Be interesting to see how the power grid copes with the sudden drop of solar followed by its sudden reappearance (sudden in generation timescales).
Darkness to fall over North America from a total solar eclipse
America will witness, for the first time in 99 years, a total solar eclipse stretching from coast to coast on August 21. The Sun, Moon and Earth will sit perfectly in a line. The Moon will block out the Sun, making the solar corona, a crown of hot plasma, visible. A shadow of darkness will be cast over the Earth in a 70-mile ( …
COMMENTS
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Thursday 22nd June 2017 01:18 GMT harmjschoonhoven
To add insult to injury, observations have shown that the winds also slacken during a solar eclipse.
Mine is the one with an UPS in the left and right pocket.
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Thursday 22nd June 2017 19:06 GMT NukEvil
Re: Darkness fell over America in November
Most of the UK hasn't seen sunshine since forever. So, how are you coping with all those terrorist attacks in your "great" country? How many more of your people have to die before common sense takes hold and you kick those "refugees" out of your country? Do you enjoy being arrested for posting a "mean" Tweet? How do you feel for bringing politics into a place where it obviously doesn't belong?
Right, tit.
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Friday 23rd June 2017 19:55 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Darkness fell over America in November
Trust the British to turn an article about a wondrous astronomical event into a series of bigoted insults directed at a whole country. It happens daily here, and you bros all cheer each other when it does.
Many of us non-bigoted have pointed this out again and again. Do any of you blush sheepishly and feel any regret? Hell no, you down-vote us for pointing out your intolerance and ignorance.
Britain has no moral high ground to insult the US from, and certainly has worse manners.
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Thursday 22nd June 2017 02:54 GMT Herby
You should have booked your stay by now...
And hopefully sometime last year. Most lodging facilities are double (at least) price in the path of totality, and by now are all reserved.
Me? Thankfully my sister has a beach house on the Oregon coast, right in the path. I'll be there. Last time (1979) her house on the Columbia River basin was right in line as well. I must have good karma.
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Thursday 22nd June 2017 16:52 GMT Sporkinum
Re: You should have booked your stay by now...
Tried to book a hotel in my dad's hometown in Illinois back in February. They were all booked back then. As a matter of fact. My dad is having his high school class reunion this year and it was originally scheduled the same day. They bumped it a week later due to no rooms available. The lady in charge said the had been booked a year in advance. I will be making a day trip to drive down state, 4 hours and about 220 miles.
Chester, Illinois, home of Popeye.
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Thursday 22nd June 2017 03:33 GMT Ken Mitchell
As Yoda said, "There is another...."
There will be another major solar eclipse on April 8, 2024 twice the duration of this one.
https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEgoogle/SEgoogle2001/SE2024Apr08Tgoogle.html
The path of totality starts in the Pacific, crosses Mexico, into Texas, and north into Canada.
If you live near Carbondale, IL, you're in the path for BOTH eclipses!
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Thursday 22nd June 2017 08:17 GMT Pen-y-gors
'Snot fair
Why do the Merkins get all the good eclipses? And of course most of us won't be able to see them, for various reasons.
Could we ask that nice Mrs May to include something in the wonderful forthcoming US-UK trade agreement to make the USians share their 2024 eclipse,and extend it to include the UK?
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Thursday 22nd June 2017 14:06 GMT Arthur the cat
Re: 'Snot fair
Why do the Merkins get all the good eclipses?
They don't, this is the first they're getting in a century. I was at the 2006 eclipse in Libya, which occurred after Libya had stopped being a political pariah state but before it had collapsed into anarchy. Great fun except for the lack of booze.
If anybody wants an obscure pub quiz question: "when did a four hour traffic jam happen in the middle of nowhere in the Sahara".
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Thursday 22nd June 2017 10:04 GMT Lamb0
My home town...
is in the path of totality, though a bit on the edge. However, I'll be volunteering with a few of my fellow amateur astronomers at the:
Homestead National Monument of America
https://www.nps.gov/home/index.htm
We're only 4 seconds shy of the central path; ~ 2 minutes 31 seconds of totality for us. We expecting maybe 8,000 people... but Gage County bought 20,000 "observing glasses".
