PUNCH Outreach Accomplishments and Opportunities for Engagement

The Outreach Program embedded in the PUNCH mission engages the mission team (and other interested heliophysicists) in partnership with four planetariums and science centers plus other multicultural partners to activate an Ancient & Modern Sun Watching theme in the US Southwest and beyond. The "ancient" dimension places a strong emphasis on Chaco Canyon, NM where there is a fascinating petroglyph that may represent the 1097 total solar eclipse during a time of high solar activity (akin to the situation in 2024). Our work at the Chaco site harboring this petroglyph has advanced the knowledge about the site's cultural astronomy and the interpretation of the petroglyph. This presentation will update the community on this and the many other exciting accomplishments of the Outreach team since PUNCH 3. These include release of the Mark 3 version of the wildly popular 3-Hole PUNCH Pinhole Projector, public release of our first batch of the extraordinary PUNCH Team Cards, and new versions of our thermoform tactile art representations of the solar corona for use by both blind and sighted learners. Our presentation also provides a specific set of opportunities for engagement of PUNCH team members and affiliates as we enter the eclipse era of our project and deepen our contributions to the NASA Heliophysics Big Year. Our resources certainly leverage the upcoming eclipses yet our outreach theme ensures that our products will also be valuable in an enduring way beyond the next few years of eclipses and high solar activity.