About this item
Winner of the 2018 AIP Science Communication Award in Science Writing (Books) Richly illustrated and meticulously researched, American Eclipse ultimately depicts a young nation that looked to the skies to reveal its towering ambition and expose its latent genius.On a scorching July afternoon in 1878, at the dawn of the Gilded Age, the moon's shadow descended on the American West, darkening skies from Montana Territory to Texas. This rare celestial event -- a total solar eclipse -- offered a priceless opportunity to solve some of the solar system's most enduring riddles, and it prompted a clutch of enterprising scientists to brave the wild frontier in a grueling race to the Rocky Mountains. Acclaimed science journalist David Baron, long fascinated by eclipses, re-creates this epic tale of ambition, failure, and glory in a narrative that reveals as much about the historical trajectory of a striving young nation as it does about those scant three minutes when the blue sky blackened and stars appeared in mid-afternoon.
About the Author
David Baron is an award-winning author, journalist, and broadcaster. A former science correspondent for NPR and former science editor for PRI's The World, he has traveled to every continent and more than 50 countries for work and pleasure. An avid umbraphile (eclipse chaser) , he has witnessed seven total solar eclipses in such disparate locales as Australia, Indonesia, Chile, and the Faroe Islands. David's popular TED Talk on eclipse chasing has received more than 2 million views. He lives in Boulder, Colorado.