{"id":1104,"date":"2017-08-30T15:40:50","date_gmt":"2017-08-30T22:40:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/?p=1104"},"modified":"2025-07-08T12:16:25","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T19:16:25","slug":"eclipse-watch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/eclipse-watch\/","title":{"rendered":"Eclipse Watch: Chasing the shadow"},"content":{"rendered":"

Palomar College professors Mark Lane and Scott Kardel, who teach astronomy and oversee the Planetarium, will experience their first total solar eclipse on Aug. 21 after a lifetime of studying the stars.<\/p>\n

SAN MARCOS \u2014 By mid-morning on Monday, 950 miles away from Palomar College and the first day of school, Mark Lane and Scott Kardel will be standing in the shadow of their first total solar eclipse.<\/p>\n

If all goes according to plan, the two Palomar College astronomy professors will spend the opening day of the fall semester in Menan, Idaho, where they plan to crowd into the so-called \u201ccenterline path\u201d of the eclipse as it sweeps across the U.S. from Oregon to South Carolina.<\/p>\n

They will join millions of other Americans jostling for a glimpse of what many eclipse chasers describe as a spiritual event. When the full diameter of the sun is blotted out, they say, nocturnal insects start chirping and a few of the brightest stars become visible in midday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re fairly certain the public doesn\u2019t understand is how incredibly rare this is\u2014to be able to see a total solar eclipse,\u201d said Lane, who has taught astronomy at Palomar for 20 years and has served as Director of the Planetarium since 2003.<\/p>\n

The climax of the eclipse only lasts for two minutes and 20 seconds, but, Kardel said, \u201cIn my mind, this has been coming for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Update: Read Kardel’s reaction to witnessing the eclipse and view a slide show of Lane and Kardel’s photos at “Scenes from the eclipse<\/a>.”<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Dreaming of a particular shadow<\/h2>\n

The day of the eclipse should go about like any other momentous occasion: a slow build-up followed by a few moments of nirvana as the dark circle of the moon completely covers the flaming circle of the sun.<\/p>\n

Scott Kardel has been anticipating those 140 seconds\u00a0since he was a boy.<\/p>\n

Kardel was in high school in February 1979, when the last solar eclipse in the continental U.S. swooped across the Northwest\u2014including Portland, Ore., where it was hidden behind clouds.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was desperately sad that I couldn\u2019t travel to the Pacific Northwest from my home in Arizona to see the eclipse,\u201d he recalled. \u201cI remember I stayed home from school that day, with permission from my parents, and used my telescope to look at the partial eclipse that you could see from Tucson. It seemed close, but really far.\u201d<\/p>\n

Twelve years later, another total eclipse cut across Hawaii and then Mexico, \u201cbut that was a month and a half after the birth of my daughter. I just couldn\u2019t get away. So that one sort of came and went. But there\u2019s always been 2017, which seemed like this futuristic time for years\u2014this coming eclipse that would be going all the way across the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Palomar, Kardel met a fellow eclipse enthusiast in Mark Lane, who had also been looking forward to the spectacle for years: \u201cAfter landing here at the college, I realized, of course, I\u2019m not alone\u2014this is an interest of Mark\u2019s as well, and we needed to find a way to do this.\u201d<\/p>\n