You’ve seen them everywhere.
In newspapers, online and on TV, maps and animations detailing the path of the solar eclipse, with Beatrice near the center.
Ernie Wright is the man behind these depictions.
Wright works with the Scientific Visualization Studio that developed the maps for NASA, a project more complicated than it might sound.
He spent two years putting those maps and illustrations together to inform the public what areas would experience the solar eclipse.
“It takes a very specific skill set,” Wright said. “I started working on this two years ago, so I’ve accumulated a lot of this stuff over time and then suddenly, the media has become very interested in this. All of the stuff of ours it is designed for educational purposes. Anything that engages the public in science, we’re here for.
“I’m among the first members of the public to find out from the scientists what their new results are, which is very cool. Then, I get to participate in the process of informing everybody else. It’s a dream job for me. I can’t imagine doing anything else.”
Wright, based out of the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, is one of several NASA workers who journeyed to Beatrice, an official NASA viewing site for the eclipse.
NASA officials gave presentations on a variety of out-of-this-world topics at the Homestead National Monument and other locations in Beatrice.
Andrea Jones, public engagement lead for NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, was one of the first to communicate with the Homestead regarding the eclipse.
“I think that from NASA, we just had a lot of reasons that we wanted to come here,” Jones said. “One was because we put it out on Facebook and asked the National Park Service who was doing something for the eclipse. Homestead wrote back immediately and they’ve been planning this for years.”
The Homestead’s location in the path of totality made it an obvious contender to be an official viewing site, but Jones said the way homesteading’s history of exploration tied into NASA’s own ideals, albeit on an universal level, was also a factor in the decision.
“We really liked the connections of your themes here in the park, the exploration, the pioneering spirit, the survival, the reliance on the skies and all of that,” she said. “That dovetails nicely with NASA’s exploration of the solar system and beyond. Homesteading was the pioneering of the past and space is the pioneering of the future.
"Throughout all of our NASA folks we have here, we’re trying to make connections between our own work with the eclipse and things that are a little unexpected, like how we use eclipses to learn about exoplanets and other star systems. Then also how we connect to homestead and bring that spirit to our presentations.”
This marked the first trip to Nebraska for both Jones and Wright. While they came to Beatrice to meet and educate the public, Wright had other reasons for wanting to view the eclipse at this particular location.
Chasing down his own heritage.
He met with Beatrice historian Laureen Riedesel, who helped connect him to his heritage, including a description of an old family farm in the area.
“My great-great grandmother is buried in the old Beatrice cemetery on Scott Street,” he said. “It gives me a connection to a piece of American history that I wasn’t aware that I had. A lot of my dad’s side is from Massachusetts, my mom’s side are German immigrants.
"I wasn’t aware that any members of our family had come out to the prairie and settled here in the 19th century. It was great fun to find out that that’s what they had done. That gave me a personal reason to come here.”
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