By Layla Kalinen
EAGLE TIMES STAFF
SPRINGFIELD, Vt. — Eight-time Emmy Award-winning meteorologist and astronomer Joe Rao will give the keynote speech at 6:30 tonight at the Stellafane Observatory site on Breezy Hill.
The speech is part of the 87th Convention of Amateur Telescope Makers Convention.
When he was only seven when his grandfather inspired his lifelong passion of chasing solar eclipses from Antarctica to Turkey.
“Sixty years ago, there was an eclipse of the sun that was primarily visible in the northeastern part of the country and my grandfather and I, who was not quite seven-years-old at that time, were going to view it,” Rao said. “He told me that there was going to be an eclipse later that afternoon and he gave me my first lesson in celestial mechanics by making a fist for the sun and, a saltshaker for the moon and a pepper shaker for the Earth. He lined them all up and said that later today the moon is going to get in front of the sun and that will block out part of the sun to cause an eclipse.”
As the hour approached, they yearned for the clouds to part.
“I was living in the Bronx and we had rather cloud-filled skies, but then, just as the eclipse was reaching its peak and it was about 90 percent of total eclipse, the sun broke through the clouds and we saw this amazing sight of a crescent sun with the clouds moving very rapidly across it,” Rao said. “That sight got me hooked on astronomy.”
His relationship with his grandfather would be the foundation of his passion for astronomy.
“I got very much into science and space and my grandfather promised that he was going to take me to a total eclipse of the sun,” he said.
“Sure enough in 1972, we did see a total eclipse of the sun up in Quebec, Canada. That’s what started me on my chasing of solar eclipses.”
Rao has kept chasing eclipses throughout his long career and into his retirement.
“I’ve seen 13 solar eclipses all around the world, everywhere from the North Pole to Antarctica, from Turkey to Montana,” Rao said. “I’ve been in many different places chasing the shadow of the moon in hopes of basking for a few precious moments in the shadow of the moon and seeing the sight of a total eclipse of the sun.”
On a cruise ship off Antarctica, viewing the eclipse was still memorable even though the clouds never parted.
He was aboard because they needed somebody to guide guests as to what they might see, to teach them a little bit about astronomy and eclipses.
“I initially backed away because it’s Antarctica, it’s December and the weather is not all that great at that time of the year, so we’re probably not going to see much of anything and that turned out to be the case.”
But he finally gave in to what he described as an honor to his craft and a wonderful memory for he and his wife, Renate, also a meteorologist.
“How many times do you get a chance to be invited to Antarctica?” he said.
Rao said he enjoyed the experience of being in Antarctica, especially because he visited a penguin colony.
“We saw a number of wonderful things when we were down there,” he said. “We went to an island that had 200,000 penguins and we interacted with them. Even though we did not see anything of the eclipse … it turned out to be a nice, nice trip.”
Another memorable experience for the couple happened in Turkey.
“When we got to the area where we were going to observe the eclipse, I said to myself, this looks very much like Gun Hill Road in the Bronx where I grew up. The people were very, very nice. I remember a gentleman who met us at the airport when we landed in Turkey and he was giving out solar glasses.
The couple was treated to quite a site.
“It turned out that there was a wonderful eclipse, and we did have a perfectly clear view of it” he said.
Rao has been attending the Stellafane Convention for close to half a century, but this year he feels honored to accept the invitation as the keynote speaker.
“My first one was 49 years ago, but this is going to be the first time that I’m going to be given the chance to do the keynote, the number one talk,” he said. “It is a big honor to be asked to do that and as I will say on Saturday night in my 45 years of astronomy outreach, and having given talks at planetariums, and astronomy forums, at star identification sessions, at national and state parks are memorable, but to me, Saturday night I will reach the top of the mountain and this is about as high up as I can possibly get.”
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