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American Morning
First Solar Eclipse of New Millennium Arrives
Aired June 21, 2001 - 10:19 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Oh, they were some fun pictures to watch live. We brought it to live here on CNN about 45 minutes ago. In case you missed it, or in case you want to see a replay, here is that celestial show once again: the first total solar eclipse of the new millennium.
This brilliant show happens when the shadow of the moon edges out the sun. It was best seen over Southern and Central Africa. In Zambia, thousands of tourists turned to view the eclipse, which lasted about four minutes. One tourist described it as absolutely amazing.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, not just the tourists were saying that. As a matter of fact, an expert who was watching it with us was saying the same thing.
Jack Horkheimer, who is the man -- as a matter of fact, he's back with us right now. Glad he stuck around this morning.
KAGAN: He's the host of the PBS program called "Star Gazer." He's an astronomer with the Miami Planetarium. And you would almost expect, I would think, Jack...
HARRIS: Yes.
KAGAN: ... who has kind of seen it all...
HARRIS: Yes.
KAGAN: ... in the world of the stars and the moons and the solar eclipses -- it was so much fun to watch it with him because he was going, "Gee whiz! This is a really good solar eclipse!"
HARRIS: Yes, Jack -- he was more excited than we were.
Jack, weren't you?
JACK HORKHEIMER, ASTRONOMER: I -- this was so exciting, I couldn't believe how exciting it was.
CNN's crew deserves a big round of applause...
(APPLAUSE)
HORKHEIMER: ... because this is one of the best -- one of the best photographed eclipses I've ever seen on TV.
It just -- now, there you see the beginning of totality. That's the diamond-ring effect. There you see the wonderful prominences leaping off the side of the face of the -- of the sun. These are -- there you see the corona. The corona is the outer atmosphere of the sun, over a million degrees hot. There's the diamond-ring effect again. That's caused by sunlight streaming through the -- between the valleys -- the moon -- between mountains on the side.
That's the longest diamond-ring effect I've ever seen in any total eclipse in my life.
KAGAN: Wow.
HORKHEIMER: Wow! And your photography was so right on. The cameras were perfect. I just -- I was just so very, very impressed.
KAGAN: Our promotions department will be calling you after this.
(LAUGHTER)
HARRIS: Exactly.
KAGAN: Get those quotes down, Jack.
HARRIS: You may replace James Earl Jones on this network.
(LAUGHTER)
HORKHEIMER: But I will tell you, you know, that is something that people could see locally in Africa and, of course, live on CNN. But the one thing that everybody can see tonight, the second big cosmic event, just a coincidence on this first night of summer 2001 -- which, incidentally, was the first night of winter -- will be the first night of winter where the eclipse occurred -- on this first night of summer, Mars will be at its brightest and its closest to planet Earth since 1988.
That's 13 years ago. And you can see it from even the most brilliantly lit-up urban areas.
(CROSSTALK)
KAGAN: Where do you look and how?
HORKHEIMER: OK. You go out around between 10:00 and midnight and you look southeast. And it will look like -- well, it'll look like a ruby gold -- brassy, ruby gold, bright, bright object just hanging in the sky. And it'll be in our sky all night long.
If you go out about midnight, it will be at its highest point due south. Then after midnight, it will slowly travel toward the west. And it will set in the west, as the sun rises in the east. And it'll be about this bright for the next week and a half -- not quite as bright. But tonight is the brightest night in 13 years.
Now, if you want to make Mars even brighter and to see more color in Mars, I have a little device right here.
KAGAN: Oh, high tech.
HORKHEIMER: It looks like -- it looks like a toilet tissue tube. And that's exactly what it is.
HARRIS: OK.
HORKHEIMER: And what -- I call it a "Mars Image Isolator and Intensifier" because...
(LAUGHTER)
HORKHEIMER: ... it isolates the image...
KAGAN: That's T.P. at my house, but...
(LAUGHTER)
HORKHEIMER: You put up to your eye like this. Close this eye. You look at Mars. It'll actually make Mars appear brighter. But it'll enable you to see more color in Mars. You'll see the reddish colors and the gold colors and the brassy colors.
You know, Mars does have a lot of iron oxide in its surface disk. That's why we call it the "Red Planet." It's kind of rusty. It looks very rouge, gold, brassy. And with this "Image Isolator and Intensifier," you'll be able to see more of the color.
(CROSSTALK)
HARRIS: Can you explain in just a couple of seconds the effect that's happening there that actually makes that happen?
HORKHEIMER: Yes, you are removing all extraneous light except the light that's entering the tube. And the light is actually stimulating from Mars. It's stimulating more parts to the back of your eye, so that it allows you to see to see more color.
HARRIS: Got you.
HORKHEIMER: Now, when you look up tonight, you don't have to take fruits and vegetables up with you. But to give you an idea of the size of things, Mars -- Earth is 8,000 miles wide. And Mars is exactly half the size of Earth, 4,000 miles wide. As a matter of fact, this is a pretty good color for Mars, as I can see on the monitor. Mars really looks that color if you look at it up close.
Now, here's how close Mars is: 11 months ago, last July, Mars was 242 million miles away from us. But in only 11 months time, tonight, Mars will have moved 202 million miles closer. Mars is only 42 million miles away this evening. And that is close.
HARRIS: So it'll be, what, another 13 years before it gets this close again, is that it?
HORKHEIMER: No, it's close every 2.2 years. This is the closest it's been in 13 years.
I can kind of give you an exclusive, which I'm --
KAGAN: OK.
HORKHEIMER: OK. You may have heard or may not have heard in the past week that some people said that the next opposition will be the closest in 2000 years. Then someone said no, it's the closest in 7,000 years. Actually, we've had people at the naval observatory running programs for us. They got up to 30,000 years ago. And they can't go back any further without a different computer.
The next opposition in Mars in the year 2003, August 28, will be -- Mars will be at its closest to Earth in at least 30,000 years.
KAGAN: Really? That's in a couple years.
HORKHEIMER: That's an exclusive. You heard it here first.
KAGAN: OK.
HARRIS: All right, listen, well then, let's make a date to have you come back and walk us through that one.
(LAUGHTER)
KAGAN: Yes. Thanks a lot. And thanks for the tip on toilet roll.
HORKHEIMER: Well, it's the "Image Isolator and Intensifier."
KAGAN: "Image Isolator," sorry.
HORKHEIMER: Everybody's got one.
KAGAN: Well, let me just tell you this, when you use that Image Isolator, make sure you put a new roll up. I don't know what it is about you guys.
(LAUGHTER)
(CROSSTALK)
HARRIS: Do you have a favorite brand, by the way?
KAGAN: A tube is a tube.
HORKHEIMER: Well, if you use two of them you get stereo -- binocular isolators.
(LAUGHTER)
KAGAN: OK. Thanks.
HARRIS: All right, you heard it first here on CNN.
(LAUGHTER)
Jack Horkheimer, thanks much, man. It's good to see you again.
KAGAN: And thank you for...
(CROSSTALK)
KAGAN: ... demonstration as well. We had some citrus, too.
(LAUGHTER)
HARRIS: We had it all here.
KAGAN: We do.
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