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Total Solar Eclipse at Ceduna, South Australia
moooooooo writes "The total Solar Eclipse on December 4 is fast approaching with Ceduna in South Australia being one of the better places to observe this rare event.
Accomodation was thought to have been booked out but a new site has been set up where you can find more information on the event. Information can be found here and accomodation info is at the bottom of the page. I heard on the radio that they will be setting up a "tent city" for those of us who want to camp out." There's a very impressive eclipse page describing the orbital conditions necessary for an eclipse and listing solar and lunar eclipses coming up.
I know everyone here probably knows what an eclipse is, and you all probably appreciate the grandeur exhibited by shadows created with celestial entities.
But I myself wasn't quite sure why Ceduna in southern Australia was a good place to view it. However, after some research, I found the following information:
To witness all that this total solar eclipse has to offer, viewing must be within the narrow path of the moon's umbral shadow, which passes directly over Ceduna.
Although the sun will be partly eclipsed throughout South Australia, and 88% eclipsed from Adelaide, the spectacular effects of this eclipse will not be visible outside the shadow's path due to the intensity of remaining light from the sun.
Even 99% eclipsed gives you much less than 99% of the 'total eclipse experience'!
The bottom line: if you are in your parents' basement at the time, you will miss the total eclipse.
Department of Physics and Atmospheric Science, Dalhousie University, Halifax, N.S., Canada, B3H 3J5
actually you can stare at a Total eclpise without having to worry about your eyes burning out at all. Its when you view a Partial Eclipse that you will burn your eyes. When the eclpise you can start to view it without protective eye wear. You can even look at it with a telescope. But beware it will only last a few minutes some times even less and then you had better put on your eye protection again.
When you are viewing a total eclipse what you see for light is actually the Corona of the sun.
At Start and end of totality, light from solar surface passes through Crevices at the edge of the moon, producing Bailey's Beads(Points of light at the edge of the moon) or a diamond ring effect(One bright spot set upon the silvery corona)
It is actullay quite amazing though I have never viewed one in real life I seen one on a video in my Atronomy class in university
A total eclipse is rare because it takes about 54 years and 34 days for the total eclipse to return to (almost) the same area.
it takes 18 years, 11 and 1/3 days to occure again but it will happen 120 degreese further west due to the rotation of the earth durring that time.
<g> (Moderators, in case your physics isn't too fresh, this is "funny", not "informative".)
Didn't you forget all those dangerous, sneaky neutrinos?
Besides which, it's Australia... they're just getting out of spring down there and heading into summer...
The other option is to head to the Outback Eclipse Festival at Lyndhurst, in the even more stunning Flinders Ranges. This point is further east than Ceduna, so the eclipse should happen even closer to sunset, and the even comprises a chill-out music festival over several days. I live in Adelaide, and I would be heading here rather than Ceduna (although unfortunately I'm saving for a DIFFERENT holiday so I can't afford to make an appearance!)
-"I still believe in revolution; I just don't capitalize it anymore." - srini!
More information about the event, including maps can be found here.
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One of my favorites shows the 1970 eclipse near total, with a diamond-ring effect". I actually saw that one--it was amazing. When the sky gets dark, the birds figure it's night and go roost in the trees. Beautiful.
Mr. Eclipse also links to Ceduna info, including an animation of the shadow's path across earth.
Making trouble today for a better tomorrow...
If you're going to see this, there's a couple of things to remember.
That area is largely arid - it can rightfilly be called desert.
AND
It's summer here.
Temperatures in that area can reach 45C to 50C and water is hard to find outside habitation. Even if you do nothing but lay in your tent you WILL need 4 litres of water per day. You have to drink enough so that you piss clear. (Guide: The darker your urine, the more dehydrated you are)
No, coffee, Coke and Pepsi aren't a substitute for water, even though they have water in them.
No, neither is beer, even if it is Cooper's Sparkling Ale.
More fruitbats in Literature!
Actually, you could argue everything is not out of happenstance but physics and chaos theory. Our understanding is continually "evolving."
As for coincidences, like the size of the Moon and Sun, you can find any number of them looking around you. Humans happen to like coincidences. But what might seem unique could be the result of ignorance or lacking imagination: we just don't know of other examples. Also, things that are similar are only so for a brief time. The orbits of the Earth and Moon have changed over time. The Moon used to be much closer to its planet, and is gradually drifting away. The year used to be much longer: the Earth has accelerated as it has drawn closer to the Sun.
Stay tuned, we're learning faster and faster.
"I study meterology at MIT [mit.edu], so I feel that . . . "
."
"I own a chain of stores here in London, and after several meetings with lower management, . . . "
"Seriously. I've noticed this too, lately, as I work for a small Verizon Wireless store . .
Oh how the mighty have fallen. If you're going to make up stories at least make sure your past stories agree. Or at least are not so accessible.
Stoptional
...and it reflects the fact that there are multiple "months" which must coincide to produce the "same" eclipse again. You have the synodic month (phases of the moon = 29.530 days), the draconic month (time between moon's passages through same node = 27.212 days) and the anomalistic month (time from perigee to perigee = 27.555 days). 239 anomalistic months ~ 223 synodic months ~ 242 draconic months = 1 Saros or about 18 years, 10 1/3 days. It's the time between "similar" eclipses.
l to see one of the best pages out there on this stuff.
It's NOT the time between all possible eclipses. Many different (40+) Saros cycles are going on at any one time. There's no way you could see two eclipses from the same Saros in just a few years, but the fact that an eclipse is total is the cool thing for most of us, not the fact that it's part of the same Saros cycle as another eclipse.
Check out http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/eclipse.htm