60 Minutes in Space – Gathered in Darkness Film & Panel Discussion
7:00 – 8:00 pm MDT
Total solar eclipses. While these events can evoke feelings of awe and wonder, they also present a unique opportunity for communities to engage in scientific inquiry. Presented in collaboration with Denver Museum of Nature and Science, join us for a screening of Gathered in Darkness, an Emmy-nominated documentary produced about the CATE 2024 mission, which united communities across the United States to capture over 47,000 images of the corona, our Sun’s wispy outer atmosphere that’s normally hidden. Afterwards, hear from the lead scientists and filmmaker about documenting a large-scale community science project, and get a sneak peak at some of the data and how it can help us better understand solar storms, solar magnetism, and their impact on us here on Earth.
Amir Caspi
Dr. Amir Caspi is a Principal Scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder. He studies the Sun and its million-degree outermost atmosphere, the solar corona. He develops instruments and missions to measure solar emissions ranging from X-rays to visible light and infrared to study powerful energetic processes like solar flares and eruptions and how they affect the Earth and assets in space. Dr. Caspi is the Principal Investigator of the CubIXSS CubeSat and a mission team member of multiple other NASA solar space missions. In addition to the Citizen CATE 2024 mission, he also led the 2017 and 2024 missions to observe those total solar eclipses with NASA’s WB-57 high-altitude aircraft and has done extensive public engagement and outreach relating to solar eclipses and the Sun in general.
Sarah Kovac
Dr. Sarah Kovac is a scientist at the NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research, where she studies the impacts of the Sun’s expansive solar wind across the inner heliosphere. After participating in CATE 2017, she continued a career in solar physics, becoming the Project Manager for CATE 2024, responsible for overseeing both the science and the engagement teams. Outside of eclipses, she uses solar wind models to describe Venusian auroral emission, and is part of the Science Operations Committee on the NASA PUNCH mission.
Daniel Zietlow
Dr. Daniel Zietlow is the Deputy Director of the NSF NCAR Education, Engagement & Early-Career Development team and an Emmy award winning filmmaker. He holds a Ph.D. in geophysics from the University of Colorado Boulder and A.B.s in physics and art history from Rollins College. As a graduate student, his work took him across the globe to New Zealand, Nepal, South Africa, and even to a research vessel in the Pacific Ocean. While installing seismometers and magnetotelluric instrumentation, and running sonar lines on glaciers, he developed an interest in communicating science through storytelling as a way to virtually bring audiences to these remote sites and develop an interest in geoscience. Dan has now been working in science communication, particularly through film, since 2016.