On the evening of July 31, 2008, and continuing into the wee hours of August 1, 2008, the Exploratorium presents the total solar eclipse, all the way from northwestern China, near the Mongolian border. The schedule is as follows:

9pm
Doors open. Bring your own sleeping bags, pillows, blankets, folding chairs, and snacks. No glass, please. Our café will offer dim sum, organic food, and beverage service from 9pm-midnight.
9pm-2am
Films and Installations
Immerse yourself in the sights and sounds on Xinjiang, China, inside a real Mongolian yurt. Field recordings, as well as regional music, will play inside the yurt, while the walls will feature recent field photos of Urumqui, Heaven Lake, and the Xinjiang landscape. And, at the Light Runners installation, viewers walk along the Sun’s surface. Their body movements activate sounds rendered as highly differentiated music.

Scientists at the Exploratorium and in China provide ongoing commentary leading up to the eclipse (see especially — 3:30am).

9pm-Midnight
Live Music and Performances
At 9:30 and 10:30pm, China’s Spirit Music Ensemble will perform songs on the guzheng, a string instrument from the zither family that has been played in China since 300 B.C. At 10:15, Maidens in the Vineyard, a Uyghur dance, will be performed by students from the Chinese American International School Dance Troupe. At 10 and 11pm, listen to astronomy folk tales from China with local luminary Charlie Chin, drawing from the “Tea House” style of traditional Chinese storytelling. At 11pm, view solo Mongolian dance performances, followed by traditional instrumental music and Tuvan throat singing by Mongolian musicians. From 9-11pm, stargaze with the S.F. Amateur Astronomers and the S.F. Sidewalk Astronomers. From 9pm-Midnight, roving astronomers in white lab coats will be on the floor to answer questions about eclipses and the skies.

9pm-1am
Hands-On Activities
In Asia, it is traditional to make a lot of noise during an eclipse to “chase away the dragon” that is swallowing the Sun. We’ll make percussion instruments found along the Silk Road. And, create your own painted tiles inspired by textiles and patterns of Uyghur, Kazakh, Uzbek, Mongolian and Chinese origin. Roll up your sleeves and help the S.F. Amateur Astronomers Society build a telescope. Try your hand at Chinese, Uyghur and Mongolian calligraphy — learn how to write basic astronomy characters, such as sun, moon, earth, and star. Learn about eclipses with astronomers from NASA’s Sun-Earth Education Connection Forum. And, make your own spectrascopes.

10pm (repeats at midnight)
Eclipse-themed film: Hooked on the Shadow

3am
Dragon Dancers ring in the eclipse and wake us up for the broadcast.

3:30am
Live broadcast of the eclipse begins.
(4:05am totality)
Four cutting-edge telescopes from the Exploratorium – in China — point skywards to capture the eclipse from beginning to end — in white light, hydrogen alpha (for amazing details), and Calcium-K (to see surface structure). In addition to live feeds of the eclipse, Exploratorium scientists Dr. Rob Semper and Dr. Paul Doherty will provide commentary on prominences, sunspots, and the corona as they occur. NASA Hemisphere physicist Dr. Erik Christian will show some of the latest imagery of the sun from NASA’s SOHO and STEREO missions, and explain how the solar wind can impact us here on Earth. We’ll also be joined by Dr. Na Wang, Director of the Urumqi National Observatory. From coronal mass ejections to snapshots of the Silk Road to the newest U.S. and Chinese moon missions, we’ll cover it all while watching one of the world’s most awe-inspiring celestial events. As the date nears, please check back at www.exploratorium.edu/eclipse/2008 for more details.

4:30am
Live broadcast ends.

5am
Welcome the day with instructor-led tai chi.

For those who cannot attend in person, point your browser to www.exploratorium.edu/eclipse/2008 to witness the eclipse and ask e-mail questions of our scientists at the Exploratorium and in the field. In short, if you are not doing anything else in the middle of the night on July 31-August 1, and are willing to skip a trip to dreamland in the name of science, you might just want to go the Exploratorium for this once-in-a-lifetime all-nighter.

The admission rates for the Exploratorim’s overnight solar eclipse event are $16.00 for adults; $11.00 for children aged 4-12; and $13.00 for seniors, students, persons with disabilities, and youths aged 13-17.

Admissions: open 9pm-4am
Store: open 9pm-midnight
Cafe: open 9pm-midnight