Meet the North Texas citizen scientists helping NASA study the sun during the total solar eclipse

Leticia Ferrer Has seen 20 total solar eclipses worldwide– inspired as a child by the 1972 hit song by Carly Simon, “You’re So Vain.” In particular, these lyrics stuck out

Then you flew your Learjet up to Nova Scotia to see a total eclipse of the sun.

She credits these lyrics for sparking a passion that would last a lifetime, “I actually wanted to be that guy,” Ferrer said, describing the confidence and freedom of the song's subject. She credits this moment for igniting a curiosity about the world that followed her well into adulthood.

After a lifetime of chasing eclipses across all 7 continents, she has home court advantage for the 2024 total solar eclipse. But rather than watching from her home in Farmer’s Branch, Ferrer will be watching the eclipse from Hillsboro, dubbed now as Eclipseboro.

Ahead of the event, she is helping four teams in North Texas collect data as part of a national research project. The Citizen Continental-America Telescopic Eclipse 2024 experiment, or Citizen CATE 2024 is led by the Southwest Research Institute, and funded by the National Science Foundation and NASA. During the eclipse, teams of volunteers along the path of totality will use telescopes to help gather data. 

Ferrer is one of two co-coordinators for North Texas, leading four teams of citizen scientists– members of the general public who help conduct scientific research. 

Astrophysicist Amir Caspi is the principal investigator of the Citizen CATE project. In an informational video from NASA, he explains the benefits of getting the public involved in scientific research.

“There are a lot of scientific experiments that have questions so big that you can’t do it just with scientists.” Caspi said the breadth of data required for the experiment requires public participation and can also help inspire interest, “Anybody can join CATE 2024. People without a scientific background. People who have never used a telescope. In fact, those are exactly the kinds of people we want on the team because we want to train the next generation of scientists. We want to instill that love of science in people that may otherwise not have an experience like this.”

The project hopes to expand scientific understanding of the sun by observing its corona, the outermost part of the sun’s atmosphere. Usually covered by the bright light of the sun’s surface, but during an eclipse it becomes visible,

The 2024 CATE project is an evolution of an experiment started during the 2017 solar eclipse that covered much of the U.S. The 2024 CATE teams will use telescopes to gather images that scientists will use to measure the magnetic structure of the middle part of the sun’s corona. This will allow scientists to learn more about the magnetic energy within the corona. 

One of the teams in North Texas collecting data is students and teachers from Kemp High School in Kaufman County. They applied for the program in November unaware of the magnitude of the project.

“We thought it was a little high school thing that students were doing,” said teacher Billy House. “Then they started talking about their organization that’s funded by NASA and at that point we were like whoa, this is a big deal.” 

The Kemp team has been practicing with their telescope since February, but on April 8 they will set up on a riverbank to collect their images for the project. “Literally in the middle of nowhere, in a gravel pit is where we’re going to be,” said House. “It’s the closest to the line of totality we can get, at that spot it gives us more time.” 

For both students and teachers, the opportunity to participate feels enormous. 

“I'm the fourth generation to attend Kemp,” said freshman Lillie Moore. “Nothing exciting has ever happened here.” Moore has an interest in pursuing a career as an engineer and hopes this will help open doors for her.

By participating in the project, the Kemp team will get to keep the telescope they used on Eclipse day. They plan on starting an astronomy club and hope to participate in future research. 

House hopes this telescope will open a door to future interest in STEM and learning about the natural world through stargazing “If we’re going to be honest, it would be amazing to have students and their families involved with this where they can come out and, for example, look at the moon one night or look at Jupiter.”

He said, “For us, and the school, and the area, for the STEM community that came out for us, it’s a really big deal because we have nothing but cowboys here and stuff, the big thing here is AG.”

For Moore, the opportunity parallels a life she hopes for in the future. “Just being a part of a research at this level has just really been an eye-opening experience,” she said. “It is a lot of trial and error, and situations where you have to have the patience and go back and review, that’s also going to be present if you pursue a research career.” 

Senior Katy Kiser is honored to get to represent her community. “We all have a long history with Kemp, but going from a girl who used to always look at the stars, to someone who is actually doing NASA research is just amazing.”