by Paul Doherty
As I drove into work just after dawn, I was stunned by the fantastic
sight before me. Bright rays of golden sunlight pierced the the
roiling bottom of a fog layer that hung over San Francisco bay. The
fog layer had hidden the sun from view for the past three days, the
holes in the fog held out the promise that the fog might clear in
time to let the moon to blot out the sun (partly) over the
Exploratorium.
By 9:00 A.M. the sun shone in a sparkling clear blue sky and I had
another worry. How many people were going to show up today? I was too
busy to worry for long, my preparation work; setting up binoculars to
project the eclipse and helping teachers to build the eclipse
projectors, was continuously interupted by requests for interviews
from local television and radio stations, even an AP wire service
reporter tagged me for a story. Thank goodness I had come in early
this morning and finished assembling the slide lecture I was
scheduled to give after the eclipse.
At10 A.M. just ten minutes before the edge of the moon was scheduled
to move in front of the edge of the sun, I got my projector to work.
Looking up from my work and had my second shock of the day, a thick
line of people stretched away from the Exploratorium entrance and
around the block. I had never seen such a long line before.
I moved my solar projector next to the line to entertain people as
they waited. I could only show a dozen people at a time so I rounded
up two dozen teachers to entertain the line as roving scientists. All
along the line the teachers set up the solar projectors they had
built so that everyone could safely wastch the eclipse when it
happened. Meanwhile Bob Miller was setting up his special eclipse
image walk on the grass in front of the Exploratorium. This looked
like it was going to be a fun party. Little did I know that trouble
was brewing inside.
Eclipses have always signified trouble so I shouldn't have been
surprised when shortly after the edge of the sun became dented
Christina appeared next to me and asked if I could get someone else
to handle the projector so that I could go inside the Exploratorium
where I was needed. I grabbed Karen and put her to work showing the
eclipse to the crowd, then I fought through the huge crowd to get
inside. Big trouble was waiting, Goery himself grabbed me and said
that the theatre was packed with people demanding a narrator to tell
them about the eclipse, no one had been scheduled to talk to the
crowd, he wanted me to do it.
He wanted me to go in front of several hundred impatient and angry
people and calm them by telling them about physics.
Do you remember the scene in the movie Gunga Din in which Cary Grant
finds himself in the middle of a temple full of a thousand murderous
thugee? I always liked the bit where he strides down the center aisle
of the temple then turns and announces in a loud voice, "You're all
under arrest." A great scene. The thugee of course grab the character
played by Cary Grant, rough him up a bit, then throw him into a pit.
I hoped my lecture would turn out better.
I never thought about not doing a lecture on the spot, but luckily, I
looked around first. Outside the theater, Nick had set up an overflow
area, it was packed with even more people than were in the theater,
they were angry and impatient too. Their numbers stretched up the
stairs to the mezanine then along the mezanine for a long ways. I
knew what I had to do. Nick himself walked by, and I sent him in to
face the hordes in the theatre while I walked over toward the large
screen TV and Exploratorium solar telescope projections. They needed
two people to talk to the two separate crowds and I had the one
talent needed to deal with the larger crowd in the huge space of the
Exploratorium...
I worked my way to the front of the huge sea of faces. Things had
moved so fast that I didn't even have time to be frightened. I said,
"Hello Everyone," (The one skill needed
was being loud since there was no microphone in the overflow area.) I
continued,"I'm Paul Doherty a Physicist here at the Exploratorium,
welcome to the eclipse. The screen to your right is showing you live
the eclipse as projected by the Exploratorium Solar Telescope while
on your left the Television screen is showing the eclipse transmitted
to us by our team in Baja California..." I told them a little about
eclipses then asked for questions. Pretty soon I got my first laugh..
maybe they weren't going to throw me in the pit after all.
As the moon crept over the sun though, I had more trouble. After half
an hour I realized that my voice was out of practise, I was going to
go hoarse before the end of the two hour eclipse. I remembered the
old joke we used to tell about the PhD exams at MIT. The last exam
question was going to be the following lab activity " Outside this
exam room there are 1000 fully armed and angry Macedonian warriors,
using American Sign Language deliver a lecture on quantum
chromodynamics and get them all to register for physics classes next
term." Little did I know then that seventeen years later my voice was
going to give out and I was going to have to give a lecture to an
angry mob using mime.
Luckily, and just in time, Rob Semper himself arrived and set up a
public address system for me. Nothing like having the Associate
Director of the Exploratorium as your roady.
The questions from the audience ranged all over the map of science.
Question "How long have we been able to predict eclipses?"
PD "Since 2000 BC, Stonehenge can be used as an eclipse
predictor."
Q "is it safe to watch a partial eclipse on TV?"
PD "Safer than watching most programs."
Q "How do you measure the mass of the sun?"
PD " Long physics story..."
Things were going O.K. so far. Now I just had to keep going long
enough. After two hours of unscheduled eclipse narrating I was
scheduled to give two, one-hour lectures in the McBean Theater. My
adrenaline was still pumping and I was soaring along now as the
eclipse reached its maximum but how long would it last?
A 11:20 as the eclipse reached its maximum in San Francisco the crowd
cheered. Now we just had to wait for twenty five minutes to see
images of totality from Baja. Ten minutes before totality we lost the
phone line. The crowd called for a quick fix, and the minutes ticked
by with no connection, then just moments before totality the image
returned to our screen. The crowd cheered cheered again. There was a
beautiful diamond ring effect as the last bit of the solar
photosphere peaked through a lunar valley, then the corona of the sun
became visible. It leaped out in bluish streamers stretching far from
the sun. It was a stunningly beatiful eclipse. For seven minutes of
totality I pointed out the corana and its structures as well as solar
prominences. The last hour was an easy coast. As the moon moved off
the face of the sun I answered questions. Until at last the eclipse
ended at 12:30 and it was time to give my two scheduled lectures.