CWU physics students among those eagerly awaiting today’s eclipse

Several Central Washington University physics students Monday will launch a weather balloon intended to capture live video and photos of what star gazers across the country have been waiting for — the first total lunar eclipse to sweep across North America in 38 years.

The work is part of a NASA project involving 52 teams from 31 states aiming to document the eclipse. A $680,000 grant from NASA is paying for the project.

Composed of students from high schools, colleges and universities, those teams are using helium-filled weather monitoring balloons measuring 6 feet in diameter that will be sent up 100,000 feet, or three times the altitude a commercial airline flies, said CWU physics professor Darci Snowden.

Read more of this story in the Yakima Herald Republic.