 All right welcome everybody. Thank you for joining us tonight here at Brillington City Arts. I'm Sarah Jane. I am the public programs assistant here in a gallery educator and we are so thrilled for tonight's exciting program. So this program is a part of Obscura BTV, the city of Brillington's official eclipse celebration. Some of you might know this but the last time Vermont experienced total solar eclipse was in 1932 and the next one will be in 2106. So unless you have a long life ahead of you which I hope you all do this might be your once in a lifetime opportunity to see something so exciting. In celebration of this amazing astrological moment we are delighted for tonight's presenters to share their own creative perspectives on the sky. Claire Pascal who will be reflecting on the passage and energies of the moon. Tina Escaja reading from her award winning bilingual astro poetry with her translator Kristen Dykstra and Brian Drawer who will be discussing his stunning work included in his exhibition Celestial Skies which is on view here in the Lorraine B Good Room. Whether you're an eclipse chaser visiting Brillington or a local here excited to learn more about this exciting moment we hope you enjoy tonight's program. And then following our three talks our presenters will be at the two tables in the back corners so if you have questions or want to share your excitement with them about all the things they shared please check those tables out and they will be selling books classes and prints and greeting cards. We are starting off our presentation with Claire Pascal who is the co-executive director of Sanga Studio a non-profit donation based yoga studio with multiple locations here in the Brillington area. She is a 200 hour experienced and registered yoga teacher and Pascal is a green witch who has been practicing the art of witchcraft and magic for over a decade and draws from experience with tarot astrology candle magic or herbology and animism so without further ado Claire. Thank you how's everybody doing? Yeah I'm all right I'm in a group of lots of people um who's already feeling maybe some of the intensity of the weekend either because of energetically or maybe you just had to like find parking downtown a minute ago um you know whatever perspective you have I think we're all kind of feeling the excitement and like that collective energy that comes with what can be a once in a lifetime event so I thought it would be nice if we could all start with a group breath open our time together call that energy into the room excuse me um you know as individuals and a collective we're about to experience a really powerful moment um and whatever you believe you're about to be a part of that so if it feels comfortable I invite you to close your eyes or soften your gaze and we'll start by emptying out all of our air taking a nice deep exhale out and as you start to draw a breath back in filling through the belly expanding through the chest maybe finding a brightness or an expansiveness as the air reaches into the shoulders and then as you get ready to exhale that breath out maybe feeling a letting go or a release opening your eyes as you feel ready again and so we arrive I thought I'd start with what is astrology um I know as a mixed room we may all have different experiences and backgrounds with that field for thousands of years astrology and astronomy were practiced together mostly because we didn't know that we weren't the center of everything um as we've learned more about the solar system we've understood that we kind of all orbit around the sun but astrology for all of its purposes is really places a humans lived experience at the center of what is the energy of the cosmos prior to the 16th century we kind of had this geosentric view of the earth is at the center of everything and the universe is revolving around us and astrology still really views the world that way so it looks at things from the earth and kind of what the sky is doing from that perspective the heart of astrology is the zodiac the zodiac are 12 constellations that fall at the same latitude as our solar system there are dozens and dozens of constellations but these are the 12 that kind of align with each planet as they orbit around the sun from these we're able to study each planet and the celestial bodies that stem from those like the moons the stars comets all as they relate to the zodiac we use these zodiac signs to anchor someone's natal or birth chart your birth chart really is just a map of the universe as it looked at the exact place and time that you were born some of you may know some of your signs in the zodiac maybe you know your sun sign excuse me are there any Aries in the room yeah how are you doing um the solar eclipse that we're about to experience is in Aries it means the moons in Aries the sun is in Aries and not to say that the other zodiac signs won't experience the intensity as well but if you're in Aries you may be feeling some feels um our natal chart is unique to us our birth chart is where we find information like our sun sign in reality we all have many signs within our birth chart but we often kind of read from the top three which is your sun sign that you may know that's what you read your horoscope off of you may also know your moon sign which is where the moon was at the time that you were born and your rising sign which is in relation to the exact time and place that you were born what does all this have to do with the moon and eclipses as our closest celestial body the moon plays an integral role in how we experience the energetic shifts of the solar system here on earth to talk about eclipses and their astrological significance we have to first look at the moon as a total in how it energetically impacts us on our planet and us as individuals whether you're a firm believer in the power of the cosmos and their deep impact on us or maybe you're a