Total Solar Eclipse April 8th 2024 - Not Directly Valkyrie Related

[carolinarider09]

Just saw this on my local Astronomy Club's Facebook (yeah I know) page. 

Yes I know its a year in advance but, if you want to have a ride that would be "different", why not try and follow the total solar eclipse.   Well follow is not the right word but something like that.

Starts at the Texas/Mexico border and goes northeast to Maine. 

The link below provides a map of the event.

https://skyandtelescope.org/press-releases/countdown-begins-for-the-great-north-american-solar-eclipse/?fbclid=IwAR0XPzXNAljNa6k91X5x6JDAj1izmNM9DYmb1LEYyvGkZGEJLxTSPUCIzT0

[Rams]

I read of this a few days ago, while interesting, not something I'm going to start planning on anytime soon. 

Heck, I don't know what I'm doing next week, much less what I'm doing next April.

Rams   

[scoobydoo]

Yep, coming directly over my house in 2024, I rode down into Kentucky in 2017 and watched it with friends,       Looks like a party gonna happen at my house this time.

[Louis]

way to close to my home.

[Psychotic Bovine]

Yep, coming directly over my house in 2024, I rode down into Kentucky in 2017 and watched it with friends,       Looks like a party gonna happen at my house this time.

My two brothers and I did the same.  Maybe I am simple minded, but it was one of the most awesome things I have ever seen.

[NewValker]

Buddy and I rode to Robbinsville in 2017 and watched the eclipse from the Cherahola. Met up with Whiskey and he showed us a great place to watch.
Then he led us to Tn., back thru the Dragon, (nope, couldn’t keep up with him & Sugar) then to a dinner somewhere I don’t remember where, but it was good!

Craig

[carolinarider09]

BUMP.   

I was aware of the event last year but did not do any real planning.  So, once I got reminded about the event, I figured I'd plan a ride out to the center of the path and make it an "Eclipse Road Trip".

Well riding out to the path is not hard to do.  But I was going to spend two nights there just to enjoy the event and relax.  Just did some looking at rooms in towns in Arkansas that are in the middle of the path and rooms that are normally in the $150 range are now $400 plus.  Some are at the $600 a night price range. 

So, if you live in the path, enjoy. 

It will enter Texas at Eagle Pass around 1:30PM CDT.  It will be near Cleveland, OH about 3:20PM EDT.  So, that's less than an hour later. 

Oh the duration of Totality is about four (4) minutes.  So, things will be dark in the area of totality.

https://www.greatamericaneclipse.com/april-8-2024/

[Serk]

The optimal line runs less than a mile from my rural land, but even here in the suburban house we'll get just under 4 minutes of totality...

Some of the ren faires are setting up weekday events to have fun with being in the path of totality and... taking a more old fashioned approach to the event (Merlin has read the signs! A great dragon will fly overhead, blotting out the sun!)

[Rams]

Went and observed the last one a few years ago in Tennesse.  So, been there, done that.  While i do agree that if one has the opportunity to see such an event and hasn't seen one before, it's pretty interesting but, once it was over, it's like that's it.......  There are other things I would do if there was anything else fun to do.   What makes such an event fun is being with one's friends.   Other than that, if you've seen one, you've seen them all.

Now, if only Staff would consider holding an InZane at a location when such an event was scheduled, then that would be great and I'd do everything I could to attend.

Rams

[BudMan]

We'll be camping just outside Poplar Bluff MO for this one.  In 2017 we camped at DuQuoine IL for that one.
The few remaining campsites are going FAST.

[carolinarider09]

From our local TV station's news website:

Basically telling us why this Solar Eclipse might well be something we have not seen before.

So why will that change what we see?

Normally we can’t see the sun’s outer atmosphere called the corona because the sun’s bright light overpowers it. But with the moon blocking the sun’s disk the corona will be visible with all that extra activity going on. That means bright streaks emanating from the sun -- called streamers -- pointing in all directions. It should be quite the show for those of us lucky enough to see it.

https://www.wltx.com/article/news/news-explainers/the-why/solar-eclipse-why-dramatic/285-9d354e8e-9270-4060-bbf4-5820f5b25d14?fbclid=IwAR3xgtsRzVCZSYtXX6-f06hNJjR3Y3KMuD-JQ_I720GncY5GqiZxaeHU4eg

[Rams]

From our local TV station's news website:

Basically telling us why this Solar Eclipse might well be something we have not seen before.

So why will that change what we see?

Normally we can’t see the sun’s outer atmosphere called the corona because the sun’s bright light overpowers it. But with the moon blocking the sun’s disk the corona will be visible with all that extra activity going on. That means bright streaks emanating from the sun -- called streamers -- pointing in all directions. It should be quite the show for those of us lucky enough to see it.

https://www.wltx.com/article/news/news-explainers/the-why/solar-eclipse-why-dramatic/285-9d354e8e-9270-4060-bbf4-5820f5b25d14?fbclid=IwAR3xgtsRzVCZSYtXX6-f06hNJjR3Y3KMuD-JQ_I720GncY5GqiZxaeHU4eg

No doubt, a full blockage of the sun by the moon is interesting.   The one I saw a few years ago in TN offered that spectacle.   Glad I attended that gathering but as I said, for me, it's all about the friends I saw it with.   Similar to an InZane.   I have no real desire to visit Dubuque, IA but, that's where my friends are gathering and that's enough reason for me.   Ride through the turmoil, it's not about the destination but the journey getting there and back.

