ionosphere are going to measure that disturbance. They deploy things called swarm canisters that are about the size of a 2-liter soda bottle that have all these instruments on them and telemetry. They're going to measure the disturbance, transmit that data back to Earth, and then they're going to plummet into the ocean just like the rockets.
So a very exciting day starting just a couple of minutes from now, right over to your left, my right. And again, we can kind of show you the area there where it's going to happen. That is the NASA flight facility at Wallops Island.
And in just a few minutes, we're going to be seeing rockets starting to launch from there. So pretty exciting day here, guys.
SOLOMON: Yes, and Brian, just give us a sense, we saw some of the crowds there on the ground, sort of how people are feeling and how people are just sort of taking this moment in and this day in.
TODD: Well, there -- we've talked to a bunch of people here, and they're really excited. Even the people who maybe have been here and seen other launches before have told us that this is really exciting because, again, you really don't get a day like this. You don't get a day where you can see an eclipse and a rocket launch all in the same day.
And they're going to get to see not only one but three different rocket launches, each within about 45 minutes of each other. It really is kind of a historical day in addition to being just a great day for science. And it's also a good visual day.
Obviously, you know, the visuals of seeing the eclipse are really cool, even though, again, we are not in the path of totality, but the visuals of seeing that are going to be really cool. And during all that, you get to see three rockets go up. So, hey, why not spend a day out here in pretty good weather and take a look at all that? It's really exciting.
Yes, it sure is. Brian Todd live for us there on Wallops Island, Virginia. Brian, thanks so much.
QUEST: Straight to CNN's Gustavo Valdes currently in Mexico. You had totality. You had it, and it's finished. What was it like?
GUSTAVO VALDES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Richard, this is not my first eclipse, but this was like really no other one. It almost felt like it was too long.
More than four minutes of a perfect ring of the sun. You could see the diamond ring effect. It was a beautiful moment. It was a beautiful moment sharing it with thousands of people. They're starting to walk away, you know, short memory. The event is over. Move on.
But the eclipse is still going on. I mean, if we were to look upstairs, up to the skies, you still see a little bit of a crescent moon shape on the eclipse.
But it was very interesting for a few reasons. First, we felt that change on temperature. The place just cooled down. This area, this time of year, we could be at around 33 degrees Celsius. It fell to about 23, about 10 degrees. At least that's what we felt here.
And then the birds, the birds that live in this park, on the trees of this park, they just came back. They started to go back to their nests, started to do their songs as if they were going to bed. There was a little bit of confusion.
And then the light, the light that came down was not like total darkness, but it was like a very clean, white light that just covered everybody as they looked up in the sky and saw this magnificent event.
A great opportunity for scientists. On the other side of this ocean of people moving behind me, there are tens of scientists from all over the world. NASA partnered with the local observatory. They have two telescopes, one of them directly looking into the sun. So it was a great experience.
QUEST: OK. Let's -- Gustavo, I'm grateful to you. Thank you. In Mexico.
SOLOMON: Yes.
QUEST: Where's got totality now?
SOLOMON: Kerrville. Kerrville, Texas. That's where Rosa Flores has been giving us reports throughout the day. But let's just take a moment and watch this totality now that the path has officially entered the lower 48.
It has officially entered the U.S. Let's watch and witness this.
[14:35:00] QUEST: So Dallas and Kerrville has totality at the moment. Kerrville, will I get about -- Kerrville. I'm sorry. Kerrville, you're right. My apologies. Kerrville gets -- is in totality. We -- Dallas, which you saw just a second or two ago, Dallas will get totality in about four and a half minutes. And when it does get it, it will have it for three minutes and 51 seconds.
SOLOMON: Yes. Let me bring in Bill Weir here. Bill, it has now officially entered the lower 48.
WEIR: Yes.
SOLOMON: We have welcomed it to the U.S. Now talk to us a bit about Texas. Texas was an area where there was a lot of focus in terms of who would be able to see what this time.