staunch skeptic and everything I'm saying doesn't land what I love about the moon is on some level I think we can all agree that the moon is a powerful energetic force on our planet from a scientific perspective we know it controls the rise and fall of the tides and in doing so it has a huge role in the ecosystem of our planet the moon falling out of the sky would be a catastrophic event that would end life on earth as we know it as someone who loves the moon and feels it deeply impacts me energetically I've often been asked sometimes if I believe in the moon but I think we all can agree we believe in the moon um to me the moon is kind of universal in that way we can all see it we can all experience it we can all be in some agreement that impacts a deeply life as we know it and as an energetic being we're part of that it's not separate from us in any way for many reasons the moon's orbit around the earth which is a cycle of roughly one month give or take has a deep deep impact on life on earth and this holds astrologically true as well to understand the impact of the moon on the earth we look to the sun the energy of the moon is guided by eight phases I think the most notable that we all kind of know are the new moon and the full moon the new moon is when the sun and the earth the moon comes between the sun and the earth and the full moon is when the earth is between the moon and the sun for solar eclipses it is always in the new moon as the moon orbits the earth hitting these eight different phases the energetic properties of the moon and how you might feel that energy changes with a full moon we tend to experience energetically what is a release or a letting go a time to move forward a time to maybe give up old patterns a time to move away from things that aren't serving us it can be a time to cleanse with the new moon we often find a time of renewal of starting fresh of new beginnings so maybe that which you cleansed or got rid of in the full moon it's now time to find space for something new these are our solar eclipses and what we'll experience on monday from an astrological perspective the significance of a total solar eclipse is a little bit it's a once in a lifetime experience that we'll have geographically here because we will experience totality but from an astrological perspective we're experiencing eclipses all the time we even have what's called eclipse season which is every six months we have a period where we experience a lunar and a solar eclipse so while unique in what we'll experience this monday from a visual perspective astrologically we have cycles of this all the time this total solar eclipse as we kind of talked about before is in aries 19 degrees eclipses in each zodiac come in waves as a series so this solar eclipse that we're experiencing on monday is actually the fourth lunation in what is a six part series i think what can be a really interesting point of inquiry is to look at the other eclipses and the dates and think back on what was going on in your life what were you experiencing what changes have you seen you can look to the earlier eclipses dates of april 20th 2023 october 14th 2023 and march 25th 2024 future eclipses in this series will take place on october 2nd and march 29th of next year my kid my kiddos here um often impactful changes happen both on a collective and individual level from eclipses but they unfold over time so it's not some transformative energetic moment that happens right at the point of totality but rather it's a beginning of things that could unfold over many many months or even years what is the specific energy of this eclipse as we kind of talked about its intense aries is a sign ruled by the planet mars and as a fire sign its energy is intense this is a sign that is rooted in competition but also in resilience in strength and in stubbornness it's the first sign in the zodiac and therefore it can be rooted deeply in autonomy in a sense of self a sense of individualism independence it's kind of known as the get shit done sign um accordingly the energy of this eclipse is inviting us to tap into our inner strength and fortitude it's a time to find resilience it's a time to embrace maybe that which we can't control it's a time to think about what do you really want and how will you achieve that and just as the moon blocks the sun during a solar eclipse it's a powerful time to glean insight into whatever might be standing in your way something that's particularly unique about this solar eclipse is the comet chiron will also be conjunct the sun we call this a kizimi kizimi's are particularly interesting because they can happen at any time but when they overlap a solar eclipse they can be incredibly powerful and this one is unique because chiron is known as a sign of healing it's known as the wounded warrior it's represented by a centaur it can bring a softening to the intensity of aries if aries is the sign that wants to blow everything up in your life chiron is the thing that wants to help you fix it and put it back together so carrying these forward together is important and impactful in short what we're really headed into is a time astrologically of great emotional realness and upheaval and you can expect some real life altering and pattern disrupting changes but with that i think the astrology of this moment also reads that we can expect a renewal and maybe what's possible forward with that i'd like to close this out with a breath if it feels comfortable to close your eyes once again come back to your breath i hope i've left you with some insight into the energies of the moment and perhaps some ways to harness the power of the moon and sun to find a sense of renewal and healing forward wherever monday takes you i'll leave you with this may you be held in loving kindness may you be happy and safe may you be healthy and body and in mind may you always have enough may your heart no peace