Session Code: | Submitting Committee: Committee on Space Science and Astronomy / Co-Sponsoring Committee:
On April 8, 2024, another Great American Eclipse will cross the North American continent from central Mexico, through Texas and exit in New England. It will be a very long duration eclipse, 4.5 minutes, which is perfect for execution of the Modern Eddington Experiment (MEE). During the 2017 eclipse, students at Portland Community College (OR) collected 23 images of the eclipsed sun with a total of 43 stars around it. From this data, they became the first physics students to have measured the curvature of space by determining the Einstein Coefficient. This is a result of the use of modern relatively inexpensive ($20k per station) telescope/camera combinations, a set of equipment that your school could obtain and join in the recreation with even better equipment and methods in 2024. Please participate in this session, where the project will be discussed, the equipment shown and explained, and the fabulous site in the central high desert of Mexico will be revealed. The goal of this effort is to make the MEE a regular advanced lab experiment for many schools on into the distant future. This educational exchange program with a Mexican college will be a wonderful experience for your students, an experience hopefully repeated indefinitely into the future by your school and others.