Ken Miller, Chairman
Bishop Museum Planetarium
1525 Bernice Street
Honolulu, Hawaii 96817
The total solar eclipse of July 11, 1991 taught Hawaii's Bishop Museum
Planetarium staff a number of lessons. The knowledge we gained during the
two years leading up to the eclipse may benefit others who will someday
"host" a total eclipse or all who would take advantage of partial
eclipses as moments to reach the public with the messages of astronomy.
Of the three main lessons learned, the most heartening was that the general
public, while just as ignorant as we thought they were, are also very eager
to learn. We utilized a wide variety of teaching methods to help Hawaii
witness the solar eclipse safely. Our public education efforts started exactly
a year and a day before the eclipse with a media workshop held at the museum.
We invited members of the working print and electronic media this early
to give them advance information about the event, its public safety aspects,
the technology necessary to cover it, and the anticipated scale of the international
event which was about to hit the state. They were then better able to pace
what was later called "The Story of the Decade."
Through continuing media releases, free aluminized Mylar camera filter material,
free consultation on higher quality filters, and work with the TV and other
technicians, the planetarium was soon declared "Eclipse Central"
and I acquired the title of "Mr. Eclipse." Our intentional accessibility
to the local and international news media resulted in a press clipping book
which is 5 inches thick, and over 7 hours of TV and radio time.
Direct contact with the public was through a 6,000 square foot, highly interactive
eclipse exhibit which was visited by 132,000 people. Our 30-foot, 77-seat
planetarium hosted over 57,000 audience members in just four months. Our
public, automated program "Moonshadows: Eclipses Through Time"
was joined by a participatory school program, "Eclipse!" which
emphasized moon phases. This program was also converted for use in our five
StarLab portable planetariums which toured throughout the state to educate
an additional audience of 71,000 students and members of the general public.
Funding for this major education effort was made possible by four corporate
sponsors. American Express Travel Services, Aston Hotels and Resorts, Budget
Rent a Car, and Hawaiian Airlines saw our program, called Eclipse Hawaii,
as a way to help local residents and their customers from the mainland view
the eclipse safely while building positive images for themselves with the
local community. Co-promotions with these travel industry giants helped
bring additional audiences into the museum and generated more business for
them as well.
The second major lesson we learned is that an aggressive campaign of eye
safety education can be successful. There are, however, many in any community
who, through confusion of good information or downright bad advice, would
give conflicting messages to the public. Perhaps the worst offenders are,
in fact, members of our own profession! In the months before the eclipse,
national publications and mainland media releases issued their tired old
releases advising that no direct viewing technique is safe, and that the
best viewing technique is to watch TV or to use the "pin-hole projector"
method.
As any of us can testify, the old cardboard-box-over-the-head technique
gives a most unsatisfactory image. Furthermore, in our tests with school
aged children and with adults, many could not use the technique properly.
Using the standard written instructions, complete with the diagram of Abraham
Lincoln's head in the box, too many observers actually tried to misuse the
box by turning it around to view the sun directly through the pin-hole!
Others said, "Is that all I'm supposed to see? Why bother?" Simply
stated, the pin-hole technique works poorly when used as directed and is
downright dangerous when used incorrectly. Likewise, as one reporter put
it, "Watching a total solar eclipse on TV is sort of like reading about
sex. It's not quite the same as being there."
We declared all of this old-school eclipse wisdom to be nonsense, and gave
the public the same advise we all have given our own families for years.
That is, "Use a safe, aluminized Mylar direct viewing filter."
Unfortunately, there are those who say that these filters have not been
proven safe, simply because the U.S. government has not declared a safe
transmission level for solar filters. The Department of Health, OSHA, and
other federal agencies have neglected to serve the field of astronomy. Since
standards have not been set, professional astronomers must gamble with their
eyesight just as much as the general public. Optometrists, to maintain low
malpractice insurance rates, must declare that the filters "are not
safe."
