John Mulchaey recalls eclipse viewing in Chile and an outreach effort connected to the 2024 eclipse in Dallas. He describes how partnerships helped bring astronomy to students and shares his enthusiasm for future eclipse travel.
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33:16>> And then um in 2019 we had one at our site in Chile, Las Campanas. >> Okay. >> So that was great. >> Oh, right. >> And so that was the second one I saw, yeah. >> Wait, that's insane. So it went over the telescopes? >> It was It just missed the telescopes. So in fact we had to do the event at the bottom of our mountain. >> Okay. >> And so we created this giant tent. We had like 200 people, too. >> Okay. >> we created this giant tent in the middle of the desert to take people down there and it was in the middle of Chilean winter. So I was very nervous about the weather because it can rain. It can It can be cloudy in Chile, although it's like California, right? We have winter, right? Some days it's beautiful, some days it's not. >> Yeah. >> Uh but it was beautiful day, so that one was great. >> Mostly beautiful. Oh, yes. No, there's more beautiful than almost anywhere else, guaranteed. Um and so one of the
33:57people that came on that trip um is Lyda Hill, who's a philanthropist and actually a funder of the Perot Museum. >> Mhm. >> And Lyda I I was on this trip, I'm like, Lyda, you know there's going to be an eclipse in Dallas. I already had my eye on it in 2024. >> Nice. >> And she said, oh, we have to do something with the schools. And she's very, very big on education in Dallas. >> And so she went back and connected us to the Perot Museum, which is the science museum, very well connected, and she funded us to buy a million of the little glasses. So handed a million glasses out to all the schools in the area. And a lot of our astronomers went. We went We visited something like 30,000 students in the end, I think. Um and the week before, and so a lot of our astronomers were there for a whole week. It was It was just an amazing experience. I don't know where you were.
34:38Were you in Austin >> We were in Austin. >> Austin wasn't so good. >> It wasn't so good. We were um I actually rented a Airbnb, and then again, 100 of my friends showed up >> Yeah. >> uh to this Airbnb. And like totality was happening, and for the first like 90 seconds, there was a cloud. And then we saw the edge of the cloud leave. And there was a you know, it was on the banks of a river. So, you could hear the cheers along the river as the cloud >> up. >> and as it cleared up. And we were like we we saw it we heard it coming 20 seconds before we saw it. And it was It was an amazing time. Um unfortunately, I had some trouble with Airbnb because apparently I'm not supposed to have 100 people on the lawn of an Airbnb, so
35:20>> Other than that, it was yeah. >> Other than that, it was a great time. Yeah. >> Yeah, no, it was similar in Dallas where it eventually cleared up, and we were able to see >> So, you did see totality. >> did see totality, and it was a great experience. So, every one of them has been there I've seen three of them there. Every one of them is different. And I'm cuz it's So, I'm I'm I've become a little bit of an eclipse chaser myself. >> Yeah, yeah. Um I'm trying to go to as many as I can. >> Yeah, we're We're already thinking of '27, which is the next big one. >> Right, where >> '27's over Egypt. >> Oh, right. >> It's over there. It goes over the all of North Africa, basically. It goes over Egypt. It goes right over the pyramids. >> Yeah. >> And so, and it's 6 minutes of totality. So that's >> Yeah, that one's super long. >> Yeah, it is. It's unfortunately Well, maybe it's fortunate. It will be clear because it's August in Egypt. It's It's
36:02like almost 100%. But it'll probably be 110° but um >> Right. >> It'll be worth it to see it. So, that's >> 6 minutes is a long time totality. That's insane. >> I tell people, and I'm sure you feel this way now, like if you haven't lived through one, you have to see one. >> Yeah. >> And everybody always says, "Oh, I saw the partial. It was 99%." Like it is not the same. It's a completely different experience. >> yeah. It's It's one of these sigmoids that's just like super >> 100% >> like super steep. >> Oh, it is. It's crazy. It's crazy. So I so I become a little bit of an eclipse chaser myself and um and I know many people many of our supporters at Carnegie as well. I've had some of them go into all three of those trips and everybody's asking about Egypt. So I'm like, "Okay, we're going to work on that."
36:43>> Yeah. Yeah. >> ways to go, but it's going to be pretty spectacular. >> Yeah. Yeah. Well, um best of luck on that trip. Um it's been a great conversation. Thank