For this week’s installment of SUU Outdoor’s Education Series, Matthias Schmitt, Dark Skies Coordinator at Cedar Breaks National Monument and avid eclipse chaser, will be presenting on the total solar eclipse of Dec. 4, 2021. The event is free to the public and will be held at Basecamp in the Sharwan Smith Student Center on Thursday, Oct. 27, at 6 p.m.
Schmitt will be teaching attendees about how the eclipse passed through the Scotia Sea, the South Georgia Islands and the Antarctica Peninsula. He has been passionately involved in astronomy outreach and public events in astronomy, STEM and space sciences for over ten years. 
“You don’t have to travel to distant planets to explore an alien world,” Schmitt said. “Antarctica is one of the driest places on our planet and a host to a variety of strange flora and fauna. It is also the location of the total solar eclipse of Dec. 4, 2021.”
Schmitt is finishing his Master of Science in Astronomy from Swinburne University’s Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing this fall. He has successfully been a part of observations in Oregon, Argentina, Oman, and Antarctica.
In the next OES event, Levi Pendleton will present on avalanche destruction on Thursday, Nov. 17, at 7 p.m. The event will be held in the Sterling R. Church Auditorium located in the Sharwan Smith Student Center.
Article by: Chevy Blackburn
chevyblackburn@suumail.net
Photos courtesy of SUU Outdoors and Matthias Schmitt
