Solar Eclipse BBC News Special

called totality, when the sun completely blocks out, is blocked

out by the moon on the Oregon coast, in 15 minutes.

You are watching the BBC News special. This is the total solar

eclipse happening across America. Skywatchers are in place to watch

the spectacular sight. People in Oregon are watching it right now. We

will bring you it live as it happens. Millions in America will

have a ringside seat for this first total eclipse in the US for almost

100 years. Seeing a total solar eclipse is like meeting God. And I

am in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. These are the best seats in the house.

Nasa has said this is the point of the greatest eclipse. Over the next

30 minutes we will be speaking to experts and skywatchers as 40 states

become shrouded in complete blackout.

Hello, it is as rare as it is spectacular, total solar eclipse.

Millions will see the moment when the moon passes in front of the sun

and Dave turns tonight. It is the first time in 99 years when the

darkness will cross from the Pacific to the Atlantic coast. This is set

to be the most photographed and documented eclipse in history. This

is the sight of a huge chunk of the son disappeared now by the moon. We

have seen bit by bit over the last little while, more and more of the

sun being obliterated as we prepare for the moment of totality when the

sun disappears. We can go to the space scientist Maggie Aderin-Pocock

who joins us on the line from Albany. Thank you for joining us.

How excited are you? I am excited. We came out this morning and it was

a bright day. The sun is still shining but it is chillier. It is

bright sunshine but it is not quite right. When I looked through my

solar eclipse glasses there is just a sliver of sun. The smile on my

face is huge. It is incredibly exciting. Is it already getting

darker? It is. It is funny because it is bright. It is not quite bright

enough. It is bright but not quite bright enough because the sun has

disappeared and yet it is significantly bright because

although there is only six of the sun left, it is still a sunny day. I

have my seven-year-old daughter here and she has the Cheshire cat smile

as well. It is her first solar eclipse so she is very excited. Tell

us more about getting the view. It is a very narrow belt as you get

across these 14 states where you get this moment of totality? It is. I'm

working down in California but over the last week we have been working

our way to further north to get to totality. I think we will get about

one minutes and 52 seconds. The maximum trap you can get is two

minutes and four seconds. We are pretty close to that. Many people

will be seeing it partial but seeing it in totality is where the real

magic is. The moon will be the same size in the sky 's the sun. You will

see the amazing prominences around the sun. I have seen it once before

and it blew my socks off. I cannot wait to see it again. We are looking

at pictures which have come from Nasa where you saw the golden sun

moments before it flicked back to the lives shot in Oregon. There are

so many people and telescopes focused on this event. How many

people have gathered around with you? Albany is quite a small town.

There are probably about a thousand people. People have cameras,

telescopes, solar states and solar eclipse glasses. Everyone is

admiring the view and waiting for that moment of totality. We have our

lucky as we have clear sky. We are in the dial -- we are in the ideal

spot. Thank you for talking to us and over the next half an hour as we

watch these pictures come in. I am joined by Doctor Ellison Drake from

the Royal astronomical Society. We will go straight to Kentucky now

where Neda Tawfik was there with some people now. What is it like? We

actually had an announcement. We all looked up in the sky because we have

had first contact. You can see a little bit of a sliver of the sun.

Everyone is throwing on their eclipse glasses. The weather is

absolutely perfect. With me are Shane and Ginny Simmons. They have

travelled all the way from Texas. We drove ten hours to get here so we

are really excited. It was so interesting what you talked about,

how mind-boggling it is to imagine everything to work out. The fact we

are in the perfect spot in the universe for the eclipse and that

the moon is one 400th the size of the sun, which is also 400 miles.

Nasa calls it a cosmic coincidence. What have you been doing? Driving

up, trying to stay cool and making sure I have my glasses on to watch

the eclipse and having fun. And getting to know different people

around here. That is a lot of fun. Have you ever experienced an event

like this before? I have been to two Super Bowls and this is a lot

better. I can always go to another one and this is once-in-a-lifetime.

Iron experience you guys have never experienced a solar eclipse before?

Never. What are you anticipating? I think everyone has seen a partial

eclipse but it is nothing compared to a total eclipse. I have read

everything in the books and magazines and the Internet and I am

extremely excited to see the shadow and the darkness that will cover

this. It is sweltering now and they say the temperature will drop. This

is the perfect location almost to view that? Is that the reason why

you chose this farm into boy-macro? We drove all the way to Hopkinsville

because it is where the moon will cover the greatest proportion of the

sun anywhere in the world today. And if you are not here, sorry, you

should have been here. It is only one in 100 years so it is wonderful.