WEIR: Exactly. There was a great moment from NASA. It's unlike covering a launch, but there was a great moment. You could hear the voice say, totality has crossed the border. Totality is in the country. And again, it's sort of -- it says more about us than the sky that we think in terms of borders.
You know, the sun, the moon, they don't know of any such things. These are all sort of human-made creations there. But on a day like this, those things melt away.
We are just the shadow, knows no political borders or no areas. It just is this quirk of coincidence that the moon shadow, which bounces everywhere every day and so rarely finds us. It's sort of like if you go to a thousand baseball games and you know that on this day, I'm going to catch the ball.
All the foul balls -- one's going to land right in my glove. And you can prepare for it and savor it. And for those who love the sky and the celestial body, the symbolism, our sense of awe, you know, the astronauts talk about the overlook effect when you go into orbit and you see this little blue marble floating out there.
The first photographs of the Apollo, some of the early Apollo missions that showed the world, Earthrise, those pictures, they spark the environmental movement, gives us a sense of place. This is kind of the next best thing for the Earthbound who can't pass those NASA math tests like yours truly.
QUEST: Sounds like you tried.
WEIR: Well, I dreamed about it. I didn't even bother to try. But, you know, and we're living in now this really explosive age of commercial space travel now.
And, again, it's one of those things, as homo sapiens, we adapt to things so normally. What were once national events, a space shuttle launch, become blase and we don't even pay attention to the SpaceX launches anymore. They're so frequent these days.
But to reconnect with the bigger purpose, beyond the commercial profit motive or whatever it is, nationalistic motive to plant a flag somewhere, just our place in this magnificent universe and still trying to figure out some of the basic questions about what's happening and why we're here.
SOLOMON: You know, Bill, we've talked so much today about the path of totality, literally the path. But what about at any given moment, if you are in the path of totality, how wide is the shadow? I mean, how big --
WEIR: It's what? It's over 100 miles wide.
THOMAS RIDDLE, SCIENCE EDUCATOR: 115 miles wide in that path of totality. Somewhere in there.
SOLOMON: Wow.
RIDDLE: You know, what's interesting is that I saw just last night that NASA was having to do last-minute calculations. Again, it's such a science to it, and we're not perfect at it. But they were moving the line of totality slightly.
There were some towns that thought that they may be in totality, but just for a second, and they were just moving out of it.
SOLOMON: Because they were on the edge.
RIDDLE: So -- they were just on that edge, yes.
SOLOMON: Yes.
QUEST: So we are a minute and a half away or so, a minute away from totality in Dallas.
WEIR: Oh, the animals. We've got to check in with Ed, right?
QUEST: Well, Ed Lavandera has just sent a note to everybody saying the animals are behaving weirdly.
WEIR: As predicted.
QUEST: As predicted. So when we can get -- he's probably enjoying the moment at the moment, but Ed Lavandera is telling us that the animals are starting to behave strangely, along with the humans, I suspect.
WEIR: If you've ever vacationed in Hawaii, for example, other tropical places, and have had the joy of sitting under a big banyan tree right at dusk, and the bird song goes crazy, and then it turns off like a switch, right?
[14:40:01]
Right at sunset? And this is sort of -- you heard that description from Gustavo in Mexico, the birds are acting in those ways.
SOLOMON: Is it possible that they're confused?
WEIR: Totally, yes. They think it's sunset.
SOLOMON: They don't know what time of day it is.
QUEST: They're behaving as they would expect to behave. We're about to go into totality in Dallas, where they will experience it for three minutes and 51 seconds.
SOLOMON: But how about this? The entire metropolitan area of Dallas- Fort Worth is inside the path of totality. That is nearly seven million people.
QUEST: Which is why they're also expecting in Texas a million or so extra arriving. It is the number one destination where they are hoping to see.
