The countdown has begun. In less than a year, precisely on April 8, 2024, the sky of Torreón will darken for four minutes and 14 seconds, as it is within the strip where the Total Solar Eclipse can be experienced, a phenomenon that occurs every 375 years on average.

The Torreón Planetarium will be the official headquarters from where NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) will broadcast this celestial phenomenon live to the entire planet.

Despite the relevance of the event, at the moment the Planetarium has not received the requested support from the governments of the three levels, nor from the private initiative, a fact that has not stopped the preparations for the enjoyment of those interested.

“We as a museum receive a government contribution as they give us to all museums, but unfortunately we have not had a response from any authority, and requests have been made since September, and we have not received a response.

We are all very surprised because this should be a great opportunity for the city to have a great party, and I think we are going to miss it in a sense, in the sense of how great it might be. We as a museum are not going to let this go, we are going to put all our effort but as far as we can”, said Eduardo Hernández, director of the Planetarium.

To present the details of what has been prepared for this event, Hernández was accompanied by Roby Higdon, executive producer of the NASA Eclipse Transmission Program and Isabel Hawkins, scientist and project manager.

For both Hawkins and Higdon, who have witnessed various phenomena for more than 20 years, the difference between having and not having the support of governments and institutions is total.

“It is a palpable difference, between the situation in which we have support from the authorities, institutions, and from companies when that support does not exist, when we had the first eclipse only 2,000 people arrived, we did not have the capacity to disseminate, to train, It was really something small, that we realized that we had to establish a network of collaborations to be able to amplify the impact of the eclipse?.

Despite this, there is already a project for the enjoyment of thousands of lagoons and tourists who are expected to arrive in this region.

And it is that Coahuila and 11 municipalities are within the strip where you can live this experience that the eclipse will offer. Torreón, San Pedro, Matamoros, Ocampo, Cuatro Ciénegas, Monclova, Múzquiz, Nueva Rosita, Piedras Negras, Ciudad Acuña and a part of Viesca, will experience the phenomenon in its entirety.

It will be on April 8, 2024 at 1:17 p.m. and 14 seconds, when the sky darkens for 4 minutes, the time in which the moon will pass through the middle of the Sun and the Earth.

Although by then the Planetarium will be closed to visitors, safe observation points are planned in the Urban Forest, which will designate spaces for institutions, museums, and specialized people, so that they can place their telescopes, in addition, there will be areas for observe it with filters safely.

The 32 universities that are part of the Cieslag have also joined this project, which will train their teachers and students, in addition to being points to observe the Eclipse.

Proof

According to Hernández, on October 14, 2023, there will be a partial Eclipse, where 80 percent will be lived and for the region it might be a test of what will be experienced next year. “We don’t want the day to come where we say ‘we told you so’, we really want to anticipate.

By October 14 of this year, have a pilot test, with 80 percent darkness, and see what we lacked to be ready to get to these.”

(FERNANDO COMPEAN)