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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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Atlanta, GA | Posted: July 28, 2017
On August 21, make sure you pick up your free solar eclipse safety glasses before viewing the solar eclipse. Also, check out this special Solar Eclipse 2017 webpage, that lists the many educational and safety events that are planned at Georgia Tech. All of this has been brought to you by a collaboration between the College of Sciences, the Office of Undergraduate Education, the Georgia Tech Observatory, the Georgia Tech Library, the School of Aerospace Engineering, the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, the College of Computing, the College of Design, and Institute Communications.
Summary Sentence:
Students, faculty, and staff joined together July 27 to help the NASA-funded Georgia Space Grant Consortium package and mail more than 10K solar eclipse safety kits
Full Summary:
For no less than 12 hours, the Georgia Tech chapter of NASA's Georgia Space Grant Consortium hustled to put together more than 10K solar eclipse safety kits that were mailed out to allow more than 250K Georgia school children.
It's in the mail
The Future's So Bright...For awhile on July 27, the halls of the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering felt like the North Pole right before Christmas: everyone was focused on sending out packages that would end up brightening the lives of thousands of Georgia children in just a few weeks.
But instead of skate boards and Barbie Dolls, the elves were puttng the final touches on Solar Eclipse Safety Packages that will enable 250K young people to view and learn from the rare celestial happening, which will occur on Aug. 21.
Teams of faculty, students, and staff crammed into the AE School's tiny conference room, where, from 8:30 a.m. until 7 p.m., 1,700 packages were assembled, addressed, and sealed. The complicated logistics were plotted out weeks ahead of time by Georgia Tech staffers Alysia Watson and Mike Roberts. Funded by NASA's Georgia Space Grant Consortium, the packages were mailed to schools and other educational venues where they will help make the solar eclipse as safe as it is cool.
And it will be cool. Very cool.
For a brief period of time in the afternoon of Aug. 21, the moon will be aligned directly between the sun and the earth, causing a temporary nightfall here on earth. Birds will roost. Cattle will settle down for the night. And the temperature difference will cause winds to pick up. At Georgia Tech, where the coverage will be 97 percent complete, several solar eclipse activities have been planned for the campus, which will be in the middle of its first day of classes. (Nice planning, Mother Nature!)
Find out more about Tech's celebrations at Eclipse 2017 @ Georgia Tech.
For AE professor Stephen Ruffin, the eclipse will be an opportunity to spread the word about the importance of space exploration to thousands of would-be scientists. As the executive director of NASA's Georgia Space Grant Consortium, he knows that that a solar eclipse will heighten the public's interest in science, engineering, and the importance of committing resources to space exploration. As the associate chair of the School of Aerospace Engineering, he is grateful that he was able to nudge a few of his colleagues to help out with Thursday's mailroom extravaganza.
"We are grateful to NASA's Space Grant Consortium for making these kits available, and for making space education a priority," he said. "But getting them into the mail? That came directly from the heart and soul of Georgia Tech."
A collaboration between several Institute entities has produced an array of events and educational offerings for the August 21 eclipse. Check them out now.
