The giant, white weather balloon tugged at its rope, clearly ready to soar, while scientists and students swarmed around making preparations under the hot sun.
Arkansas State University's BalloonSAT team won't be launching its eclipse-watching balloon until Aug. 21, but the team did a practice run Tuesday behind Fulton High School.
"Hopefully, we get a day like today," ASU science education professor J. Tillman Kennon said. "If we do, we'll be in business."
BalloonSAT tested its tracking antennae's aiming system and gave the FHS student council, which will be helping with the launch, some practice in balloon inflation. The balloon wasn't released, just sent up on a rope.
"It's going to be cool for our kids," Superintendent Jacque Cowherd said. "It's a good opportunity to participate. (StuCo) learned a lot of science without even realizing it."
Kennon said the large, flat fields behind the high school should be a great place to launch and track from.
"We started planning this in 2014, and I called (Cowherd) that year," he said. "I could tell by his voice he thought I was crazy."
The team will stream the balloon's footage into FHS classrooms, and Harding University chemistry professor Ed Wilson will set up telescopes and spectrometers (which reveal atmospheric gases) for observers.
The mission
The team is one part of the broader effort by NASA to capture every aspect of this year's total solar eclipse. It's a rare opportunity, he said - the last time a total solar eclipse was visible in the central United States was in 1869. The group won a $50,000 grant from NASA specifically to study the eclipse.
"In my opinion it's a little bit of a publicity stunt on NASA's part," said Ed Roberts, director of ASU's balloon program. "We'd be doing this anyway."
He and professors from Harding University and Central University will measure temperature, atmospheric pressure, and CO2 and methane levels during the eclipse.
"That's our question - does the eclipse affect (greenhouse gas levels) or is it the changes in temperature?" Roberts said.
This launch will be the BalloonSAT team's 50th or 51st. Kennon and Roberts, who only launch a balloon if they can be there and have a lucky payload ring, have published numerous studies based on the team's research.
But this launch is special in several ways.
"Usually the Federal Aviation Administration doesn't give a waiver to fly if it's over 50 percent overcast," Roberts said.
Because balloons will be launching across the nation, the FAA will be making an exception.
Included in the balloon's payload will be video cameras to livestream the eclipse - even if it's cloudy, the balloon will have a clear view. People can watch at streameclipse.live. ASU associate physics professor Ross Carroll, who will track the balloon from the ground, also rigged six GoPro's to capture a 360-degree video.
"It'd be awesome even without the eclipse, but I think it will be particularly impactful with it," Carroll said.
Finally, the team will be on a strict time table. With only two minutes and 38 seconds of totality in Fulton, the balloon must be launched on time. That's why they're practicing.
"The closer we get, the more nervous I get," Kennon admitted.
For more information about watching the eclipse in Callaway,visit visitfulton.com/event/light-shadow-2017-total-solar-eclipse-events.