Good morning, friends. It’s your Space Coast correspondent James Sparvero and today, millions will put on those special glasses and marvel at the moon passing between the sun and the Earth, casting its shadow on our planet during a rare solar eclipse.
Like a big launch, I love how an eclipse brings us together. My picture above is one of the 6,000 smiling faces I saw at Kennedy Space Center watching the last eclipse in the summer of 2017.
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I’ll be back at the Visitor Complex today, starting with a live report for you at noon, as KSC hosts thousands more for another sungazing event. The activities are included with the price of your ticket and they’ll hand out the glasses too (as long as they last!).
While the eclipse starting at 1:48 p.m. will be partial for us, areas of the country experiencing totality will be seen on video screens broadcasting NASA’s coverage nationwide. As a partial eclipse makes the sun look like a crescent, I remember fascinated children seven years ago describing what they saw like the moon taking a bite out of the sun.
And whether you’re working today or have other plans, I hope you’ll be able to take a moment during the three hours of the eclipse to be present as nature graces our skies. It doesn’t happen very often, after all. After today, the next solar eclipse in the country is in 2044!
If you can’t get outside, Jonathan Kegges will be providing live coverage of the total solar eclipse on News 6+ and ClickOrlando.com. Click here to check it out.
Don’t forget to share your photos! We’d love to see them here.
📧 Send me an email here if you have any space topics you’d like to discuss.
👋 Here’s a little bit more about me.
Little did I know when watching Apollo 13 in the third grade that 20 years later, I was destined for a thrilling career as your Space Coast multimedia journalist.
Chemistry and biology weren’t so interesting to me in high school science, but I loved my Earth and Space class (Thanks, Mr. Lang).
Then in 2016, I traded Capitol correspondent in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for space correspondent. I’m proud that my first live report at News 6 happened to be the first time SpaceX landed a Falcon 9 booster on a barge. What seems so routine now was a really big deal that day in our newsroom!
From there, I’ve covered the Commercial Crew program and the return of human spaceflight to Kennedy Space Center (Demo-2 launched on my 33rd birthday!)
Now, as our coverage looks forward to missions to the moon and Mars, I often tell others I have the best job in local news. Because after all I’ve seen so far, I think I would be bored working somewhere else. I even bought a house near the Cape with a great view to the north so I never miss a launch even when I’m not working.
After eight years on the beat, though, I still consider myself a young space reporter and I always look forward to learning something new with every assignment.
Have a great launch into the rest of your week!