Eclipse and cookies

Wisconsin group hits Goshen County for Eclipse research

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FORT LARAMIE – A group from the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point found Goshen County to be a perfect spot for their research during the Great American Eclipse on Monday, including creative uses of Girl Scout Cookies.
Joining the three separate research teams – one at Fort Laramie National Historic Site and two across the state line in Nebraska ­– was a group of Girl Scouts from the Madison, Wisc., area. By poking small holes in the cookies, the girls utilized the ubiquitous pastries to make the lenses of pinhole-type cameras. They then projected an image of the moon creeping over the crescent of the sun onto white paper, letting them track the progress toward totality.
“I really want to see a full eclipse,” said Girl Scout Josalynn Dunn, 12. “That sounds so cool.”
By late morning, the Wisconsin group had been joined at Fort Laramie by an estimated 2,000 or more from around the country and the world, said Eric Valencia, director of interpretation for the site. Final numbers won’t be available until later in the week but, with space and services planned for some 5,000, he said, that estimate was probably low.
“Things are going smoothly,” Valencia said. “Our planning has paid off.
“It’s really fun to see the level of enthusiasm people have for the eclipse,” he said. “I think we’ve met our goal of providing a save environment for eclipse watching.”
The three UWSP research teams, made up of current students, alumni and university staff, planned a multi-disciplinary research adventure during the eclipse Monday, said Nancy Stokosa, academic associate in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the school. The studies combined geography, biology, physics and biology to look at a variety of effects from the total eclipse as it moved across the region.

Along with the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see the sun’s corona as it blazes around the disk of the moon, one team planned to look at the Bailey’s Beads – created as sunlight winds its way around hills and through valleys on the lunar surface. Another group planned to study how the roughly two minutes of darkness affected normally-nocturnal creatures – specifically bats –
and plants.
“We’ve been preparing for this for two years,” Nancy Stokosa said. “That included four reconnaissance trips to the area.”
Rather than hook up with one of the college research teams, though, she opted to stick with the Girl Scout group, led by her son, Mark Stokosa. In addition to their explorations of unique uses of cookies, the girls recorded their impressions of the event, along with observations of changes in light, atmosphere, weather and more as the eclipse totality approached.
But a significant focus of the trip
was fun.
“The Girl Scouts are here for the light show,” Mark Stokosa said. “But they will be doing some very basic astronomy.
“It’s not just the ‘ooh – ahh’ like with fireworks,” he said. “It’s why the fireworks are happening, too.
And, while some were gearing up to see their first eclipse, others in the crowd were seasoned veterans at the experience. Krista Rudloff of Littleton, Colo., made the trip to Fort Laramie on Monday with her husband, Robert, and a massive telescope to catch a glimpse of her second total eclipse of the sun.
“I’m a space junky,” Krista said. She teaches science at St. Mary Catholic School in Littleton.
She saw her first total eclipse more than 25 years ago, in 1991 in Mexico. And she was hooked from the moment of totality.
Krista currently doesn’t travel the world seeking out total eclipses. But, in a perfect world, she’d like to, she said.
“It’s amazing the things we can observe in nature,” she said. “Once you see (an eclipse), it’s like an addiction. You can’t stop.”