Ryan French
ON THE RECORD · 14 verbatim quotes · every quote source-verified
“While the conversation will remain off the record, I really appreciate him calling. A lot of players wouldn't have done that.”
Ryan French · said 2026-08-18 · reported 2026-08-20
French wrote this after receiving a call from DeChambeau following the reporter-removal incident.
“Bryson gave me a call this afternoon, we spoke for about 20 mins,”
Ryan French · said 2026-08-18 · reported 2026-08-20
French wrote this after receiving a call from DeChambeau following the reporter-removal incident.
“And even if you saw an eclipse a month before or a month after, it could be very different.”
Ryan French · said date not stated · reported 2026-08-09
French noted that the corona could look very different even a month before or after the eclipse.
“We're no longer in solar maximum — we're a third of the way past the peak in terms of amplitude and years passed,”
Ryan French · said date not stated · reported 2026-08-09
French noted the sun's position past solar maximum ahead of the 2026 eclipse.
“Prominences are large magnetic structures that suspend plasma in the atmosphere of the sun, and they glow very bright in a very specific wavelength of light called hydrogen alpha,”
Ryan French · said date not stated · reported 2026-08-09
French described prominences as large magnetic structures that glow in hydrogen-alpha light.
“That's because every one of these sunspot regions creates a spire or spike that you can see with the eye.”
Ryan French · said date not stated · reported 2026-08-09
French explained that sunspot regions create visible spires or spikes in the corona during solar maximum.
“It's sunspots specifically near the edge of the sun that dictate what the corona will look like,”
Ryan French · said date not stated · reported 2026-08-09
French explained that sunspots near the sun's edge determine the corona's appearance during an eclipse.
“The sun follows a natural 11-year cycle of increasing and decreasing activity,”
Ryan French · said date not stated · reported 2026-08-09
French explained the sun's 11-year activity cycle and its effect on the corona's appearance during eclipses.
“What exactly we see during the August eclipse will depend on what the activity is that week,”
Ryan French · said date not stated · reported 2026-08-09
French stated that the exact appearance of the corona during the August eclipse depends on solar activity that week.
“At the peak of this cycle, called solar maximum, there are loads of sunspots on the sun, which are giant magnets nestled in the base of the sun's atmosphere. These sunspots produce a lot of solar flares and coronal mass ejections, which are kind of bursts and eruptions of energy from the sun's atmosphere, and at solar minimum, the sun has none of these things.”
Ryan French · said date not stated · reported 2026-08-09
French described how sunspots at solar maximum produce solar flares and coronal mass ejections.
“CMEs travel very slowly, so they take several hours to traverse and escape from the sun's atmosphere, so you wouldn't see any motion during an eclipse,”
Ryan French · said date not stated · reported 2026-08-09
French explained why CMEs would not show visible motion during an eclipse's brief totality.
“If you were to see a total eclipse during solar maximum, the solar corona looks almost like a five-pointed cartoon star,”
Ryan French · said date not stated · reported 2026-08-09
French described the visual appearance of the corona during a total eclipse at solar maximum.
“The corona will still be far more active than during the 2017, 2019 and 2020 total solar eclipses, but much less so than 2024's.”
Ryan French · said date not stated · reported 2026-08-09
French compared the expected corona activity for the 2026 eclipse to those of 2017 through 2024.
“But what you could see, if you're lucky, is a snapshot of an eruption — though maybe a long exposure camera will be more likely to see this than your eye would.”
Ryan French · said date not stated · reported 2026-08-09
French described the possibility of seeing a snapshot of an eruption during totality, noting a long-exposure camera might capture it better than the eye.