Luckily, responsible filter vendors work from other nation's standards,
such as the strict ones in effect in Mexico, and sell these same filters
to America. I would hope that members of the IPS might urge their respective
governments to adopt solar filter standards so that planetarium staff members
around the world will be able to say something more than "Well, they
haven't been proven safe, but they haven't been proven unsafe either."
At Bishop Museum, we decided that the only truly responsible action was
to sell filters to the public we served. Our insurance company investigated
matters and backed us all the way. We chose filters from a major supplier,
re-packaged them in informational envelopes carrying additional safety warnings,
and sold them not only in our gift shops, but also sold them wholesale to
outlets on all islands. More than 312,000 of these Bishop Museum Sun Peeps
were sold. On eclipse day, nearly every family in Hawaii used a Sun Peep
to safely view the partial phases of the eclipse.
Those who did not use Sun Peeps used our recommended indirect viewing technique,
which we called the "Spot Mirror Technique." This method uses
a plain hand mirror, covered with paper. A dime-sized hole (1 cm in diameter)
is cut in the paper, and sunlight is bounced off this "spot mirror"
a distance of 40-60 feet, into a shady area. There, a solar image the size
of a soccer ball is projected onto a sheet of white paper. In our tests
on normal sunny days, no one misused this technique, and all saw a satisfying
image of the sun. Occasionally, a very large sunspot can even be discerned
with this technique.
All in all, our campaign of eye safety on eclipse day worked. The media
and Hawaii State Department of Health and Department of Education helped
us get the word out. The local chapter of the American Optometric Society
even agreed to stop short of the usual condemnation of direct viewing filters.
In the months following the eclipse, two cases of eye damage were reported
in the state of Hawaii. One case was a person who was with a group using
Sun Peeps, who even had a Sun Peep in his pocket, but decided not to use
it since it was partially cloudy. He suffered only temporary damage. The
other case was a woman who knew it was dangerous, but decided to look through
binoculars anyway, "but only for a few minutes." She suffered
a small permanent burn in one eye. While these cases are, of course regrettable,
they were the only ones reported by the hundreds of thousands of Hawaii
observers.
Finally, with the important business of education and eye safety taken care
of, we learned a lesson about merchandising. Our big ticket items were tours
organized by the museum and its travel industry sponsors. Six hundred week-long
hotel/car/eclipse packages quickly sold out, as did 1,100 day-trip jet/bus/breakfast
packages from Honolulu to the Big Island on eclipse day. Even though clouds
obscured the sun during totality, the crowd had a great time and over a
hundred vowed to sign up with us for Bolivia in 1994!
Bishop Museum's Eclipse Hawaii logo appeared on dozens of products which
were sold throughout the state. Over 22,000 T-shirts still are seen on Honolulu
streets, our Sun Peeps became so popular that they became sought-after sales
premiums at gas stations and convenience stores. The name Sun Peep soon
became all too generic when others referred to competing brands. Thousands
of Bishop Museum posters, postcards, baseball caps, sweatshirts, fanny packs,
patches, beach towels, golf shirts, cloisonné pins, and commemorative
silver and gold coins rounded out the product line. A thirty two page Eclipse
Hawaii booklet sold 21,000 copies and went into a second printing.
Yes, Bishop Museum learned several lessons from the great Hawaiian Eclipse
of 1991. We learned to utilize the media and other methods to effectively
educate the public. We learned that the public is eager to learn viewing
techniques which allow them to safely witness Mother Nature's greatest special
effect. And finally, we learned to merchandise the museum and planetarium
to "make hay while the sun doesn't shine." We hope that you will
be able to use some of the lessons we learned to better handle your next
eclipse, and are more than willing to share our experiences with any who
ask. After all, we here in Hawaii won't have another chance to use this
total eclipse information until May 3, 2106!
This paper was first delivered at the IPS Conference in Salt Lake City,
June 1992.
Reproduced from the Planetarian, Vol. 21, #3, September 1992. Copyright
1992 International Planetarium Society. For permission to reproduce please
contact Executive Editor, Sharon Shanks.
