LOUISVILLE, Ky. – NASA astrophysicist Fred Espenak will speak at the University of Louisville April 13 about “Solar Eclipses and Mysteries of the Sun.”
Espenak’s free, public talk is the second annual Bullitt lecture in astronomy. The event will begin at 7 p.m. in the Gheens Science Hall and Rauch Planetarium on U of L’s Belknap Campus.
The scientist will talk about how total solar eclipses and NASA spacecraft help to explain some of the sun’s mysteries. He also will explain when people in the United States will see the next total eclipse, when the moon comes between the sun and earth.
Audience members also will receive a handout listing future solar eclipses visible from Louisville.
Espenak works at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. His research projects including monitoring ozone in Mars’ atmosphere; detecting winds on Venus and Mars; and measuring hydrocarbons in the stratospheres of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
The scientist is known for his work on eclipses, an interest that began when he saw a total solar eclipse in March 1970. Since then he has participated in nearly 20 eclipse expeditions around the world and has predicted thousands of eclipses. He recently co-wrote “Total Eclipses of the Sun” and has published two reference books: “Fifty-year Canon of Solar Eclipses: 1986-2035” and “Fifty-year Canon of Lunar Eclipses: 1986-2035.”
The Bullitt lecture is co-sponsored by the William Marshall Bullitt Fund in Astronomy and the physics department.
For more information, call the physics department at (502) 852-6790.