WEIR: And just to put this in perspective right now, in the United States, the next time this happens, your newborn will be old enough to drink, 22 years from now, the shadow --
QUEST: That's a really good way to put it. Thank you.
WEIR: The shadow on this continent. Of course, it will touch other parts of the Earth. Were you saying Spain, Tom, is the next big one?
RIDDLE: Yes, Spain is. That's --
QUEST: And while we're watching, let me just remind you how else who will see what. So Dallas is getting 100 percent of totality. But across the United States, you'll be seeing 80 percent out towards the west, 60 percent, 40 percent to 20 percent, right the way up to the Pacific Northwest.
So at the moment, if you're in Florida, you're probably getting around 40 percent or 60 percent of it at the moment. And there it is. There it is.
RIDDLE: Almost.
WEIR: San Antonio hit their totality a few minutes ago. Fort Worth and Dallas at the same time, twin cities.
QUEST: Tell me your feelings.
RIDDLE: Three of my co-workers, Michael and Maggie and Lisa, are there right now, and I'm so happy for them that they were so concerned it was going to be cloudy. And, hey, guys, enjoy it. I'm happy that you're there. Wow. Right.
QUEST: Guys, I'm going to love you and leave you.
WEIR: Oh, yes?
QUEST: Not for long.
WEIR: You're going up to the roof?
SOLOMON: I think I got it from here, Richard. It's been great having you.
QUEST: I'm going up to the rood. Oh, please.
SOLOMON: Go and get ready --
QUEST: I've got my -- I've got my --
WEIR: You got your man-made box? You have your --
QUEST: I have a glass. I have a glass.
SOLOMON: I'll handle it down here. Tom, for those who -- certainly those who are in the path of totality, but for even those we just saw that map of all of the people across the U.S. who might be seeing a partial eclipse, important to remind people that you still need your glasses.
RIDDLE: Yes. Please, please, please make sure Richard has his. You have to have special eclipse glasses, not just sunglasses.
Don't trust a welder's mask or anything like that.
QUEST: Come on.
SOLOMON: Absolutely.
QUEST: No, no, you. Come on. Come with me.
RIDDLE: Let's go.
WEIR: All right. We'll hold down the fort.
SOLOMON: All right. Bill and I will hold down the fort.
QUEST: Don't break anything.
SOLOMON: Well, I make no promises. Listen.
QUEST: Don't sell it.
WEIR: Go enjoy, boys.
RIDDLE: All right.
SOLOMON: But, Bill, if you might be able to pick up on that thought, that even if you are not in the path of totality, sunglasses are still extremely important.
WEIR: Well, of course, because you're going to be seeing --
SOLOMON: Not sunglasses, the eclipse glasses.
WEIR: Sure. Even if you're in L.A., you're looking at half the sun, which is still enough to burn a hole in your retina.
I know this from firsthand experience, sadly. Your retina is sort of like wet tissue paper on the back of your eyeball. It's sort of like a wallpaper back there. It's really -- I had mine detached a couple times recently. And that is what gets burned. It's so sensitive if you really stare at that.
So, you know, in places with partial eclipse, just like an average sunny day, it'll be hard to look up at. You'd really have to force yourself to do it. But it's those kids to worry about, you know, because they're so excited. And if you're in a place like New York where you're close to 90 percent, that's when it's tempting to sort of take a peek. But you know what we haven't seen, Rahel, that we talked about earlier on.
But there's also a comet in the sky, just as we're in solar maximum. There is a comet named Comet 12P/Pons Brooks or better known as --
SOLOMON: Just rolls off your tongue.
WEIR: Exactly. But better known as the Devil Comet, because as it moves, it appears to have these two horn shapes. Some actually say it looks like the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars.
But it's about 25 degrees away from the eclipse sun. So those with -- those real sky watchers with the cool telescope rigs might be able to find it. And there's a number of planets you can see as well.