And what about the community around you. This has been a great chance

for people to get to know each other and take a break from their daily

routine. There are people from all over the country, from Wisconsin and

down south. There are a lot of festivals going on in nearby to

boy-macro. Everybody is celebrating. Friendly people, very kind, sweet --

a lot going on in nearby Hopkinsville. And four you will this

be a religious experience, and experience of mother nature, what is

this for you? Why was it so important to travel such a long way

to make sure you had the best of you? It is our anniversary. It is

also our anniversary. It is not really a religious thing to me that

it is the perfect spot in the universe today to be. It is a

once-in-a-lifetime event. You said this is like a religious experience?

Macro oh, yes, our saviour and creator, Lord Jesus Christ, it is

important. Ice pick to one person who saw a total solar clips, he said

he was not religious but he compared seeing one to seeing God. You are in

Texas, the next solar eclipse will be in Texas in 2024. IU still

planning for that? Seven years in April. Why don't we take a moment to

see what the progression is like now. How is it looking? The small

sliver is probably 5% of the top right corner. It is a slow

progression. I am still waiting for it to get to totality. That will be

really interesting. And all around you can see on this small family

farm everyone is looking up into the sky because that is where the big

show is. And Nasa, for people who will not be here, they will be live

streaming the event around the world. Do you guys have a lot of

family who are jealous of you being here? Oh, yes. People asked us to

put it on Facebook but we said they should drive up here. Two minutes

will be our time. It is two minutes and 40 seconds, you will enjoy that.

No photos, it it will be just great. That is the Simmons from Texas.

Everyone is excited. Thank you. In a moment we will show

you the live pictures coming from Oregon. You can see we're not that

far-away. 1816 is the first moment in the United States where we will

get totality. I read between last night saying tonnes of pressure on

the moon to deliver today. Millions are watching. Watching today is

Elissa Drake. We are not that far-away. I'm going to ask a stupid

question first of all. Here we have the sun 400 times the size of the

moon, how does the moon block it out? This is one of the things we

call a fantastic celestial coincidence, the fact that the moon

is so much closer to us than the sun means that when the moon passes in

front of the sun it pretty much blocks out the face of the sun and

that is a spectacular sight to see for everybody. Historically, people

have been fascinated by this. Yes, since the beginning of time people

have been able to observe eclipses. Before we had the technology to

study them stop it was a pretty frightening experience for people.

They had no idea what it was as it went dark and animals were utterly

confused by it? Yes, even now animals get a little bit upset

during the total solar eclipse. They think night time has arrived all of

a sudden. And then at twilight they will go quiet. You have seen one

yourself? I was lucky to see the almost total eclipse back in 1999 in

the UK. It was a little bit cloudy on that day but it was a spectacular

sight. Before I ask the question, we look at the live pictures. Bit by

bit you see the sun disappearing. This is Oregon. This scene is

replicated across 14 states before it gets to South Carolina as it goes

coast-to-coast. It is really narrow belts. You have to be in this very

small whip, this band of 70 miles across the United States to see this

moment of totality. For the rest of the people they will just see a

shadow. State-by-state that will mark its way across America. What

are scientists hoping to learn? The fantastic thing is for scientists

based in the US, bits gives them a fantastic chance to study the outer

layers of the sun, the fun's atmosphere and Corona and this is

pretty much the only time you can do that in such detail. It is an

unprecedented experience for everyone. What are the questions

scientists are looking for answers about because this is not in

isolation, is it? All of this is linked, is relevant to us here on

Earth and questions like the weather, for example? Exactly. It is

studying the fun's Rohner which will help us understand solar winds and

the space weather which is when the solar wind comes and hits the

Earth's atmosphere and all kinds of things happen to our technology on

so it does have tangible effect. Now I will switch to these pictures. I

hate you take an intake of breath. It is glorious. These are pictures

taken from an aircraft. I was saying in the introduction, they anticipate

this will be the most photographed, the most watched, the most

documented of total solar eclipses, beating the one that was in India

and China almost a decade or so ago. It takes ten minutes or so for

people who have witnessed one, it goes darker and you can see as I am

speaking, it gets dimmer and dimmer. Why don't you explain, you are the

expert? Depending on where you are watching from, it will be up for a

slightly different amount of time. You are looking at something between

one and two and a bit minutes. Look at that, absolutely spectacular.

This is really fantastic viewing for people in the USA. Wow! You get

these final few seconds where you get the edge, almost like a diamond

ring. This is amazing. This is from Nasa's plane. I was also reading

earlier that the astronauts on the International Space Station will see

this three different times. They are incredibly lucky! That is really

nice. What is that that we are seeing? It looks like a spectrum.

That is fantastic. Is this live data? And then back to the Nasa

plane with people on board watching the most extraordinary pictures. 14

states this will go across. Why is the duration of totality different

from state to state? It depends on your viewing angle. Some people will

be plunged into darkness a bit longer than others but everyone will

come back outside -- out the other side. We do not need to worry too

much. It is slightly risky when you are there sky gazing. What is the

best way for people to be watching all this? Never ever look directly

at the sun. If you're lucky enough to be observing this, the best thing

to do is to try and project the image through a pinhole camera or

use your special solar eclipse glasses which have been handed out.

