1:46:27 You're live at Zilker Park. You've been talking to some people, you're gonna be covering this live We are going to get some shots of the eclipse Beautiful Zilker Park by the way It looks like it's a nice day out there despite no sun Maybe the cloud cover will be good thing though so we can stare directly at it Although I'm not encouraging that somebody will sue me So I am not encouraging staring directly at it But Chase what are sights and sounds out there in Austin beautiful Zilker park Well, Owen thanks for having me on the show. I appreciate it There are a lot of people here at the park despite the fact that the forecast was for cloudy Now we've seen this eclipse in and out depending on as the clouds pass over right now We hear some cheers It looks like some of the clouds may have moved away
1:47:10 And it's my first real eclipse, so it really has been a fairly amazing experience. We've talked to people that have come here all the way from Seattle and all the way from Florida and there are a lot of enthusiasts here with all sorts of binoculars that can look at the sun and telescopes that can look at the sun. It is exciting day despite some overcast going on. It does seem like intermittently we're able to see quite awesome phenomena. Wow, oh you got people from all corners of the United States in there Absolutely. Well, the sliver that is going to get this total coverage in this continent is right here in Austin and of course it goes all the way up through the northeast and so people that live way outside the sliver have just decided their favorite place to go in order to see it And a lot of people picked Austin Texas because it's a fun place to go for other reasons as well We've met a lot of people who aren't local here and a lot of people from surrounding areas in Texas as well What about security? We heard a lot of talk about security states for this
1:48:09 One of the main parks in downtown Austin, it truly is a great park. This is where they do ACL fireworks all kinds of events What's the security like there? You know, we haven't noticed anything like that. This seems more like a 4th of July type event where people are just hanging out publicly in the park there are some different areas outside the park that seem to be private that might even be ticket entry only I'm not sure what security is like there but We haven't encountered a substantial amount of security since we've been here everybody's just hanging out and i think part of the reason that things are a little bit lower tension is just because Of the overcast weather I don't think it's as packed As was initially anticipated by local authorities here in Austin
1:48:45 I'm just curious. Have you seen anybody hanging out in the trees playing bongos? There's a little bit of that going on actually, as a matter of fact, young high school kids. Yeah there's a lot about the Bongo players. Yep it's it's like, it's a little bit like a hippie fest I would say okay that's what I'm talking about uh you know I don't mind a couple Bongo tree players you know I've seen a few in my day um now when you talk to people about coming down to visit Is this something they do quite often? Do they follow eclipses regularly or is this a one-time thing for them or what?" That's a great question. So the people that we've spoken with here, it ranges some people it's their first eclipse Some people have seen several One gentleman even said that he was excited for the next one I think in 17 years was when the next ones gonna happen. Oh 17! It's a QOP Something like that Yeah yeah it's exactly right
1:49:38 Oh, and you're crazy. So yes we've seen people that are enthusiasts that do this sort of thing all the time and we see people at this is their first time but everybody seems to be using it as an excuse to have a fun social event with friends and family. So what's the site there right now? It looks like some people are staring up into the sky some people are just chatting some people are looking down on their phones can you see anything is there too much cloud cover I've got a roof I've got a ceiling above my head I can't see anything Chase Yeah, right now the cloud is clouds are covering the Sun the eclipse as it's happening But they have been moving and we've had moments of 30 or 45 Or 60 seconds at a time where we've been able to see it And it was really cool because I did have the opportunity to see the moon begin to Take a sliver out of the Sun and it was like something from 2001 in Space Odyssey or Pink Floyd It was actually Owen much more impressive and
1:50:28 and awe-inspiring than I thought it was going to be. I'm a little bit like you in that, I didn't really understand what all the excitement was about this phenomenon. Oh don't you put that on me! But having looked at it is remarkable. Don't you? No... When you look at the sun when you look at the sun it seems like a two dimensional circle on the sky but when you see the moon go in front of it like that it really gives you a sense of depth and just the enormity of these objects Well ya know its funny actually to expand on that I started getting into um Just out of nowhere, my dad got me a telescope when I was like 22 or 23 years old. He just said hey you want this? And for about a year or two I really got into it and it actually is really cool like when there's a planet in your sight line at night
1:51:13 And it's like the brightest thing in the sky is the planet. Then you actually look at it through the lens of a telescope and its like a tiny little sliver, barely even visible to planet It still mostly being blocked but even that tiny little sliver of the planet Is still the brightest thing on the sky I mean you can look at the surface of moon and see dust particulate on the surface So it actually pretty cool Do you see any telescopes out there? Are people able to look through this with the telescope Absolutely, several people are observing the sky with their telescopes. Like I said the amount of enthusiasm ranges there are some people that you can tell her obviously astronomy enthusiasts and others that are just here to have this experience as they were locals but yes you could definitely tell who's who the serious players our hero
1:52:00 Well, I'm assuming too. It looks like you've got one of those electric scooters You probably rode in on that one didn't you? That was yours you rode in Yeah we were anticipating a lot of traffic so we figured we'd get on the electric scooters and just roll all rolling over here from the headquarters Those things are everywhere in Austin it's crazy. I'm sure it's like that and many of the metropolitan areas Did you have anybody there because we were talking about maybe talking to people live did you have anybody there they wanted to chat with you live here on the air We didn't get anybody that wanted to chat live because of course everybody wants to keep their head in the sky looking at the eclipses, but we did have several conversations before it began with many of the locals here. And like I said just a lot of general excitement and a lot of astrology enthusiasts believe it or not. We went up to a group of girls with
1:52:44 with one young man with them and they all knew their signs. And they didn't just know their signs, they knew descriptions of their astrological signs that I didn't even understand so they weren't just Scorpios, they were Scorpio in retrograde with three or four other... Jupiter ascending yeah! Yeah, Jupiter ascending, Mercury rising that kind of stuff and it's really fun to see some people are here and they're really into that new age space But others are just here to see a cool thing happen in the sky on. a Leo or something? Gemini. I'm a Scorpio so i can't be trusted apparently. My wife says we're both water signs and that's supposedly a problem but it does make one think, having looked at this event, it makes one think about what Elon Musk is doing and SpaceX and how it seems like as a culture in America we've forgotten the ambition to explore and discover space