The world’s capital of astronomy got an up-close look at a solar eclipse
Hi there everyone, this is Jeff, and you are listening to episode 172 of Plain English, the podcast for learning English with current events. You can find all the episode resources for today’s episode at PlainEnglish.com/172, including, as always, a word-for-word transcript.
Coming up on today’s episode: A total solar eclipse cut through parts of Argentina and Chile earlier this month. The eclipse was fun for tourists and useful for astronomers, who could put their telescopes to good use during the day. Speaking of “put to good use,” that is the phrase that we’ll review toward the end of the episode. And it’s Monday, so we’ll close with a quote. Today we have an astronomy-related quote for you, so just wait for that.
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Solar eclipse crosses Chile and Argentina
A solar eclipse darkened the sky over Chile and Argentina, giving astronomers and tourists a unique view of the sun.
A total solar eclipse happens when the moon passes directly between the earth and the sun and blocks the view of the sun from earth. When an eclipse happens, a narrow band of the earth is in the so-called “zone of totality.” That’s the tiny strip of the earth where the moon perfectly blocks the view of the sun. The sky darkens and, often, the temperature falls for a few minutes. In Chile, the daytime temperature fell by about two to three degrees Celsius during the eclipse.
This time, the only inhabited parts of the earth that experienced the eclipse were in Chile and Argentina. And fortunately for astronomers, the zone of totality passed right through northern Chile’s Atacama desert, which has some of the clearest skies in the world. The eclipse passed over La Silla Observatory, home to some of the world’s most powerful telescopes, which can usually only be used at night. This time, though, they could be put to use studying the sun’s corona, the outer layer that is usually not visible. The eclipse lasted for almost two and a half minutes at La Silla.
Chile’s president Sebastián Piñera said that Chile is the world capital of astronomy. He continued by saying: “We are the eyes and senses of humanity to be able to look, observe and study the stars and the universe.”
The paths of future solar eclipses are well known in advance, but the one wild card is the weather. If it’s cloudy, you won’t be able to see the eclipse, but it will still get darker and cooler. That was the situation in Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, where clouds blocked the view of the eclipse, leaving the city in a mid-day haze.
But many towns and cities did have a clear view of the eclipse, and tens of thousands of observers put on their cardboard glasses and watched the show. Everyone had their own style. Some brought yoga mats. Others jumped and cheered when the saw the eclipse. Observers in one town chanted “¡Viva Chile!”—I’m not entirely sure why, but it must have felt right at the time!
The city of La Serena was the first city to experience the eclipse, at 3:22 p.m. local time on July 2. The town of 200,000 residents saw an influx of 300,000 visitors. The population of the town more than doubled just for the eclipse. Hotels throughout the eclipse zone were sold out.
In Argentina, the popular place to view the eclipse was in Cuyo, the wine-producing region that had the longest exposure to the eclipse.
You can’t look directly at the eclipse while it’s happening: you can go blind from doing so. You need to see the eclipse through special glasses that filter the light to protect your eyes. An eclipse happens somewhere on earth about once every eighteen months. The next solar eclipse will be in December 2020 and will also cut across Chile and Argentina, though farther south.
Aldo from Chile saw the eclipse. He sent me a picture of himself with his eclipse glasses on, all ready to go. He said the atmosphere was mysterious, the temperature dropped, the shadows were long—a really special day.
I saw a little bit of the 2017 solar eclipse in the United States. Chicago was not in the zone of totality, so we didn’t have total darkness during the day. It did get a little dark and hazy-like mid-afternoon that day. And we did have our eclipse glasses, but I have to say that the experience of seeing the eclipse wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. It wasn’t as good as all the hype, in my opinion.
Today I would like to say hello to Camilo from Medellín, Colombia. I think he set a new Plain English record. He listened to all the episodes in a month and a half! He listens on his motorcycle as he goes to work near the international airport in Medellín. I remember the taxi ride from the airport into town—it’s very hilly and a nice long trip. I can just imagine Camilo taking those curves on his motorcycle on the way to work, listening to Plain English. That sounds great, thanks Camilo for being with us.
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