[carolinarider09]

A bump is not needed due to all the stuff in the press but I found this interesting.

What Happened the Last Time Two Eclipses Formed a Giant “X” Over the New Madrid Fault Zone?

From the link below:

Could it be possible that history is about to repeat itself?  On April 8th, the Great American Eclipse of 2024 will complete the giant “X” over America that the Great American Eclipse of 2017 started.  Meanwhile, the Devil Comet will be racing through our solar system for the first time in 71 years.  Most of you already know all this.  But what is not widely known is that we have seen this same pattern before. 

In 1811, a solar eclipse finished the giant “X” over the heartland of America that a solar eclipse in 1806 had started, and meanwhile Tecumseh’s Comet was making headlines all over the nation as it raced through the heavens.  Approximately three months after the giant “X” over America was completed, cataclysmic earthquakes began erupting along the New Madrid fault.

https://discernreport.com/what-happened-the-last-time-two-eclipses-formed-a-giant-x-over-the-new-madrid-fault-zone/

Just in case you were interested. 

Oh here is a link to how you can see the "Devil Comet" during the eclipse. 

https://www.astronomy.com/observing/a-comet-will-be-visible-during-the-2024-total-solar-eclipse/

Here is some informant about the "Devil Comet".

https://phys.org/news/2024-03-12ppons-brooks-devil-comet.html

[old2soon]

    lookin like i'm in the main zone. friend told me motels in the area been booked a long time fer this. RIDE SAFE.

[HayHauler]

Here in The Republic of Texas, most, if not all of the area of totality will be socked in with clouds and rain.  There are hotels in the Fredericksburg area that are charging $500+ a night for rooms.... Just to be blocked by clouds and rain. 
We will see if the weather guessers are right about the cloud cover.

Hay 
Jimmyt

[carolinarider09]

The moon, the eclipse, the origins and maybe meanings.

So, first off where did the moon come from? (Link One)

The origin of the Moon is usually explained by a Mars-sized body striking the Earth, creating a debris ring that eventually collected into a single natural satellite, the Moon, but there are a number of variations on this giant-impact hypothesis, as well as alternative explanations, and research continues into how the Moon came to be formed.[1][2] Other proposed scenarios include captured body, fission, formed together (condensation theory, synestia), planetesimal collisions (formed from asteroid-like bodies), and collision theories.

Second what is unique about the moon as compared to other satellites that circle other plants in orbit around the sun such as Jupiter (and others)?

Tidal locking.  I looked for a reasonable “explanation” of this phenomena and found little.  However, It appears to be an unusual occurrence.  (See Link Two).  The fact that the moon keeps one surface pointed toward the sun as it rotates the earth.  So we get a fully illuminated lunar surface to see visually, part of the time.  And the other part of the time we get to see the surface of the moon that is never illuminated by light from the sun.  The Dark Side. In other words, lunar phases.

And last, but not necessary least, why is the moon just big enough to totally cover the suns surface but not “block” everything?  

In other words, the size, orbit and location are just right to give us a total eclipse of the sun ever so often.  This allows us to see the sun’s corona as it shows around the sphere of the moon.  (You can see Link Three for an answer).

Here is my response:  It did not start out that way (I.e. when the earth and then the moon were formed).  And in fifty million years (see Link Three) it will not be the same (sun will no longer be totally blocked by the moon).  

But mankind came into existence (some 3 to 5 million years ago) during a time when the moon is as we see it today.  One side illuminated at all times and one side in darkness at all times.

But I don’t think it was happenchance.  I think there might have well been some “Devine” Intervention.  

Link One

Link Two

Link Three

[DIGGER]

I have a pair of solar eclipse glasses for sale....used only once.......

[Jersey mike]

We had 87.7% coverage with partly cloudy skies. The cloud cover helped and made interesting images of the eclipse.

Instead of buying glasses I used the old pinhole in a piece of cardboard trick. The same way we did it in grade school back around 1977 or so. Yesterday they gave kids the day off around here or sent them home early because it was too dangerous.

[RP#62]

We had 87.7% coverage with partly cloudy skies. The cloud cover helped and made interesting images of the eclipse.

Instead of buying glasses I used the old pinhole in a piece of cardboard trick. The same way we did it in grade school back around 1977 or so. Yesterday they gave kids the day off around here or sent them home early because it was too dangerous.

Related to the pinhole effect, I have noticed that if you look on the ground beneath a tree, all the little pinholes of sunlight that make it through the leaves form hundreds of little eclipse images on the ground.  I don't know if there's a name for this - if not, I may claim it - it'll be the RP effect.

-RP

[carolinarider09]