thank you thank you so much claire for starting off our night if you haven't yet definitely check out sangha yoga i'm a member there and thoroughly enjoy every class um there is even yoga classes that play solely taylor swift so if that excites you as much as me our next presenters are tina escaja and her translator christin dykstra tina will be presenting from the bilingual edition of her book 13 moons 13 which won the 2023 international latino book awards for both the spanish poems and the english translations by christin dykstra escaja's poems fiction and digital work have appeared in numerous collections and have been translated to dozens of languages she is a writer digital artist and distinguished professor of spanish and gender and women's studies at the university of vermont christin dykstra writes about people places in culture with a special interest in motions and intersections amongst the americas some of her publications are scholarly while others are works of literary translation and creative writing dykstra has held a national endowment for the arts grant for literary translation and won the penn award for poetry translation her translation of escaja's 13 moons 13 won the international latino book awards gold medal in the category for best nonfiction book translation so without further ado tina and christin okay and there's another chair over there if anybody else wants to sit down so two chairs are open if you would like to have buenas tardes oh good nice so happy to be here with this reading of trece lunas trece perfect for the time right of moons and eclipses i have some students here i'm so happy so excited so shall i start yes oxigeno 43 por ciento silicio 21 por ciento aluminio 10 por ciento calcio 9 por ciento hierro 9 por ciento magnesio 5 por ciento titanio 2 por ciento y nique el sodio cromo potasio manganese o azufre fosforo carbono nitrogeno nitrogeno helio la composición de la luna oxygen 43 por ciento silicon 21 por ciento aluminum 10 por ciento calcium 9 por ciento iron 9 por ciento magnesium 5 por ciento titanium 2 por ciento plus nickel sodium chromium potassium manganese sulfur fosforo carbon nitrogen hydrogen helium the composition of the moon luna in google with an epigraph by the hobble showcase that says the misty blue filaments surrounding the central starbust region are bubbles of gas ubicartio no en el espacio saberte en círculo cierto que modificas y arqueas descubrir el lugar exacto donde habitas por prón o emplazamiento de tu hogar o aureola cartografía obediente a turdir de calz monauta asumir te parte o no de un cosmos plástico esquivo como el cortex cerebral y al tiempo in mutable y justo gigante mínimo partícula en perpetu estado de expansión así tus ansias de existir de ser tú misma en alegato sideral te precipitas polvo de una estrella marchita que está ya en múltiples fragmentos que ahora indigo luminosa yagónica supernova de estello en pleno parto agujero infinito infinito te precipitas y de ahí emergemos dicen del fragur en el útilo inmenso del inmenso espacio del residuo apenas de una muerte estrellada que nos nombra y vomita nada soy y me acojo con ratón y emisario a la oferta de universo en google que me afirma burbuja nebulosa en expansión vigente envuelta en sus tratos sideral flujo constante arrecife o catarsis más allá del tiempo y la banal historia la falacia de dios luna en google so these poems are tina's own creation but they're also part of a bigger conversation about the moon it's a good forum we have three different people already talking she has all these quotations at the start in the book if they're not in spanish or english then we left them in whatever language they came from but i will tell you tonight what some of them are this one you heard her read this was already in english it's from nasa and the european space what are they the association um agency thank you um and it it's about the Hubble space telescope the min the misty blue filaments surrounding the central starburst region are bubbles of gas moon by google locating yourself or not in space self-knowing in a perfect circle which you modify and measure discovering the exact location you inhabit the smudge your site for your home or halo cartography obedient to your cosmonaut weave assuming yourself or not part of an evolving cosmos evasive as a cerebral cortex at once immutable and just gigantic and minute a particle in a perpetual state of expansion your existential doubts are like this doubts about being you yourself in stellar summation you speed up dust from a wilted star bursting into the many fragments that i now probe luminous anagonal supernova a glint and active labor or an infinite infinitely black hole you speed up and they say we emerge from there from clamor in the immense uterus of an immense space from faint residue of a star's death that names and disgorges us nothing i am and i accept myself with my mouse emissary to the supply of universe by google that affirms me to be a bubble nebulous an ongoing expansion coated in cellar substratum continuous flux reef or catharsis beyond time and the commonplace story the fallacy of god moon by google sounds sounds beautiful in english so ngc 2239 nebulosa rosetta and a quote from dante alligieri paradiso noisiamo city for the major corpo del ciel qui pura luce luce intellectual piena d'amore averiguar el nombre exacto en la perplexidad misma del cosmos sui latura de idrogeno y poema su centro desprovisto y emergente que succiona lengua torpe el torpe a fan de inmensidad la palabra origen y alegato verbo y verso empireo corolla iluminada mandala abierta rosa sus justas coordenadas te piensan so this one has not just one quotation that started has two and i did not know before i translated this that monoceros is the unicorn constellation anybody know that monoceros unicorns okay so i'm gonna actually read the first quotation that she did not read which is