Eos highlights Laatsch’s team preparing for total solar eclipse
Eos highlighted Shawn Laatsch, director of the Versant Power Astronomy Center at the University of Maine, participating in the total solar eclipse by helping coordinate the Citizen Continental America Telescopic Eclipse (CATE) 2024 project. The effort, which builds on a similar project conducted around the 2017 total solar eclipse, is looking to place roughly 35 telescopes along the path of totality to observe the Sun’s corona in polarized light. Laatsch has been coordinating plans, equipment and training for citizen scientists in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York and Pennsylvania. Participating in science is a valuable way to cement what is already an awe-inspiring experience, Laatsch said. “Hopefully, it’ll inspire them to go further in astronomy,” he said.