Flagstaff Festival of Science Evening Lecture: John Wesley Powell’s River Trip and the Eclipse of 1869

7:00pm

Presented by Richard Quartaroli, Archivist

The total solar eclipse of August 7, 1869, was only partial for the first river expedition of John Wesley Powell and his crew. Powell had hoped to observe it at a tributary to the Colorado River. Instead, he was in the Grand Canyon between the Paria and Little Colorado Rivers, and the monsoon clouds shrouded the observation. Find out why the observation of the eclipse and other astronomical sightings were important to Powell and his mapping of the river’s course.