highly technical write ascension zero six hours through two minutes 19 seconds declination plus four degrees 56 25 field of view 60 by 60 constellation monoceros then she has a quote by dante and it occurred to me today when i was looking up the english translation from the italian that in a way maybe this entire book is a giant a giant argument with dante and and paradise the final the final book this is a quotation from the character of betris who is the guide for dante in this piece toward knowledge and towards god and the quotation reads we from the greatest body have issued to the heaven that is pure light light intellectual replete with love and the translation is by henry wadsworth lung fellow ascertaining the exact name and the very perplexity of the cosmos its art of spinning hydrogen and poem its center stripped and surfacing sucking out the clumsy tongue the clumsy desire for immensity the word origin and summation word and line and period heaven illuminated corolla open mandala rose its precise coordinates outline you nebulosa del cangrejo el epigraphe es de sami manzay como la estela de una barca en el alba de la que nada queda apunte estelar el viaje inmediato perpetua el residuo fricción y agonía no hay regreso crop nebula opens with a quotation from sami manzay like the wake of a ship across the dawn a wake of which nothing remains stellar sketch the immediate journey preserves its residue fricción and agony there's no return so we decided we would do a little language equity in this reading by starting the first four in spanish and then flipping to start the second four in english for those of you who would like to listen to the spanish with a little more clue up front as to what is being said we often find you know audiences have diverse preferences for what language comes first so we're doing maré tranquilitas in english first and it does open with a quotation in english from none other than neil armstrong you may recognize houston tranquility base here the eagle has landed maré tranquilitas 20th of july quiet sea territory for lunar base obstinate silence of continual night tranquil dark a horizon decanting its round blue moon sculpted from storms and deep white clouds sea suspended inside itself inside the cradle of an alien gravity with a faint fleet atmosphere invention and cloak for poets and insomniac tranquil sea no artifice or gods for protection stony and eternal in repose sea which history's duplicitous flight now upsets a metallic demand for emissaries and echoes its hook in the torn membrane of the moon maré tranquilitas from neil armstrong houston tranquility base here the eagle has landed 20th of julio mar sereno territory of base lunar obstinate silence of the night perennials of the tranquility of a horizon decanting its round blue moon sculpted from storms and deep white clouds sea suspended inside itself in the cradle of an alien gravity with a faint fleet atmosphere invention and cloak for poets and insomniac sea tranquil no artifice or gods for protection stony and eternal in repose sea kia ora altera el vuelo falaz de la historia metálico afán de emissarios y espejos su garra en la rota membrana de la luna space sickness no quote but a subtitle spatial adaptation syndrome out of position always an in perpetual motion the spacesuit inadequate and foreign to the conflict between my senses and my suspended body its mild vertigo between masses that absorb light as if great eyes diluted envisioning options that i translate into retching into ciphers advocating poems winks hint hinting at external gravitational forces i keep on floating aerostatic ill in search of a possible anchor thinking myself a gravitan as i oscillate among pleuras and dimensions perpetually adrift multiplying or not indiscernible barely detectable and friction among words or within dark matter maladjusted and curving into the void into the nausea of a limitless sea space sickness syndrome of spatial adaptation of its location always in perpetual movement the space suit inadequate and alien to the conflict between my senses and the fragile orientation of my body in volandas between masses that absorb lights as giant eyes hallucinados inventing options that i translate into arches in figures that search for poems winks in case of external gravitational forces i keep on floating aerostatic ill in search of a possible anchor thinking myself a gravitan as i oscillate among pleuras and dimensions perpetually adrift multiplying or not indiscernible barely detectable in friction among words or within dark matter maladjusted and curving into the void and in search of equilibrium begins with a quotation from baudrillard it is the truth which hides that there is none seeking equilibrium the primary idea oscillating between self and reflection investigating weightless and obstinate in my space suit into the possible heart of the theorem possible slant from this illusory cartography that names and programs us pointless and alone i investigate and no matter float deciphering the origin my utopic existence as a self in effigies and nodes in networks that spit me out and loop to fictitious similar selves meanwhile i multiply circuits and wire wired algorithms they swell and diminish me return a punctual me a mechanical me obedient servile to a system i ingest and profound for my exposed body unerring reference the nothingness i am and i go on floating seeking equilibrium the primary inflection origin and norm of my dim restlessness and disturbed viscera the real does not exist just in essence of perpetual calibration without design or will buscan dequilibrio el epigraphe de jambodrillard se la vedite que cash que el niña pa buscan dequilibrio la noción primera hostilando entre el ser y el reflejo indagando apenas ingravida y tercan mi traje espacial el centro acaso del teorema el sesgo acaso de esta cartografía ilusoria que nos nombra y programa inútil