FORT LARAMIE – Goshen County was among a select group of research locations for the Great American Solar Eclipse. Four young scientists from Bishop, Calif., along with their support team, set up operations at a ranch near Fort Laramie where they sent three scientific experiments to the stratosphere.
Rubber balloons, eight feet in diameter were launched at 15-minute intervals during the eclipse. They carried cameras, tracking devises and radiation testing equipment, which will be recovered within the next two days.
The group of current and former students from Bishop High School are members of the Earth to Sky Calculus organization. It was formed in 2010 to provide hands-on learning opportunities in math and physics, under the guidance of Dr. Tony Phillips. Their focus has become radiation and its impact on pilots and air passengers.
The young adults intend to capture first-of-their-kind views of the eclipse from the edge of space. Teams launched from Oregon, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas and Missouri, in addition to Wyoming. Each team sent up at least one balloon, equipped with cameras and data collection devices which will photograph the eclipse and collect solar radiation data. They will not only photograph the eclipse from different points along the eclipse path, but also collect and compare cosmic radiation data along the path of totality.
According to Joey Harvey, a sophomore at University of California-Irvine, and leading the Wyoming team, Monday’s launches were successful, with the assistance of Jordan Herbst, recent graduate of
Bishop High.
“I’m happy and content,” he said a few minutes after the third balloon sailed into the air. “We sent up three balloons and they all made it to the