This is neat. The Total Solar Eclipse In 30 Seconds Seen From From a Plane Over The Faroe Islands, a perspective few will see. Video follows
Here is another view
This is neat. The Total Solar Eclipse In 30 Seconds Seen From From a Plane Over The Faroe Islands, a perspective few will see. Video follows
Here is another view
Awesome. Almost makes me less afraid of flying !!!
Crescent sun. Nice!
I saw a total eclipse once in perfect viewing conditions. You can see the mountains of the moon as tiny ripples, outlined by the solar corona. The corona itself is impossibly detailed – no video can capture its beauty, with anything like the fidelity of the human eye.
Then that glorious sparkle of light, as the sun finally peeks out from behind the moon, and you have to look away.
Let’s say I can completely understand eclipse tourism, people who spend crazy money to personally view eclipses in remote parts of the world, whenever and wherever they occur.
I went to the Woomera eclipse in 2002. Took me days. Best thing I ever did.
Then I went to the Cairns one in 2013. Second best thing I ever did.
VIDEO/Graph: 21 March: Bloomberg: Dashiell Bennett: Look What Today’s Eclipse Did to German Solar Power Output
This chart shows what happens to solar when the moon blocks out the sun.
Things turned out fine, with only a brief surge in the cost of electricity.
Other energy sources were able to compensate without significant
complications…
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-20/look-what-today-s-eclipse-did-to-german-solar-power-output
See also http://notrickszone.com/2015/03/20/german-wind-power-goes-completely-awol-for-the-11th-time-this-year-fossils-nuclear-again-to-the-rescue/
Nice!
Back in 1976 when a full solar eclipse passed through southern Victoria in mid arvo in SE Australia three of us climbed into my mate’s Auster light aircraft and flew the 100 or so kilometres south right to the middle of the eclipse path at it’s most intense.
To say the effect of the eclipse from the 3 or 4000 feet we were flying at was weird and just a little frightening was probably being a bit coy about the real feelings.
The black darkness, a totally black shadow was the effect of the mid eclipse path shading out towards full daylight light visible on the edges of the far horizons to the north and the south was a quite extraordinary feeling as that sort of effect between daylight and darkness just wasn’t supposed to happen in human experience.
It was all over in about half an hour as the darkness started to slowly and then more rapidly dissolving into a brown shadowy world that rapidly got brighter and brighter.
One of those flights in my 55 years of flying that you don’t easily forget.
The path of the 1976 eclipse; http://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/solar/1976-october-23
Solar and Lunar Eclipses Worldwide – Next 10 years
All Solar and Lunar Eclipses from 1900 to 2099. When is the next eclipse in your city?
http://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/list.html
ROM.
If you were supersonic, you’d have been able to stay within the shadow the entire time it was present, right?
If we were supersonic??.
The only way a 130 hp Gipsy Major powered rag and tube, english built, 70 knot cruise, pre WW2Â designed Auster aircraft could go supersonic would be vertically down from 30,000 feet sans wings or anything else sticking out into the breeze.
And then it would be doubtful if it could even make let alone exceed Mach one.
A shower of fabric and the odd bit of tubing plus a lonely supersonic Gipsy Major engine on it’s way down that could and would excavate a very large hole indeed would be all that was likely to be observed from the ground.
My fading memory suggests that quite number of years ago, maybe a long time ago before satellites did the job there was a special project that did involve a fast commercial, non supersonic, jet transport taking a number of scientific observers plus a heap of cameras and instruments along on the eclipse shadow’s path until outpaced by the eclipse shadow’s speed to try and get as long a look at the solar eclipse phenomena as was then possible.
They got a few extra minutes of extra observing time for their trouble which was a big deal at the time.
Earth’s rotation speed n the ground at the equator is right at 1000 m/hr (1675 km/h) – which can be exceeded by only a few multi-passenger military jets – and there are not many that can do it for long periods of time (want to restart the Concorde or Tu-144 with holes in their ceiling?) Carrying a scientific package and all of its aiming devices and telescope mirrors/cameras/mounts and power supplies would be tricky. Expensive.
It helps that not all eclipses have a east-west shadow on the equator – which helps speed-over-ground, but not much. Want to add a tanker or two (plus crew and fuel) to your budget?
Here are the rotational speeds at different latitudes.
At 80° – 289.9 km/hr (180.1 mph).
At 70° – 571.1 km/hr (354.8 mph).
At 60° – 834.9 km/hr (518.7 mph).
At 50° – 1073.3 km/hr (666.9 mph).