y sola me indago flotando merrante descifrando el origen la utopia de ser beneficios y nodos en redes que me expelen y anudan a seres ficticios y afines y mientras multiplico circuitos y algoritmos eléctricos que me expanden y achican me vuelven puntual mecánica obediente y servila un sistema que ingiero y propone de mi cuerpo abierto referencia infalible nada soy y me quedo flotando buscando equilibrio la inflexión primera el origen enorme de mi torpe inquietud y viscera alterada lo real no existe sólo la esencia de un calibrar perpetuo sin patrón ni albedrío final short poem is dedicated to one of the world's great space travelers this is called like a poem and the quotation from the start is from november 1957 national society of medical research about introducing a dog into a satellite abandoned in space alone drifting cosmonaut the fragile curvature of a blue planet her only shield the poem the metaphor her gravity and food martyr to dreams and excess orbiting like a expires as we transition i would also like to make a quick link to our other show when our other shows downstairs our migration show um it's got poetry and translation also and i want to take a moment recognize um have you all met paula paula is here tonight paula he got has the video installation in the basement and it opens with a poem by mario who is here tonight as well so please take the time to go enjoy their work before you head out tonight but now brian is going to bring it home so you're here to introduce brian thank you so much tina and christin that was beautiful last but not least astrophotographer and dark sky ambassador brian drawer captures the celestial beauty of the greater new england sky um he is a fourth generation photographer whose exhibition celestial skies which surrounds us is on view here at bca through may 11th this year celestial skies features a selection of images from brian who for the past 12 years has been photographing uh the star trails milky way and solar solar eclipses of rural vermont and new england these stunning images of the night sky also known as astrophotography convey the sense of awe and wonder the artist encounters when outdoors observing the evening stars as star gazing has become less accessible to urban areas due to light pollution astrophotographers such as brian must often travel to remote dark sky locations so as to create images for others to experience brian's dramatic imagery conveys the excitement and power of the incoming total solar eclipse on monday that creates darkness from day as the artist shares with us the sublime beauty of the night sky that so defines the human experience so last but not least brian take us away wow thank you so much for being here i'd first just like to acknowledge the speakers who came before me amazing such an honor to share the stage with you and uh to burlington city arts for having me here tonight to share a little bit of my passion for the night sky and photography with you all and maybe give you a little bit of information you can take away from the presentation tonight so without further ado i'm gonna get started with a little bit of my origin story as a photographer let's see if i can excuse me here technical difficulty here we go uh i got my start night sky photography actually a long time ago when i was in grade school uh we were in massachusetts and we got brought up to vermont to camp abenacke as eighth graders the counselor brought us out underneath the stars with transparencies and a sharpie and asked us to trace our own constellations out of the sky that then got put together into our own homemade night sky map of the constellations and that was the night that i fell in love with the night sky and i never really missed an opportunity to view it from that point on if you've never gone out with kids and looked at the stars it's a great activity clear piece of paper a sharpie and make your own constellations over the years my style evolved mostly in adventure photography landscape photography and live music photography my father was a black and white film photographer and i grew up around the smell of fixer and developing chemicals and it stayed with me ever since um it wasn't until uh 2011 uh we were on a trip to arizona that i happened to come across this image in national geographic explorers photo annual captured by uh ben canals features him laying on his back looking up at the night sky over crater lake uh with the milky way above him and i was captured and i said i need to do that this is what i need to do as far as photography goes and i started going down the path of figuring out how to do it three days later i took my very first night sky photograph um doesn't look like much but at the time it was stars it was night it had a little bit of the landscape in it and i was a night sky photographer from this photo uh i learned uh and taught myself quite a bit about uh forecasting northern lights where to find them how to see them where to get to them and that they were actually pretty common and available to see here in vermont this is a spot right up the road at san bar state park in milton uh highly recommend if anyone's ever looking to see the lights the 9 11 pull off on the causeway is an amazing spot to see them uh in addition to learning how to track and find northern lights and photograph them i also had to learn how to be a astronomer how to be a terrestrial weather forecaster and a little bit of a photographer to figure out where to go um it's not as easy as just pointing your camera at the night sky you actually have to plan out a little bit where you're going what you're going to shoot how you're going to shoot it and what you're actually going to be able to capture from any given location so knowing where the milky way comes out of the horizon knowing what stars are going to be in the sky whether it's going to be clear or not if there's going to be air glow