Joe Rao
Join us Sunday, March 5th, as our guest and longtime member, Joe Rao, will be our guest speaker. Always a treat to have Joe present to AOS, even more of a treat to hear him speak about total solar eclipses.
To witness a total eclipse of the Sun is a privilege that comes to a few—many live and die without ever beholding one. Once seen, however, it is a phenomenon never to be forgotten. The incredible panoply of phenomena that occur when the Sun becomes completely covered by the Moon—the radiance of the pearly corona of the Sun which can be seen at no other time; the scarlet tongues of hydrogen gas rising from the surface of the darkened to heights of many thousands of miles; the unaccustomed presence of the brighter stars and planets in the daytime; the darkness of twilight and sudden fall of temperature—all remain indelibly planted in our memory for a lifetime. Expeditions and tours have been sent halfway around the world to observe total eclipses.
On 8 April 2024, those who live in the Northeastern United States will have one delivered to their doors. You won’t want to miss this exciting seminar with Joe Rao, who was the Chief Meteorologist and Science Editor at News 12 Westchester, and who over the last 50 years has chased 13 eclipses around the globe by land, sea, and air. A fabulous storyteller, he will detail the interesting, funny, and poignant occurrences that he has experienced in his efforts to briefly bask in the shadow of the Moon.
BIO:
For 21 years, Joe Rao was the Chief Meteorologist and Science Editor at News 12 Westchester (NY). He has been nominated for 8 Emmy Awards and is the recipient of the 2009 Northeast Region of the Astronomical League Walter Scott Houston Award. In 2015, he was voted first among weathercasters in New York State by the Associated Press.
Since 1986, Joe has served as an associate and guest lecturer at the world-renowned Hayden Planetarium, directed by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, in New York City’s American Museum of Natural History.
Joe is a Contributing Editor for Sky & Telescope magazine and writes a syndicated weekly column for the online news service, Space.com. Joe also pens a monthly astronomy column for Natural History magazine and provides annual astronomical data for The Farmers’ Almanac.