The volunteer meeting will take place on Monday, December 18th at 5pm. We are also launching our office hours beginning that day, so we will be available 30 minutes before the start of the meeting to answer questions and chat about the project. This meeting in particular will feature a presentation given by EM2024 Science PI Juan Carlos Martinez Oliveros from UC Berkeley. Here is a brief list of what Dr. Oliveros will discuss:

• Collecting the EM2017 data
• What we have done previously with the EM2017 data
• What we are now doing with the 2017 data
• What we plan to do with the 2024 data

We hope to see you there!

In this article, Dr. James Riordan discusses several different citizen science projects in which citizen scientists can participate during the April 8, 2024 total solar eclipse. Megamovie is featured there, as well as Soundscapes and SunSketcher.

Written by Hannah Hellman

Photo credit: David Rogers / Solar Eclipse, Richmond / CC BY-SA 2.0

On June 19th, 1927, Virginia Woolf traveled more than 219 miles, from London to North Yorkshire, to see a total solar eclipse. In her essay, “The Sun and the Fish,” written in 1928 (one year after her experience), she refers to this eclipse as, simply, “the dawn.” In that essay she marvels at the sense of unity and purpose that she shared with everyone else who traveled through the night on trains scheduled specifically for this celestial event:

Never was there a stranger purpose than that which brought us together that June night in Euston Railway Station. We were come to see the dawn. Trains like ours were starting all over England at the very moment to see the dawn. All noses were pointing north…There was no sleep, no fixity in England that night. All were on the roads; all were traveling north. All were thinking of the dawn.

This total solar eclipse was the first in 200 years to be visible in Britain, and as Woolf notes in her diary entry dated June 30th, 1927, it would be the last until 1999. She writes of the anxiety present in herself and observable in everyone around her, moving between staring at the sky and looking for any sign of change and staring at each other, anticipation building. Thoughts crossed her mind then just as they would for anyone experiencing a total solar eclipse today: would the clouds break? Did she remember to bring her smoked glass so that she could safely look at the sun before and after totality? Would they be able to see stars during totality?

Paired skillfully with her descriptions of the beauty and wonder of the scene before her, as the moon began to move in front of the sun and create that beautiful crescent shape, Woolf describes the ancient feelings the eclipse summoned from within:

I thought how we were like very old people, in the birth of the world—druids on Stonehenge: (this idea came more vividly in the first pale light though;) At the back of us were great blue spaces in the clouds. These were still blue. But now the colour was going out. The clouds were turning pale; a reddish black colour. Down in the valley it was an extraordinary scrumble of red & black; there was the one light burning; all was cloud down there, & very beautiful, so delicately tinted. Nothing could be seen through the cloud. The 24 seconds were passing.

And so, totality had begun. On totality, and the darkness, Woolf writes: “How can I express the darkness? It was a sudden plunge, when one did not expect it: being at the mercy of the sky: our own nobility: the druids; Stonehenge.” This was the moment of death. In the diary she later revisits and describes this sense of death, leading to a rebirth:

In her essay, “The Sun and the Fish,” Woolf discusses memory, and the effect of emotions on how well memory seems to work. She suggests that “[A] sight will only survive in the queer pool in which we deposit our memories if it has the good luck to ally itself with some other emotion by which it is preserved. Sights marry, incongruously, morganatically… and so keep each other alive.” It is an equivalent exchange, and one that is mutually beneficial for both emotion and memory.

To experience a total solar eclipse is to experience wonder itself, and it is an experience that will stay with you for a very long time.

Woolf, V. (1950). The Sun and the Fish. In The captain’s death bed: And other essays. essay, The Hogarth Press.
Woolf, V., Grindea, M., & Bell, A. O. (1982). The diary of Virginia Woolf: Volume iii: 1925-30. Penguin.

NASA’s Eclipse Megamovie project is back for the 2024 total solar eclipse—and is seeking volunteers! During the four minutes of this solar experience, the sun’s atmosphere, or corona, will become visible. It’s a rare time when we are able to take photographs of the corona from Earth on a large scale.

Sonoma State graduate Alex Vasquez, an autistic STEM student who was also a key inspiration for the N3 program, won a National Science Foundation graduate research fellowship – becoming only the second SSU physics graduate in the Department’s history to receive that prestigious award.

During the Summer of 2022, OCEANOS teamed up with the NASA Neurodiversity Network (N3) to provide support and mentorship to a student intern in Puerto Rico. N3 provides a pathway to NASA participation and STEM employment for neurodiverse learners, with a focus on those on the autism spectrum.

From August 8-12, 2022, NYSCI hosted a camp for five autistic middle-school students to introduce them to rocket science through a combination of hands-on activities and a longer culminating project.

Check out the video showcasing NASA’s Neurodiversity Network Year 1 accomplishments!

Google is teaming up with Stanford University in an effort to make its workforce more neurodiverse.

Through social media takeovers and question-and-answer sessions, podcast episodes, and more, NASA is offering a behind-the-scenes look at how interns participate in agency projects and the best routes to a NASA internship. Current interns, mentors, and internship coordinators from across the agency will share their experiences and advice for those interested in pursuing a career in STEM.

Via NASA’s internship program, interns gain hands-on experience in agency missions from Earth science research to planetary missions to the Artemis Moon missions, which will land the first woman and first person of color on the lunar surface.

