Sonja Alexander

Headquarters, Washington, DC
June 20, 2001
(Phone: 202/358-1761)

Dolores Beasley
Headquarters, Washington, DC
(Phone: 202/358-1753)

RELEASE: 01-125a

NASA AND THE SAN FRANCISCO EXPLORATORIUM

SHOW FIRST TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE OF THE NEW MILLENNIUM

Our Sun is about to take a break for the summer, albeit a

brief repose noticeable only by people in Southern and Central
Africa.

However, while the first total eclipse of the new millennium

will not be visible from the United States, it will be made
available live from Zambia, Southern Africa, to the rest of
the world from NASA Television and internet users who have
high-speed connections.

The eclipse viewing is made possible by the San Francisco

Exploratorium, with support from NASA, and is officially
endorsed by the National Society of Black Physicists.

Watching a total eclipse means different things to different

people. Daylight fades in the middle of the day as the Moon
slowly covers the face of the Sun, creating an eerie dusk as a
shadow is cast on the Earth's surface.

Our ancient ancestors considered an eclipse to be a bad omen,

and often carried out various rituals in an effort to scare
away suspected evil forces that devoured the Sun. Today,
scientists travel around the world to study this rare event
and millions of people are satisfied to simply watch this
celestial display of nature.

A science team from the Exploratorium will be in Zambia to

capture video images of the eclipse using specially equipped
telescopes. Besides being streamed live to the rest of the
world, these images will be broadcast to about 110
participating museums and other venues.
A message from the Expedition Two crew on board International
Space Station is part of the webcast, which includes a
conversation with American astronauts Jim Voss, Susan Helms
and Russian Commander Yury Usachev.

NASA also will take viewers one million miles into space to
see how scientists use artificially generated eclipses to
study enormous solar eruptions. Scientific teams going to
Africa for the eclipse will rely on the ESA-NASA Solar and
Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft to show them the
Sun's weather during the event.

Several NASA centers plan events associated and some of its

Centers are planning comprehensive solar eclipse events:

* Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD - Dr. Paal

Brekke, European Space Agency, will present a multimedia
summary from SOHO's observations in the Albert Einstein
Planetarium at Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum,
Washington, DC, from 12:20 p.m. to 12:50 p.m. EDT. More
information is available on the Internet at:
http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/

* Jet Propulsion Laboratory Pasadena, CA - Students from the

Los Angeles area can watch the webcast, look through solar
telescopes and hear African-American Scientists and members of
the National Society of Black Physicists discuss how the Sun
effects the Earth and how minority students can get more
involved in science. For additional internet information, go
to: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/

* Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL - Reporters

and other media representatives are invited to interview NASA
astronomer Mitzi Adams, who will be in Zambia to witness the
eclipse. Telephone interviews are available by contacting
Steve Roy at 256/544-6535. More information is available on
the Internet at: http://www.msfc.nasa.gov/newsroom

To view the eclipse from a high-speed internet connection,

visit the World Wide Web at:

http://www.exploratorium.edu/eclipse
A complete list of participating museums can be found on the
web at:

http://www.exploratorium.edu/eclipse/zambia/participants.html

NASA TV will carry the eclipse from 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.
EDT. Stations carrying this feed are requested to super
"Courtesy: NASA/Exploratorium." NASA TV can be found on GE-2,
Transponder 9C, at 85 degrees West longitude, vertical
polarization, with a frequency of 3880 MHz and audio of 6.8
MHz.

-end-