Pictured are Phil Williams, John Zakelj, and Kevin Lehman from the Citizen CATE 2024 Team
Submitted photos
Shown is the Citizen CATE 2024 Team - Phil Williams, Elizabeth Prinkey, Kevin Lehman, John Zakelj, and Treva Gough.
Submitted photos
UNION CITY — The Union City Lions Club met April 23 in the Community Room in downtown Union City. The evening started with a delicious fried chicken meal that included potato wedges, baked beans, fruit, and a cookie. Thanks to Diana Dubeansky for the great food. The 15 Lions members welcomed 17 of Union City’s first responders. The club honored the police, fire, and EMS personnel for their work in the aftermath of the March 14th tornadoes in Randolph County. Union City’s Public Safety Director, Eric Hiatt, spoke briefly and praised the efforts of the entire group. The Union City Lions Club wants to express our sincere thanks to all first responders in our community.
The entire group enjoyed the program for the evening presented by three members of the Citizen CATE 2024 team from Randolph Eastern Schools. The team consisted of five members, John Zakelj, a high school chemistry teacher, Treva Gough, a third grade teacher, Phil Williams, a technology/KISS assistant, Elizabeth Prinkey, a high school student, and Kevin Lehman, a retired junior high science teacher. John, Phil, and Kevin explained what this group did during the total solar eclipse on April 8. Citizen Continental-America Telescope Eclipse 2024 consisted of 35 teams of citizen scientists that were spread across the United States in the path of totality. Each group was given about $8,000 of equipment that RESC will be able to keep and use in their science department. The equipment included a tripod, a motorized mount, a telescope, a polarizing solar filter, a camera that was mounted on the telescope, and a laptop computer with all the software to run everything. This equipment allowed the group to track the sun as the solar eclipse progressed. During the four minutes of totality, the camera took over 1000 pictures of the sun’s corona that were uploaded to the Southwest Research Institute. SwRI is now in the process of taking data and images from all 35 sites and making a 60-minute video of the sun’s corona. This will help in their study of the magnetic structure of the sun’s corona, hopefully revealing how magnetic energy is converted into heat and giving them data that will allow them to measure the strength of the solar wind more accurately. After the presentation, the three team members answered questions about their experience. Thanks to the Citizen CATE 2024 team for an informative program.