“Behind every successful NASA mission, there are interns making meaningful contributions. Our interns today truly are the Artemis Generation,” said Mike Kincaid, associate administrator for STEM Engagement at NASA. “They’re helping us to reach new heights and to send humans back to the Moon and on to Mars.”

Internships help prepare students to become part of the future workforce for the nation and at NASA, which the Partnership for Public Service recently named the “Best Place to Work in the Federal Government” for the ninth year in a row. There are many ways students can get involved with NASA , including Artemis Student Challenges , NASA’s App Development Challenge, and building tools to be tested in the astronaut training facility through the Micro-g Neutral Buoyancy Experiment Design Teams (Micro-G-NeXT ) challenges. For students to connect to NASA regionally, the National Space Grant and Fellowship Project has a national network of 52 consortia with more than 1,000 affiliated colleges and universities across the country.

NASA intern Sarah Adewumi offered advice for students currently considering applying for internships. “Definitely go for it,” said Adewumi, a four-time NASA intern currently working in project management and cybersecurity at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “Being a NASA intern is one of my favorite experiences and truly has changed my life forever.”

The number of interns working at NASA has steadily increased as virtual internships opened the door for students who otherwise may have been unable to participate. The agency welcomed 2,495 interns in 2020 and is on track to exceed that number in 2021. During the summer 2021 term, 1,837 virtual interns worked remotely for NASA, a 14% increase over the previous summer. This year’s class of summer interns represented every state in the country, as well as Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the District of Columbia.

“I’m really grateful for the opportunity to take part in a virtual internship,” said Timothy Denego, a student at Haskell Indian Nations University who currently is interning with Goddard through NASA’s Minority University Research and Education Project for American Indian and Alaska Native STEM Engagement activity. “It’s meant a lot to me to be able to stay with my community while handling my duties as an intern and contributing to NASA’s mission. And since I’ve been working from home, I’ve been able to share the work I’m doing with family and friends and talk to younger family members about what they can do if they want to pursue a NASA internship someday.”

Former NASA interns have gone on to become astronauts , engineers, and more, building careers on the foundations of their earliest experiences at the agency.

The full listing of NASA’s National Intern Day activities is as follows (all times Eastern):

Wednesday, July 28

1:15 to 1:45 p.m. – U.S. Federal Agencies Internships Downlink. Students participating in internships at NASA and four other federal agencies in a downlink with NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide aboard the International Space Station.

Thursday, July 29

9 a.m. to 5 p.m. – Instagram story takeover and Twitter threads. Interns from across NASA will be joined by Abel Morelos, an internship coordinator, to participate in an Instagram story takeover, while an Instagram carousel post will highlight 10 interns from several NASA centers.

On Twitter, interns will post threads sharing their experiences with NASA.

3 to 3:30 p.m. – NASA Science LiveAgency interns and internships will be the focus of NASA Science Live, a monthly show that connects viewers directly with agency experts. Use #AskNASA to ask questions about the NASA internship experience and learn about upcoming student opportunities. Watch the episode live at:

https://www.nasa.gov/nasasciencelive

4 to 5 p.m. – Reddit Ask Me Anything. Redditors are invited to ask NASA interns about their own stories and experiences and get advice and application tips from intern coordinators. Bring your questions to the “Ask Me Anything”!

Houston We Have a Podcast: How to Be a Successful Intern at NASA. Interns Jaden Chambers from Kennedy and Leah Davis from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston will join mentor Kelly Smith in this episode examining the highly effective habits of successful interns. This episode will be available at:

https://www.nasa.gov/johnson/HWHAP

For more, listen to the collection of intern takeovers for Houston We Have a Podcast.

The Invisible Network Podcast: 2021 Interns. Each year, NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) Internship Project welcomes students of all levels to develop projects of real benefit to the agency while earning real world experience in their fields. This episode of The Invisible Network podcast will speak with members of 2021’s intern cohort at three different NASA centers. This episode will be available at:

https://www.nasa.gov/invisible

Small Steps, Giant Leaps Podcast: Intern Takeover. Interns take over the Small Steps, Giant Leaps, podcast from NASA’s Academy of Program/Project & Engineering Leadership Knowledge Services. The episode will be available at:

https://www.nasa.gov/podcasts/small-steps-giant-leaps

Friday, July 30

Launch Viewing Opportunity for NASA Interns. Agency interns will attend NASA’s Boeing Orbital Flight Test-2 launch to the International Space Station from Kennedy and tour the center’s iconic facilities. A behind-the-scenes look at their activities at the Florida spaceport will be shared via Instagram stories. The space station remains the springboard to NASA’s next great leap in space exploration, including future missions to the Moon and eventually to Mars. Students and educators are encouraged to tune in via NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website to watch launch and prelaunch coverage.

11 a.m. – Gravity Assist Podcast with NASA’s Chief Scientist. Recent NASA intern with NASA’s Science Mission Directorate Felicia Ragucci dives into the history of the Neutral Buoyancy Simulator, a former training site for astronauts at the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. NASA Chief Scientist Jim Green, who was once a diver there, will share his memories on this special episode of Gravity Assist.

To learn how students can get involved with NASA and its missions at any grade level, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/stem

NASA will begin accepting applications for spring 2022 internships on Oct. 1, 2021. To learn more about NASA internships, or to apply, visit: http://intern.nasa.gov