Edison and the Eclipse that Enlightened America

Peninsula Astronomical Society welcomes author David Baron for a talk on the eclipse of 1878 as told in the author's book American Eclipse, which the Wall Street Journal praised as “a sweeping, compelling portrait of the scientific and social aspirations of Gilded Age Americans.”

About The Talk
Just a couple of weeks after the historic total solar eclipse of 2024, author David Baron will share a pertinent tale from the distant past. In the summer of 1878, a similar eclipse traversed America’s Wild West, darkening the frontier while rousing the ambitions of an entire nation. The event lured to the Rocky Mountains many of the era’s great minds—including Vassar College astronomer Maria Mitchell, who headed an all-female expedition to Denver, and a young Thomas Edison, who after observing the eclipse in Wyoming soon lit the world with his most famous invention.

About Our Speaker
David Baron is an award-winning author, journalist, and broadcaster. A former science correspondent for NPR and recent Chair in Astrobiology at the Library of Congress, he has written for the New York Times, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, and other outlets. An avid eclipse chaser whose TED Talk has been viewed more than two million times, Baron has witnessed eight total solar eclipses across five continents.

Logistics
Mr. Baron will join us via Zoom from Colorado, and we will show the presentation on the big screen in the Orchard room. Join us in person, or on Zoom:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84466807145?pwd=Kq886IXDApRip5PsykH80AMHd5XMT2.1
Meeting ID: 844 6680 7145
Passcode: 3.14159265