Join David Rittenhouse as he observes the SOLAR ECLIPSE

Richard Wall House
1 Wall Park Drive, Elkins Park, PA 19027
Sunday, April 7
11:00 – 3:00

and

Historic Rittenhouse Town
208 Lincoln Dr, Philadelphia, PA 19144
Monday, April 8
1:00 – 4:00 pm

There were two total eclipses of the sun visible in the occupied regions of North America during the American Revolutionary War.  One occurred on June 24, 1778 as its path of totality passed very near to Philadelphia, the other on October 27, 1780 with a path of totality that included Boston.  Long the harbinger of doom and destruction, the solar eclipse – a phenomena that occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partly obscuring the image of the Sun for a viewer on Earth – was such a serious opportunity to understand the nature of the cosmos.  This event was so important to the Royal Society that the British offered special immunity to the scientists from Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania, including David Rittenhouse, to take observations of this event. The Harvard expedition (1780), after all their efforts, missed the eclipse because they chose a site outside the path of totality. Philadelphia’s noted astronomer David Rittenhouse was much more careful in his predictions and took careful observations in 1778.

A total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon’s apparent diameter is larger than the Sun’s, blocking all direct sunlight, turning day into darkness. Totality occurs in a narrow path across Earth’s surface, but a partial solar eclipse is visible over a surrounding region thousands of miles wide.  A total solar eclipse will take place again in North America Monday, April 8, 2024, and be visible as an 80% partial eclipse in Philadelphia at around 3:00pm.  The next opportunity to see this rare event in North America will be in 2044 so come out to Historic Rittenhouse town and see it along with David Rittenhouse and his team of astronomers.

Professor Rittenhouse will also be at the Richard Wall House in Cheltenham (1 Wall Park Drive, Elkins Park, PA 19027) on Sunday, April 7 explaining this special astronomical event as well as recent computations completed on the size of the solar system derived from the 1769 observations of the Transit of Venus (a similar event where Venus passes between the Earth and the Sun casting a shadow).

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