I'll be projecting an image of the eclipse on a white-board with my home-brew 8" f/5 Newtonian in a Dobson style mount with a 2" 30mm eyepiece. Totality will be very near Zenith and the 2.5° True Field of View is sufficient to let the eclipse drift though during totality without touching the undriven mount.
Other can take take pictures and videos... but I plan to enjoy totality and such sights as the "Diamond Ring" and the "String of Pearls" with a pair of Mark 1 Eyeballs for the FIRST time!
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Thursday 22nd June 2017 11:05 GMT ICPurvis47
Re: My home town...
Last time I saw a total eclipse was in August 1999. We were on our way on holiday to Switzerland by car and planned our route to be just south of Metz in France at the critical time. Of course, it was raining heavily, with 10/10ths cloud cover, but as the French authorities imposed a standstill on the Autoroutes for the duration, we were in an Aire (a sort of glorified layby, but not a service stop). We couldn't see a thing until, magically, the clouds parted and we had a glorious view of the Solar Corona. A huge cheer went up from all the assembled multitude, a thousand cameras flashed (why?), and then the clouds closed up again and darkness once again ruled. We didn't get to see Bailey's Beads or the Diamond Ring effects, but it was a truly magnificent spectacle.
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Friday 23rd June 2017 14:08 GMT John Brown (no body)
Re: My home town...
"a thousand cameras flashed (why?)"
Because the vast majority of people who take photos are basic "point'n'shooters" and have everything set to full auto. Phone users in particular will most likely have the flash set to "On" rather than "Auto" or "Off" so they are always ready for that quick snap. Then they wonder why the battery doesn't last long :-)
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Thursday 22nd June 2017 12:59 GMT Yamas
It's going to be beautiful
"We are going to have a Total Solar Eclipse, it's going to be beautiful, the most beautiful eclipse ever. I went to see the people of the total Solar, they are good people, they love America, we love America, so I told them we could strike a deal, to have the perfect total solar eclipse, and we agreed. I promise you this his going to be the covfefest total solar eclipse over our beautiful America". Make America eclipse again!
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Thursday 22nd June 2017 17:31 GMT John 104
Can't Wait
We'll be watching in Madras, OR. Supposedly the best location weather wise in the nation to watch. We had already planned to take time there this summer so this was a bonus. Getting lodging was a huge obstacle. However, we lucked into a rental to the south, about an hour away.
There will be an estimated 70k people converging on a town of a few thousand. They've opened the airports for camping, parking lots, you name it. Should be a proper mess. :)
Staying for the week after will allow us to ride some of the best mountain bike trails in the US and drink some of the best beer in the word.
And for fucks sake, can't we keep politics out of at least one commentard section?
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Friday 23rd June 2017 14:22 GMT Hans 1
From Donald Central
DT: What, tell me, what is an eclipse.
Aid: Well, Mr president, it is the moon getting between earth and the sun, so it will be somewhat darker for a few minutes.
DT: Ohh, come on, those scientists just want more money, naaah, that is fake news. Which agency came up with this folly ?
Aid: NASA, sir.
DT: Ok, now, we'll cut their budget by 95% to teach these overpaid idiots.
Aid: sir, you cannot be serious ?
DT: You question the president ? Fired! Security, escort this intruder, NOW!
We need a Donald icon ... using Paris though I think it is unfair, Paris has two working brain cells ...
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Friday 23rd June 2017 19:08 GMT Joe H.
I remember 1979...
...and being a 12 year old wanna be astronomer with a telescope and everything, living in Florida and asking my parents a few months before the February '79 solar eclipse if we could travel to Oregon to see the total solar eclipse.
They both looked at me and said "no" at the same time. There hasn't been any other opportunity for me to see a solar eclipse since then until now.
I still live in Florida and will be taking my wife and boys to see the 2017 eclipse in Nebraska. I booked the hotel last April, and the plane flights this March.
At first they didn't want to go, and I think they still are wary, but we are going anyway. After 38 years of waiting, it is the last thing on my astronomy bucket list, I've even seen one of the two recent transits of Venus, and the most recent transit of Mercury. Some astronomers live their whole lives without seeing a transit of Venus. Solar eclipse or bust!