SOLOMON: Bill, let me ask. You and I sit next to each other in our office in New York. So we spend some time.
WEIR: Yes, we are neighbors. Yes.
SOLOMON: Yes, we are neighbors. We spend some time talking. This is obviously something you're really passionate about. Science, climate, nature. I'm curious, though, in your preparation for this, if you learned something especially new or if you learned something especially interesting or cool, what's it been like for you?
WEIR: I tell you, I learned so much, Rahel.
[14:45:00]
About, you know, the science of heliophysics, you know, the physics of the sun. And these stories about this thing called the Carrington Event back in the 1850s, that the Aurora Borealis, the northern lights, appeared over New York City and Rome and Havana. And -- because the atmosphere was acting so crazy. And then telegraph operators, things went berserk.
And we realize until now that these are solar flares, that the Earth has a gravitational force field around it, sort of comes out of the North Pole, goes around the Earth and goes back in the South Pole. And that is affected by the activity of the sun so much so that pigeons, homing pigeons, which use that magnetic field to navigate, will go crazy and fall out of the sky during a solar storm all at once.
In Vietnam, the United States had floated thousands of mines in the waters around Vietnam to protect the harbors. They all had magnetic switches. During a solar storm, thousands of them exploded at once. There are these forces that we really don't even think about.
And I cover Earth weather, but to think that space weather could also ruin your day in a big way one day is something that we were forced to sort of consider at moments like this when we can actually look into our big star.
SOLOMON: And as we as we prepare to take a quick break, you are looking at the Dallas Zoo, where our correspondent on the ground there, Ed Lavandera, is reporting that the animals are acting strangely. We will certainly get to him just as soon as we can.
But this as the city of Dallas, Texas, experiences a total solar eclipse, what makes Dallas really unique in this situation is that this is a city of nearly seven million people where practically everyone in that city will be able to experience the path of totality. We are going to take a quick break, but we'll be right back. Don't go anywhere.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:50:01]
SOLOMON: Welcome back to our coverage here on CNN. We want to take you to Arkansas, where literally within two minutes, the eclipse is just nearing its point of totality for spectators, as you see on the ground there. Now, if you've been with us for the last few hours, you might remember this is where our correspondent Stephanie Elam was. And she was telling us that couples are using this opportunity to either wed or renew their vows. But couples are taking advantage of this really rare phenomenon to wed themselves, you know.
Bill, actually, I wasn't thinking about this, but you and I are both engaged and soon to be married as well.
WEIR: We both have pieces, yes.
SOLOMON: Yes, we do.
WEIR: And then -- and somebody looked up the horoscope and said, given my sign. What are you?
SOLOMON: I'm a Libra.
WEIR: You're a Libra. Well, for me, a Sagittarius, it meant that I'd be getting married soon.
SOLOMON: Oh, my pieces is a Sagittarius.
WEIR: Oh, there you go. There you go. So I don't know if we have to get hitched during the eclipse or what that means. But, no, it is an expression of love in harmony with the planet's dance. It's romantic.
SOLOMON: And, you know, it's so interesting, Bill, because a total solar eclipse tends to happen, what, once every 18 months or so. But it's rare because they tend to happen over the seas or somewhere where we're not actually able to witness it. And so that's part of what makes this so rare.
WEIR: Exactly. Yes. It's all about us. It's when it comes to us, when that shadow comes to our town, that's when we wake up. But, yes, two- thirds of the Earth is open ocean, always water, right, the poles. Nobody's up there or down there but the penguins and the polar bears. And so when it goes over Dallas and Cleveland and, you know, upstate New York in the same swoop, it's a -- it's a big deal.
It's just so many more people get to get a sense of this. Almost 95 percent of the country will have at least a partial one. But over 30 million live in the path of totality, another 3 million expected to travel in.
We can't control this event. Thankfully, that's part of its appeal. But, boy, we can market around it.
SOLOMON: Many people have.
