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A total solar eclipse will occur on March 29, 2006 and will be visible from parts of Africa. The path of totality passes close to the town of Cape Coast in central Ghana. The University of Cape Coast (UCC) is one of three major universities in Ghana and has several active ongoing scientific programs, including an ICTP Affiliated Center for Lasers and Finer Optics (LAFOC). We propose to produce a web cast of this celestial event and broadcast it from Cape Coast to students and other interested groups in the U.S., Africa and other parts of the world. We would like to leverage the event of the solar eclipse as an opportunity to showcase some of the scientific work currently pursued at UCC and other universities in Africa.
Total solar eclipses are relatively rare, and can be awe-inspiring events that capture global interest and attention when they occur. The eclipse on March 29, 2006 will provide an unusual opportunity to use this general interest in eclipses to focus attention on Cape Coast. It will take about one hour for the moon to transit the face of the sun - but totality, (the time when the sun is completely covered by the moon) will be only about four minutes. The web cast would include live views of the eclipse in various stages as it progresses. The program that we propose would include African scientists as narrators, explaining the science underlying the occurrence of eclipses and the role that these events have played in science and history.
But we envision a broader broadcast that would include photos and film clips on scientific work at UCC and other major scientific centers in Africa. We would like to show some of the current efforts of African scientists, and bring them and their work to the attention of audiences who might not otherwise have an opportunity to learn about them. We believe that his kind of outreach could encourage student interest in science, and also help stimulate public interest - particularly about science in Africa. While this type of program might be of interest to audiences in general, it could be especially important for African students and minority students in the U.S. Furthermore, it could also be a stimulus for initiating a program in astronomy and astrophysics at University of Cape Coast.
Cape Coast has important historical significance since it was a major port from which slaves were shipped from West Africa to the Americas. There are two "Slave Forts" near Cape Coast that date back to the 1400's and were heavily used in the slave trade. These have been designated as UNESCO World Heritage Monuments. The web-cast would be enhanced by inclusion of a brief clip about these forts and their associated history, and also something about the striking natural scenery in the region.
In our estimation, all of this would develop into a program spanning a time frame of about 50 minutes, with the eclipse itself as the central feature. A workshop on African Cultural Astronomy will be taking place at UCC during the week of the eclipse. We expect that either the workshop or the eclipse alone would naturally attract media interest. Together they potentially can be the basis for a major multimedia event in Ghana. This proposal specifies ideas on how resources can be organized to ensure that the eclipse and our planned program could be observed and presented to a global community from an observation center at the University of Cape-Coast The major work of the proposed project falls into two categories – tasks to be completed in advance of the day of the eclipse, and activities to be carried out on the day of the eclipse. We propose to form separate committees working in parallel to plan and execute the work in each category. |
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