Solar eclipse in Helena

By Ellen Bacca

Places like Arizona and New Mexico are some of the few places that will see the full eclipse on Sunday.  Ashley Oliverio, the Secretary/Treasurer of the Helena Astronomical Society, says here in Helena the moon will cover about 70% of the sun.

"We're in what's known as the partial zone we're in kind of the side shadow which we'll see a bite taken out of the sun, which is still an incredibly impressive site. And so the sun will look like a smile toward the end of the day," says Oliverio.

The Carroll College Newman Astronomical Society and the Helena Astronomical Society are hosting an event at the P. E. Center Sunday from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in the evening.  They will have solar scopes, solar specks, and pin hole projections available with professionals ready to help everyone enjoy the event safely.

If you are unable to attend the event at Carroll here are some safe and unsafe ways to view the event.

Safe:

Solar Scope
Solar Specks that are less than 5 years old
Pin hole projector (http://www.exploratorium.edu/eclipse/how.html)
#14 darkness arc welders glass (no lighter than #14)
Watching the shadow of leaves or pine tree needles on the

Titanic decendent sends flowers

By Ellen Bacca

The flowers pictured here were gifted to the cast were from the Widener family who live in Sheridan, Wyoming. The Wideners are direct decedents of Eleanor Widener, a passenger on the Titanic. Although Eleanor made it safely to the life boats, her husband and son, George Widener and Harry Widener drowned on the great ship. Cast member Kelly Keeler played George Widener in Grand Street's production of the Titanic. He was able to meet with the gift givers, Pete and Lucy Widener, before the final weekend of the show. The note on the card reads "sorry we missed the boat!"

Another decedent, George Widener III, is a Montana Native and currently lives in Whitefish.

Fire and Ice

By Ellen Bacca

Snowpack

You may be surprised to know that this year, we were about average when it came to snowpack. In fact, overall we were at 101% of average on April 1st.
So how are we doing now?
A week of 70° and 80° highs April 20-26th took a big hit on the snow.
Take a look at this graph. The red line represents this year. Notice how it dives sharply down in our last week of April. The black line on the graph represents an “average” year. That week of consistently warm weather was enough to drop our snowpack below average. 

Thankfully, our warm trend was followed by a week of cool and below average days. This really helped to level off that sharp drop.
Take a look at the graphic again. Notice how the red line levels off. All the little colored lines that spit off from the end of the red line are forecasts. Most of these forecasts for our snowpack show that we will hopefully continue to have an average year!

Fire Season

As of April, fire weather forecasters  say they are anticipating a “normal” fire season. This means they expect 200,000 acres in the state to