WEIR: And travel and build souvenirs and a whole sort of community engagement piece of it.
SOLOMON: And, Bill, as we look at this shot now from Arkansas there, explain for us the white light that we're seeing. Obviously, that's the sun, that's the corona.
WEIR: That's the corona. You can see the beads, the Baily's beads a little bit, those little ridges in the Earth's surface, whether mountains or valleys and the sun, sort of when we have --
SOLOMON: And the moon surface.
WEIR: And the moon surface, rather, yes. And the way we have -- I don't know if you've -- have you seen Manhattanhenge yet? And, you know, where the sun lines up with the east-west streets, you know, in the middle of the summer. And so you get this amazing sort of effect through the buildings of Manhattan. It happens in other cities.
Same thing on the surface of the moon. Instead of buildings, there's canyons and valleys. And so that creates that effect of those beads there. And then because the corona is so hard to see normally because the sun is so bright. This is what gives us an opportunity to appreciate the atmosphere around the sun, which is millions of degrees hotter than the plasma of the surface itself.
And we're just -- scientists are learning new things about that in just in recent years. And now that we have this probe up there, NASA launched that probe into the sun, the Parker Space Probe, which is just staggering that we have the ability to build machines that can do that. So amazing. And we're just, who knows what discoveries will come out of this new set of data, the way that the theory of relativity was initially proofed back in the day.
SOLOMON: And Bill, for those who are experiencing this now in Arkansas, what's it like in terms of what happens with the weather? How dark does it really get? Even the winds shifting. WEIR: It does. Yes. Because when you think about our weather on Earth
is really built by heat. Right? And high pressure systems, low pressure, depending on how it is. Hot air rises, which creates wind patterns and pressure systems. And so when that intensity of the sun dims, it's visibly or noticeably cooler. The winds can shift as well.
The -- it's not complete blackout because of that corona, as Gustavo in Mexico, our man in Mexico, explained earlier. It's like a clean, white atmospheric light while this thing is happening. So cool.
And again, this is just gobsmackingly long in terms of previous eclipses. In 2017, people were lucky to get two minutes. Some of these are well over four depending on where you are.
SOLOMON: Yes, it's historically -- it's not the longest, but it is long in terms of the last the last eclipse in 2017.
[14:55:00]
WEIR: It's interesting for health, too, is we think about it as sighted people. This is such a visual experience. You have to think about folks without vision. And there's actually some very interesting innovators who came up with something called light sound, which uses a light sensor, that then reflects the variations of the eclipse in sound. So blind folks can listen to the change in the phases and visualize it in that way.
I'm reading on CNN.com, we've got running coverage as well. Some people worried about pets, how they might react in an eclipse.
SOLOMON: Yes, I look to see how dogs might react.
WEIR: Yes. It seems like cats all sleep through it as cats do. But I think more noticeable are the nocturnal animals. You know, the birds and others that are there -- their biological triggers are set up on light.
And to have that completely thrown off in the middle of the day, bats come out in the middle of the day.
SOLOMON: Birds get confused apparently.
WEIR: Birds get confused.
SOLOMON: Well, let's go visit our friend Richard Quest. Let's go to the roof. He is on the roof of our building here in Atlanta where we are not getting a total solar eclipse, but we are getting a partial eclipse. So, Richard, my friend, obviously also there with meteorologist Elisa Raffa, what's it like? What can you see?
QUEST: All right. Now, I spent the last two hours, or you have, telling everybody not to look at the sun. So the big thing up there is the sun and --
ELISA RAFFA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Do you need glasses?
QUEST: Sorry?
RAFFA: Do you need glasses?
QUEST: Thank you. What should we be experiencing now? So come and join us as well.
RAFFA: Come here. It's the partial -- we're in partial solar eclipse right here in Atlanta. So when you look up, you see the crescent of the sun.
So you're -- we're looking at the moon coming in front of the sun and we're seeing like a piece of the sun. Do you see it?