At 40° – 1279.1 km/hr (794.8 mph).
At 30° – 1446.1 km/hr (898.5 mph).
At 20° – 1569.1 km/hr (974.9 mph).
At 10° – 1644.4 km/hr (1021.7 mph).
At 0° – 1675 km/hr (1040 mph). (The Equator)
.
I envy the Svalbard view point.
Mac
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/32000657
“Friday’s solar eclipse is thought to have produced several days of high tides. ”
Eclipses cause high tides apparently.
The two main influences on the Earth’s tides are the gravity fields of the sun and the moon. Stands to reason that when they are exactly aligned with the Earth in a straight line you get some good tides.
I think mwhite’s comment is about correlation vs. causation.
Both solar and lunar eclipses mean high – and low – tides.
Wait, I thought CO2 caused the tides.
I saw a full eclipse from Dyrholaey, South Iceland, in the year 1954 as a boy. On Friday it was “only” a 98 % eclipse in Reykjavik.
Video from Reykjavik two days ago:
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152987055442745&pnref=story
we had an 85% eclipse in the South West of England a couple of days ago.
It was misty but every now and again the sun would appear, but as it was veiled it was possible to look at it briefly and continue to do this for an hour or so. Great views and highly atmospheric. The temperature dropped some 3 Degrees C, with visibility similar to a gloomy winters day.
Very high tides at present
tonyb
Here is photo I took from Newcastle upon Tyne, England 55 deg N 2 deg W) at 9:30am on Friday:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10204001662189487&set=a.3517704028908.48775651.1461235340&type=1
The air temperature dropped enormously, it was also like evening when the sun sets, but without the redness and long shadows, very similar to the August1999 eclipse, which i also saw from here.
Sorry cannot copy photo direct to post and FBnot working. Any ideas anyone?
Check the privacy settings, maybe “Friends” only, needs to be “Everybody”.
Thanks Adam!
?oh=f66d42683486e4095731e1c611dc5782&oe=557846CD&__gda__=1437220059_f01e6c17174b64a1289832ac04c34ee1
Here’s an aircraft video from Svalbard: http://www.nrk.no/troms/sja-solformorkinga-fra-lufta-1.12272508 (the totality starts just after 04:30).
Had it been overcast, those in the aircraft would have been the winners. But given the weather that we had in Svalbard, I consider myself much luckier to have observed it from ground.
The conditions were absolutely perfect. Crystal clear, -22C and calm (though the wind picked up a bit during totality). The Moon disc was the blackest thing I’ve ever seen. This is my second total eclipse. The last one was in Austria in ’99, but clouds made the corona hard to see then.
I made this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15iufFqah9E
I also hoped to make a 4K video using a GoPro camera, but the camera refused to work in the low temperatures.
Here’s what we saw in Stavanger (maximum coverage was about 91%):
Eclipses – excuse #1002 for the pause. I had to laugh during the BBC news item about the eclipse when their science correspondent Pallab Ghosh, claimed that the eclipse had caused shadows to lengthen.
There is a total solar eclipse in the USA on Aug 21, 2017 at 5pm UT (noon) in Trigg County KY.
The Bullseye is on RT 624 (Cerulean Hopkinsville Rd) between Quarry Rd and J Stewart Cemetery Rd.
Lat.: 36.9664° N
Long.: 87.6709° W
See you there if it is a clear day and I am still alive.
Very neat effect from an aircraft. On a few occasions I have seen the full circle rainbow, actually double concentric rainbows from a helicopter in a rain shower with sun behind and above and the centre of the circle was the helicopter’s shadow on the ground. When you think of your earth-bound experience of a ‘bow’ you are taken by delightful surprise by the rain ‘circle’ seen only from up above the ground.
When I surf when the wind is blowing from land to sea, spray forms behind the waves — spindrift. So when a wave passes I am enveloped in spindrift, and if the sun is out I often have a 3/4 rain circle in view. (My body blocks the lower quarter.)
In addition, waves from a distance at the right viewing angle produce a lovely effect:
Heck, I almost forgot, this is the internet. Sure enough abundant pictures of rain ‘circles’ are available
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140930.html
Few people realize their shadow’s head (or ‘eyeballs’) marks the center of a rainbow or rain circle.
I have long wondered if the Christian notion of a halo came from this fact.
