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Partial Solar Eclipse Friday
Pankaj Arora writes "To those in the South Pacific (USA) and certain parts of the Americas, Friday, April 8th marks the day of the first solar eclipse of 2005. From the article: "It will be a partial eclipse rather than a total one, in which the Earth is cast into darkness. But it will be the last partial solar eclipse visible from the continental United States until May 20, 2012." Also, see other related stories."
I think it's worth mentioning that 2012 is also the year the gods decide whether or not humanity should live another 13 394-year cycles (5122 years). That's at least according to the Maya and Aztec.
Direct away from face when opening.
..none of these FA state the tim ethis is occurring?
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
Now I know why the Vatican scheduled the Pope's funeral on friday... that should shake up those South Americans!
"Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney
Just to be clear...
0 05/HSE2005.html
http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/SEmono/HSE2
This is also a Hybrid solar eclipse, the path of which runs through Panama. It starts out Annular over the ocean, goes to total over the ocean, and resumes annular through Panama. So parts of the Americas will also see an annular eclipse.
This is a relatively rare event, the next of which will occurr on Nov. 3, 2013.
There are several groups webcasting this event from Panama.
Let's go Hurricanes!!! 2006 Stanley Cup Champions!!!
Don't hold your breath for the next total eclipse. It won't happen in the US until 2017.
However, if you're willing to travel, there will be one in March 2006. Come visit sunny Libya, meet the Colonel, and try to counter the angry natives who want to waste your American ass by threatening to "use your magic western technology to blot out the sun".
Seriously, though, watching a total eclipse is something that will mark a defining point in your life as an astronomy geek. I pilgrimaged to Paris in 1999 to see the eclipse back then(I live in Denmark, so it wasn't that big a trip). I had to sit in a train that was crammed with people Indian style to get to the totality zone, and when it finally occurred, the one single goddamn cloud on an otherwise clear sky obstructed my view of the halo.
So I guess I'll go for Libya. Or maybe Turkey.
I remember as a kid watching a partial eclipse and being rather disappointed in it. We made those stupid pin-hole viewers that cast the crescent shaped shadows. I was thoroughly unimpressed.
Then someone noticed that their straw hat was creating the same effect with every single hole in it. That was pretty cool. Finally I started looking around the ground and saw that every ray of light that was filtering through the canopy (we were in a wooded area) was shaped like a crescent. That was really cool. Now I actually look forware to these partial eclipses.
I'm jealous. The next total solar eclipse that I expect to see is August 23rd 2044. (Calgary Canada)
t h2001/SE2044Aug23T.html
The "sunearth" NASA web site is a great site for seeing what eclipses hit your part of the earth over the next hundred years or so...
http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/SEpath/SEpa
It annoys me when people do this. Whether it's Americans forgetting the existence of the rest of the world, or northern hemisphere residents being blind to the existence of the southern hemisphere, it's really annoying. It's even worse when such a cavalier parochial attitude leads to factual errors.
As to the eclipse itself, it is an unusual type of eclipse known as an annular/total eclipse. The vertex of the moon's shadow will actually intersect the surface of the earth during the eclipse. Thus, people at both ends will see a narrow annular eclipse, and people in the middle will see a short-duration total eclipse. Even though the majority of the eclipse path is over the Pacific ocean, die-hard eclipse-chasers will have rented ships to observe the eclipse because of its unusual nature.
The most interesting points on the eclipse path is where the nature of the eclipse is intermediate between annular and total. When the apparent size of the Sun is larger than the bottoms of the lunar valleys, but smaller than the mountaintops of the moon, you get a broken annular eclipse of just a few seconds' duration.
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. - Edmund Burke
Here is a hi-res map of the eclipse path: http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/eclipse/map105.p df
Fortunately for a few lucky adventurers, this happens to be the season when sailboats cross the South Pacific from Mexico to French Polynesia (they call it the Puddle Jump). My mom's boat happens to be among them, traveling on her retirement adventure.
I created a blog for their sailboat. Since they have email access via single sideband radio, they can blog from the boat! Plus there's a GPS tracker built into the site so you can see the current position. Pretty neat.
http://wind-river.blogspot.com
The USA isn't in the South Pacific, as far as I know, unless it's referring to American Samoa, or the US naval fleet. Or is this some new use of parentheses that I'm not familiar with?
The article's author says "It will be a partial eclipse rather than a total one, in which the Earth is cast into darkness."
The Earth is NOT "cast into darkness" during a total eclipse.
A Solar Eclipse is when the Earth passes through the shadow of the Moon. That shadow, which is always there (duh), is effectively smaller than the Earth at the distance the Earth is from the Moon (which varies a little) If you were looking at the Earth from space during a total eclipse, you would see a dark circle (the Moon's shadow) move across the lit face of the Earth. Only if you are standing on the Earth in the CENTER of that spot, would you see a total eclipse of the Sun. If you are standing anywhere else, you will see only a partial eclipse. Sometimes the Earth only grazes the Moon's shadow. Since the center of the shadow does not pass over the Earth, no one on Earth can see a total eclipse, but those in the passing shadow see a partial one.