There it is. Lovely. Those are the pictures from the ground of this

total solar eclipse. Alyssa, do stay with me and look at those pictures

and sit in awe. Bob Baer is in Illinois. He is an expert who has

seen this several times over. He is chair of the eclipse committee at

Southern Illinois University. I interrupted myself. That is what

they describe as the diamond ring moment. Bob, I will come to you in a

second. I got very excited about the diamond ring. Is that coming from

Oregon? Yes, that is on the ground. Bob Baer, I interrupted you. Why is

this the eclipse crossroads of America? We will see one eclipse

today and another in April 20 24. The intersection of the paths of the

lines of totality are a few miles south of me in Carbondale, Illinois.

You get two bites of the cherry. You have seen this before. Give me an

idea of how people react when they see this total solar eclipse? I saw

my first total solar eclipse in Indonesia with a group of people. I

was doing research but once I got my research going, I was excited to see

it myself. Some people cheer, others get emotional. They do not know what

to understand when they see the Corona up in the sky. I am

interested to see the different reactions. Part of the project you

run involved scientists and students all working together to track

eclipses. How does it give you extra data and how does it all work? IMB

Illinois coordinator and we have 68 volunteer teams across the country

all taking data. We have one doing final calibrations. It is kind of a

relay race across the country. They get totality date, they hand off to

the next team and we have teams roughly every 40 miles across the

country and we look to get continual coverage of the eclipse

coast-to-coast. It is just staggering watching these pictures

and I am sure you are seeing it as we speak now. Do you ever get tired

of seeing something like this? I do not. I cannot see exactly what you

are seeing. I'm seeing the crowds filling in our stadium. We just had

first contact in Carbondale. We have a sell-out 14,000 people to watch

this. I will never get tired of watching a total solar eclipse all

looking at images of it. Bob, give me an idea about the crowds. It is

broadly the best places to watch this are not from the main American

cities, it is dotted towns along the way across 14 states. Where you are,

Carbondale, it is the longest, two minutes 38 seconds of darkness. Just

give me an idea of the amount of people who have been coming to these

little places? Here on campus we have two minutes 38 seconds. That is

the exact timing at our stadium just south of here. The most accurate is

two minutes 46 seconds. I don't even know if people can get down the road

to get to some of those places. We have 14,000 inside the stadium and a

lot more people outside, people flooding into these areas across the

country to see this. Bob, briefly, because we are looking at the

diamond ring. What are you hoping to learn from all of this, one

sentence? A better idea of the interaction between the Earth and

the sun. Thank you for joining us for our special coverage. Let's go

back to Alyssa Drake. How long will it take scientists to find answers

from all of the data coming in? I imagine that will be quite a feat

actually. It will be several months of really intensive data analysis, I

would imagine. It is a long period to get scientific results. I was

reading comments by you earlier, you were hoping that the fascination in

this, the science involved, it was one of those things like music or

sport that brings people together. Tell me more about that? I really do

think that the total solar eclipse is a fantastic way of getting people

interested in astronomy, interested in science, and it brings together

people from across the entire world. It is a wonderful way of getting

people to collaborate. This one in the United States, where are they

anticipating the next total solar eclipse? It will be quite a long

time and to the next total solar eclipse. 73 years from now in the

UK. Maybe something sooner in the US. So this is the moment to grab

the data, see the pictures. This is the moment. It is amazing as we

continue to watch the pictures. How long does it take to go from one

coast to the other? I am not sure how many hours it will be, one hour

and a half I think to go from one to the other. Whereas here in the UK it

will be about 40 minutes long. And you mentioned, it is interesting

because at the very tail end of this, in Europe, in England, in the

northern parts of Scotland, you will get an element of this if you look

up? If we are very lucky, depending on the weather, we might see a small

bite taken out of the sun at around eight o'clock tonight in the UK. I

want to go back to the moment of totality that we saw earlier, as we

see the eclipse, the moon passing in front of the sun, and then we saw

the glimpse of the sun from the other edge. I hope to get to those

pictures in a few seconds just before we close. Just as we continue

to watch these pictures, we are nearly done for time, Alyssa. Just

in terms of this moment, what do you make of a moment like this? What do

I make of a moment like this? It brings to the forefront of your

mind, philosophy, science and a sense of community. There you have

some bit up! Alyssa Drake, thank you for being with me for the course of

the last half an hour as we continue to see that ring at the moment of

totality as this total solar eclipse continues to arc across America.

Thank you for watching on this BBC News special. Continue to watch us

as we continue to chart the events in America. Goodbye for now.