or light pollution in your location so on top of photography there's a few other things you have to learn in order to be a night sky photographer as well as part of my journey into photography i'd like to think of myself as an ambassador for the accessibility of the night sky as well coming to vermont is something thousands and thousands of tourists do every day and you get to see foliage and cows and barns and the lake not many of them get to see the night sky when they come here as well and i love showing people that just down the road from burlington this is four miles away up in colchester and mallets bay the northern lights shine above us when the conditions are just right so with a little bit of dedication and keeping the hard pants on for a little bit later in your day you can go out and experience a little bit of the wonder of the night sky here in vermont as part of my photography i like showing people what the night sky has to offer and to do that it oftentimes means showing a really wide view or a panoramic view of the sky on this particular night up in the northeast kingdom i saw the largest northern lights display i've still seen to this day in 13 years of filming the northern lights in order to capture this it's actually a panorama it's eight photos in two rows that were then stitched together in the wide angle lens gives the impression of the the curvature of the earth it's called alson wonderland barn for obvious reasons this is just outside of enosburg falls on route 104 just before you get in large shaker red barn the panoramic photography evolved and this is actually an image that's available over on the side here and from single eight images to close to 48 individual images three rows each row has seven photos across and each photo is actually a combination of between five and 10 individual images that are stacked on top of each other for greater fidelity to give you even more definition into the sky above so it's a constant evolving process of also learning different editing techniques and ways of bringing the entire night sky to you so that when you look at the image you're seeing exactly what you would see looking up at the sky you're not missing anything unfortunately it's getting harder and harder to find places to take those images remote main far-flung quarters of vermont on the left side of the image you can see a light pollution map of the united states the brighter the colors you see are the harsher the brighter the lights are city areas urban areas the darker the color the darker the skies are and the clear the stars are going to be you can see the east coast is pretty saturated with light here in vermont there's only a few precious spots left where we can go to get true what we call mortal five to mortal nine dark skies where you don't get effects of the light pollution up in the northeast kingdom down in central vermont and my personal favorite area in the groton state forest area if i were to be able to create a dark sky preserve here in vermont this is the area i would do it kettle pond rick or pond state park area if you're looking for a place to see the stars grab your inner tube go down to the beach sit in the water and look up at the skies highly recommend it uh an example of why it is that we have to go as far as we do in order to get to the skies that we want to see is that the city lights block out most of the stellar light that we would be able to see in the further away from the cities we get the darker the skies are as expansion starts happening as population starts coming in and density starts spreading out out of the cities the light starts spreading with it and our ability to see and experience the night sky uh decreases there's a couple different types of light pollution that we have to fend with some of them are things that we just really can't do a whole lot about glare and sky glow from cities um the bigger the city the bigger the light glow and you'll see in just a minute what the effect of a large city like montreal sherbrook even st johnsbury and newport have on the horizon around you uh but on a more smaller personal level uh light trespass and over lighting are things that we can do and we can affect as individuals in our own homes in our own neighborhoods in our own communities uh how many people have a light in their backyard that shines every time their dog goes outside but it isn't shaded so it shines light up down and out simple shade over that blocks light from going up if everybody put a shade on their lights that's that much less light that's going out into the night sky to decrease what we're able to see over lighting refineries gas stations shopping malls um if you look across the lake at night you can see denim or a prison uh these are all things that are otherwise uh sores on a dark sky that with a little bit of shading a little bit of work maybe a more natural spectrum of light wouldn't be that visible in the sky the international dark sky association if this is something that interests you if uh reducing light pollution if finding resources for things that you can do as individuals the international dark sky association is the certifying body for dark sky parks and preserves the closest true preserve to us is cherry springs park in pennsylvania though uh pittsburgh state park in new hampshire is in the process of being certified as a preserve it's not big enough to be a true park but hopefully we can protect that area up in northern new hampshire to be a true dark sky area to be saved for a long time to come ida.org is a great resource it's all free and anybody can become an ambassador of the night sky it also happens to be international dark sky week and they would love the visit from you to learn more about how you can help a couple other really important resources the globe at night started as a small group of citizens up in northern england tracking and uh putting out