I always knew that the sun had to be behind me. I did not think that the center of my eyeball’s shadow was the center of the perceived bow, I would have, and still think, that the center of the bow is the center of the lenses of my eye. But you have me thinking. The shadow of my head will be in front of me. I have to check this out. Seems odd to me at first glance.
re “Halo” The Halo, or “Nimbus” was used in Roman depictions of Helios (long pre-christian use), and later avoided by Christian artists because of it roots in paganism. Around 300-400 AD a simple ring was used with depictions of Christ, then the substitution of Mary for Venus circa 500-600AD showed it as well.
A line from your head to your shadow’s head is perpendicular to the center of the rainbow’s circle.
Think of a rain circle seen from an aircraft. The craft’s shadow is at the center of the circle, right? If you popped your head out the window, where would its shadow be?
Kids really love the revelation.
OK I had better things to do on a Sunday evening than do 17th century Cartesian ray tracing. Ok I am convinced. I’m with the kids. What I didn’t realize is that the bow is tilted, top away (except in an aircraft). Nobody sees the bow and the observer from the side so, you have to draw it to prove it.
To be more complete, I should have said:
A line from the sun, to your head, to your shadow’s head is perpendicular to the center of the rainbow’s circle.
What’s nifty about this insight is that if the sun is ever out while there are rain clouds ‘opposite’, all you have to do is look at your shadow, and then look for a rainbow centered around your shadow’s head.
Paul wrote >> “Nobody sees the bow and the observer from the side …”
Indeed. There is no such thing as seeing a rainbow and observer from the side. There is no ‘one’ rainbow. Each observer sees his own rainbow. In fact, each eye sees its own rainbow.
It is a true case of ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”
And the rainbow moves with you as you do, especially noticeable from a helecopter. I’ve also seen many times the bright light of the same phenomenon in a field of grain in the morning with the dew. I guess its like rain drops being held in place.
Max, re the halo, have you seen the effect in the mountains known as the spectre of the Brocken?
https://ca.search.yahoo.com/search?fr=mcafee&type=B111CA662D20141029&p=photo+of+the+spectre+of+the+brocken
Gary, thanks for bringing up the Brocken spectre — a perfect fit here. Yes I have experienced it while hiking on foggy days, and it brings home the ‘saintly halo’ concept beautifully. I had forgotten this version of the rainbow.
Just a reminder: with kids (heck, even without them) it’s fun to play on a sunny day with a hose that produces a wide but very fine spray.
Here is a different perspective.
http://www.liveleak.com/ll_embed?f=b26451c39914
Wow.
Paul Westhaver
http://www.liveleak.com/ll_embed?f=b26451c39914
Thank you sir. Paul, I want to use your video find for a slightly different purpose though.
The sun (and moon) are 1/2 arc-degree – and, as the eclipse proves, the two are the same diameter as seen from the earth.
On day-of-year 79 (20 March 2015), at latitude 77 north, the sun is 10.9 degrees above the horizon (solar elevation angle = 11, rounding slightly for their time zone and the sun’s motion).
Now, look again at the reflection of the sun from the real-world land snow and ice, sea ice and open water. (Little wind (1-2 m/sec judging by cloud movement) and clear skies.) At 10-11 degree solar elevation angle, look at how much solar energy is reflected from both surfaces. At these solar elevation angles, there is little difference in absorbed energy intot he arctic.
Quite a good view here in Lincolnshire. Virtually a cloudless sky.
Saw the 1999 eclipse, cloudy in Cornwall, luckily I’d planned the holiday in Bulgaria, where the day dawned clear & warm!
Fantastic view.
Check out this image if two massive new sun spots. So cool to look at. I want to find close ups!
http://metro.co.uk/2015/03/18/nasa-spots-two-huge-dark-holes-on-the-surface-of-the-sun-5109075/
Alexandra there are two sites that you can find information on sunspots and holes.
NASA @ http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/
and
STAR (Solen) http://www.solen.info/solar/
I like this eclipse photo from Leeds, UK by tallbloke.
From the ground in Svalbard:
Only half-jokingly, I could make the argument that having a moon of sufficient size at just the right distance from the Earth to give us such a profoundly moving astronomical event is better evidence of a God who wants to remind us every now and then of Who’s In Charge than any that exists for CO2 driving the global temperature.
With a couple of beers in me, I might not even be joking.
James Schrumpf
Would “science” have ever started without the stars to incite wonder and awe? I wonder if Venus (perpetual clouds”) would have ever inspired civilization and development? Or merely “smart cows”? Of course, we are also told that, after the plants cleared the atmosphere, the stars and planets were set in their place for men to steer by – to guide their lives, so to speak.