QUEST: I do.
RAFFA: How incredible is that?
QUEST: I see that the moon is now eating into probably about, I'd say, five eighths of the sun. Tom.
RIDDLE: So we're on there.
RAFFA: Breathing.
RIDDLE: Yes. So we're going to get around 80, 85 percent here in Atlanta. And it's -- yes. If you look at it now, if you have your glasses, it's the time to look at it, look down and take your glasses off before you look away. So don't -- yes. People make that mistake.
QUEST: I can't show you on this camera what it looks like because let me first of all, see if this thing works.
RAFFA: The things that we made.
QUEST: The things that we made. OK, so bear with me. What do I do?
RAFFA: OK, so you want to look in the open part. Their pinhole is on the top and then you want the sun behind us. So the rays coming in here.
QUEST: Oh, yes.
RAFFA: You might notice -- there it is.
QUEST: There it is. There it is.
RAFFA: And you are seeing the shadow.
QUEST: Just in there at the bottom. You can see hopefully -- can you see that white little bit? There you go. It worked.
RAFFA: We got it.
QUEST: It worked. I mean, it's a bright little --
RAFFA: Isn't that incredible? QUEST: Did you see that? Did you enjoy it? It was a good moment,
wasn't it? Right. But we need to show you how it actually looks. And this, this is cool.
RAFFA: We've got some really cool shadows.
QUEST: This is homemade science. Explain.
RAFFA: Everybody's got a pasta strainer at home, right? A colander? So you see how these are circles. They would be full circles on a regular day. Right? You just see the crescents. The shadows are not full circles. They're crescents on the -- on the colander, on the pasta strainer because you're not getting a full sun right now. You're only getting a piece of the sun.
QUEST: So this -- so there you see, this should be a full.
RAFFA: Yes.
RIDDLE: I have another one. So, yes. So this is really cool. We're having a party, an eclipse party. Right? And so what we're seeing is that that's it. If you look down at the ground, you're going to see the reflection.
Actually, it's better. Look on the wall over there behind us. If you'll see that, look at all -- there you go.
RAFFA: That's cool.
QUEST: Yes, it's --
RIDDLE: There we go. There we go.
QUEST: No, no. Yes. So we see all of those crescent shaped suns reflecting from all the mirrors. This is acting -- this is acting as a pinhole camera. And so you can see all of the little crescent suns reflected on our clothes and on the wall.
RAFFA: And on a normal day, wouldn't they be like full circles?
RIDDLE: Yes, they'd be full circle.
RAFFA: Some of those reflections?
RIDDLE: That's right.
QUEST: So let's -- so put some of that on my suit.
RIDDLE: There we go. We're dressing you up, Richard. We're going to have to get away a little bit.
RAFFA: Get you all this sparkly crescents.
RIDDLE: Get into focus a little bit. So there we go.
QUEST: Oh, look at that. RIDDLE: Now -- yep. Yep.
RAFFA: And what was cool is I heard from a science educator that this, like, disco ball thing, people almost like found out by accident in 2017 that the crescents were showing up on their walls from disco balls that they had in their rooms.
QUEST: Right.
RAFFA: It was like a oops, science experiment.
RIDDLE: It was awesome.
QUEST: Right. You're the sun.
RAFFA: I'm the sun. Yes. So then --
QUEST: You're the moon.
RIDDLE: OK.
QUEST: I'm Earth. So, show us what's happening.
RIDDLE: So what we're doing is that as I am revolving around, I'm orbiting --
QUEST: You're closer to me, aren't you?
RIDDLE: Yes, I am. I am. There we go. There we go. Thank you. Thank you. As I'm orbiting Earth, I'm going in direct alignment with the sun and you're -- and our orbital planes, so we have to be just precisely right. And so you'll see the sun is now casting a slight on the -- on the -- on the moon and the shadow of --
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