on the internet information about light pollution and communities it's grown to be a global community of really up to date information on what's happening in your community to help protect and help mitigate light pollution um clear sky chart uh dot com if you're going to go out and spend the time not sleeping to see the night sky it's important to know that you're going to be able to see the sky so going to clear sky chart is going to give you an idea of what the the cloud cover is going to be uh anybody here see the eclipse this is the resource you use to finding out what the cloud cover is going to be uh light pollution map we saw just a brief glimpse of a couple slides ago was on the left hand side and you can scroll into your own individual community you can scroll out to see your state uh your entire region or the country itself uh here's a perfect example of the effects of light pollution on the night sky this is a photograph of the milky way from the top of jpeak up in the northeast kingdom of vermont from the left to right you see montreal surebrook newport montgomery lull and everything in between you see examples of light scatter you see in uh glare you see sky glow is the yellow metal halide light that you have in the sky from the density of lights that happen between surebrook and montreal um and it is about three to five stops of light difference for anybody who is a photographer um in the room so it's a pretty drastic difference of light between pointing towards montreal or pointing up towards dark skies of main dark sky map is the polar opposite of the light pollution map this is where we go to find those dark sky places in vermont uh you can get really close in uh you don't have to be in the most remote area if you can be protected from the glare of the night sky down in valleys behind mountains that would block the view will sometimes help you in more densely populated areas um if you can't get away um here's a perfect example of the photo behind this is spear street it's about two and a half miles outside of burlington itself uh in pretty urban areas not too far from downtown shellburn uh but when the conditions are just right uh because of the way that the topography works uh we get to be blocked from the light pollution of burlington of montreal and it's actually a pretty decent place to get a view of the milky way for the first time and now a little bit about the eclipse coming up because i think there's a few people here who are kind of excited to see what's going on uh this is totality uh totality for us is going to last just over three minutes and 20 seconds it varies depending upon how close you are to the center line of the eclipse and where you are geographically to the eclipse path itself a couple of phenomena that we'll be able to see in this eclipse that is different from 2017 is that we're now in solar maximum or approaching solar maximum which means that the sun is at its highest peak of sunspot production which means that there's more plasma and gases emitting from the sun itself so the corona is going to be significantly larger and the corona is the white area around the sun for this eclipse it's going to extend several degrees below in all directions they're also predicting that there's going to be at least two to three prominences visible and the prominences are the arcs of plasma that are magnetically connected to the sun and haven't released yet an ejection of solar material those are large enough that in any one of them you could fit several thousand earths so they're pretty large and they should be pretty visible in some of the longer exposure photography that you'll see in addition to the prominences on the sun looking just to the left and up of the sun you'll see venus below and to the right of the sun you'll see Uranus and in between the sun and venus should be the devil's comet if it's visible by the naked eye the devil's comet is a comet that is visible right now it's it's just below naked eye visible light but it might be dark enough just at the time of a eclipse that we might be able to see it the clip the comet will appear somewhere up above and to the right of the solar disk and it would appear as a small green streak or dot in the sky it's called the devil's comet because of the gases emitting from the comet form two horns that are the tails of the comet itself while we're waiting for the eclipse to happen there's several things that you can do to pass the time if there happen to be trees or thick branches around where you are you can look at the stippled light that emits through those branches to see the crescent shape as the eclipse progresses if you got kids around have them grab a piece of chalk and trace all the crescents and as the eclipse progresses you they'll be able to see the different sizes of the crescent moons on the sidewalk if you don't have leaves as we don't have around here for the most part a colander works really well just bring out a spaghetti strain or anything that has small slits that the light can pass through yes sir next slide so a little bit about safety we're all going to be looking at the sun for a long period of time and that's really where the danger lies in the eclipse the sun isn't any brighter more dangerous during the eclipse than any other day that we would have visibility of the sun but it's the amount that we're going to be looking at in the duration that we look at it and that's why we need to protect our eyes so for the periods from first contact all the way up through totality you'll definitely want to make sure that you have solar glasses on a solar viewer for little kids putting a plate over the solar glasses so that they can't look around the glasses is a good idea if you're photographer having a piece of tape over your viewfinder so you're not looking through your viewfinder wanting to magnify the sun into your eyes just be safe if you're in a