For more information about the total solar eclipse on April 8, including where to watch, start time and events happening around San Antonio, check out our guide.
Scientists and researchers from across the country have spent the last several months calibrating equipment, conducting research and collaborating in anticipation of the rare total solar eclipse that will chart a path across the U.S. next Monday.
Among them are a team of six students at Incarnate Word High School in San Antonio, who have dubbed themselves “The Solar Sisters.”
On a recent Wednesday after school, four of them carted a tripod, computer and specialized camera down one of the school’s aging brick hallways and out into the parking lot —where they spent about 30 minutes carefully tweaking the camera’s position.
Sophomore Rory Sorola crouched on a small wooden stool, peering at a computer emblazoned with NASA’s logo. She worked with other students to carefully direct her teammates on how to align a specialized camera and telescope with the sun, which was beating down on the hot April afternoon.
“Right there, that is perfect,” Gloria Fuentes-Medrano, a biology teacher, said, smiling.
As the sun began to take shape in the frame, Sorola traded places with freshman Mackenzie Carswell, who was carefully rotating the camera’s focus in preparation for a photo.
They’re one of only three groups in Texas that are part of a national effort called Einstein’s Incredible Universe, which connects girls with professional researchers partaking in citizen research.
San Antonio’s only partnership in the program came about after the National Girls Association contacted Cindy Gudowski-Luna, the science, technology, religion, engineering, arts and mathematics instructional coach at Incarnate Word High School.
“They knew that we’re an all-girls school and they asked me if we’d consider applying, so I posted the opportunity to the faculty,” she said.
Fuentes-Medrano jumped at the opportunity, which included a three-day professional development workshop hosted by the Great Lakes Science Center in Cleveland, Ohio. There, the teacher was granted and trained to use state-of-the-art telescopes, cameras and other equipment needed to safely observe and study the sun, all with the goal of preparing for the April 8 eclipse.
Upon returning, she recruited students in the citizen research project — and the six young women signed on.
‘Aiming for the second’
Gudowski-Luna held an umbrella to shade the students as Madeline Cernoch, a freshman, noted the weather conditions and leafed through meticulous directions on running scripts to capture different sun exposures.
Moments later, the crew pointed excitedly at sunspots coming into view.
Stepping into the shade, Sorola explained that the practice run was the final one before next week’s eclipse.
“We’re just doing a very quick test run and making sure everything is working,” she said. “On Saturday we did a test of … every program that we have … timed down to the minute. But we are aiming for the second, because that is the sort of precision you need with the solar eclipse that’s going to be happening on Monday.”
Sorola said the team will upload images taken during the eclipse to a scientific database run by the Dynamic Eclipse Broadcast Initiative, along with thousands of other images taken of the phenomenon, for use in research.
Through the project, students will take new images of the sun’s inner corona, which is only observable during a total solar eclipse.
The citizen science program is executed in partnership with the broadcast initiative and Southern Illinois University Carbondale and funded by the National Science Foundation and NASA.
The opportunity is otherworldly for the young researchers.
“We’re just a bunch of high schoolers,” Sorola said. “The fact that we were able to get this grant … and can now partake in an actual civil research project with NASA, despite not having access to a facility such as the Johnson Space Center … is absolutely amazing.”
Sorola noted that as a private school, Incarnate Word High School isn’t rife with the kinds of STEM opportunities available at traditional ISDs. Looking forward, Sorola hopes to find a career in aeronautical or mechanical engineering, with a continued interest in astrophysics.
After spending the last five months practicing meticulously, Carswell said the team is ready for eclipse day, when the Solar Sisters will join tens of thousands of people in the Hill Country to view totality.
Carswell said the team has already practiced on the property they will be using in Comfort, Texas, courtesy of an acquaintance of the school, and will arrive early in the morning on the eclipse day.
“It’s called ‘first contact’ when the Eclipse starts to happen, so we’ll start the script that we were running today,” she said. “Then two minutes before actual totality is reached, we’ll shut that script down and start a new script called totality.”
That second script will use different exposures, Carswell said, so researchers can see solar flares and other features only seen during the eclipse. The students will then run another script for the remainder of the eclipse and one final script after the eclipse is complete.
Fostering interest in STEM
After the experience Monday, the young scientists said they want to conduct more research.
That is the exact outcome sought by the grant providers, Erica Meehan, Impact Producer for Einstein’s Incredible Universe, said in a statement shared by the school. The project aims to get more girls into STEM, she added.
“The total solar eclipse has the power to transform young people’s interest in space science and spark new pursuits of STEM studies and careers,” she said. “Participating youth, and young women, especially, will become part of a community designed to bolster scientific identity and build a sense of belonging in science-rich spaces.”
After the eclipse, Sorola said she hopes to continue using the equipment to study solar flares next year.
Cernoch is hoping to go into aviation as she continues on in the program at IW High School.
“The school has helped me realize there’s a big need for girls in STEM,” she said. “It definitely feels good because we’re young, so I know this isn’t the stop of anything. It’s just our first step.”