larger group of people you'll very likely be around other photographers they get very excited about these sorts of things and you'll hear them say glasses on first contact diamond ring which is one of the phases of the eclipse Bailey's beads which would be the next phase I'll talk a little bit about that in the next slide glasses off for totality they'll tell you to put your glasses back on because totality is ending so they're pretty handy to be around when you're in these events because they've been studying these phases and the parts of the eclipse and what they're going to photograph and how they're going to photograph it for a long time we're pretty fortunate here that we're right on the line of where we might actually be able to see a double diamond ring and the diamond ring phase is the last phase of the partial eclipse before totality happens and it's the effect of the topography of the moon letting just the very last little focused bit of light through before the solar disk covers the sun altogether in the total transition you can see we start with first contact on the right hand side of the image and it progresses all the way through to Bailey's beads which is the final shot here we're just a little bit of the sun's chromosphere is shining through and it gives the effect of a beaded necklace around the sun and that leads right up into totality again three minutes 20 seconds of total eclipse here in the Burlington area we should be looking at first contact sometime around 215 to 14 we should be looking at totality starting right around 320 with totality ending around three or sorry 326 with totality ending sometime around 335 and then moving off of Bailey's beads and diamond ring and then ending at around 430 definitely don't miss the second part of it it's just as good as the first part you'll be tempted to leave we'll be staying for the whole thing it's a once in a lifetime experience for a lot of people I will say that the experience of being around other people during the eclipse is part of the fun of the experience itself the collective experience of witnessing totality it's an indescribable feeling of emotions and experience that when you get to share it with a group of other people makes it that much more special for you the other thing I will say is that the next eclipse visible or total eclipse visible will be in 2026 in Spain and I say that only because after you see the eclipse on Monday you are going to want to find out when and where the next eclipse is so that you can go see it yourself I saw this will be the third total eclipse I've seen in my life I got to see one back in the early 80s as a child I got to see 2017 with my friend Wes who's here in the audience with us it's his birthday so make sure to wish him a happy birthday later and as we were wrapping up for the 2017 eclipse we were already planning for 2024 we're already planning 2026 in Spain and we're also planning for Cairo Egypt after that with six and a half minutes of totality over the great pyramids I thought that would get you it's it's an experience that will change how you look at the sky and change how you experience the people around you I highly recommend you give yourself the opportunity to watch the eclipse and don't watch it through your phones don't watch it through your cameras there's going to be thousands of photographers here in town and all across the path taking amazing photographs experience it viscerally experience it with your eyes and with the people around you and then share that experience as best you can because once you've seen a total eclipse you'll definitely want to see more of them so thank you so much for being a part of my presentation coming tomorrow well if that did not make you excited for Monday I don't know what will I want to give a huge thank you to our amazing presenters to Kate or I'm sorry to Claire and Caitlin um to Tina and to Kristen and to Brian for this amazing program and to all of you for joining us here at BCA and for our greater eclipse excited community I'd also like to thank our communications team event staff especially Emma here tonight our gallery team for their support with this program and for CCTV for filming this program and making it accessible to more folks if you haven't already checked out or if you need any eclipse glasses we do have those for sale here and across the city our director Doreen is sporting one of our amazing hoodies so if you're looking for more ways to commemorate this exciting moment we also have filters available for phone cameras so that you don't damage those which I didn't know was a thing until I saw them for sale um 20 I do have some more thank yous to give BCA's 2024 exhibition year is presented by Mascoma Bank the Obscura BTV the city of Burlington's official eclipse celebration is sponsored in part by Northfield Savings Bank Patrick Leahy Burlington International Airport Hilton Burlington Lake Champlain Hotel Vermont Courtyard by Marriott Burlington Harbor and Hilton Garden Inn for our presenting media sponsor is WCAX and we have additional media sport from seven days I also want to encourage you again to check out our tables in the back to buy some greeting cards from Brian to sign up for a class at Sanga and to purchase one of Tina's books um again they are such creative people and we're so lucky to be in a place with so many creative folks here thank you and enjoy the rest of your night we have lots of programs around the city so if you haven't already gotten the BCA events app that has all of Obscura BTV's events across the city through Monday and you should if you haven't yet go see Paula Higa's beautiful video in our lower level along with the rest of the work in the here now exhibition on the first and lower level floors and Margaret Jacobs kinship across the way we're open until eight tonight so check those out but we're open through Monday as well so thank you