There was a great episode of NOVA on pbs last night talking indepth about eclipses and their frequency. The gist wad that they have known how to predict them to within 4 minutes and they occur about every 7 years
But the darkest shadow called the umbra only falls in a very tiny place, slightly bigger than a few Districts and that shadow moves in a line and those places experience total solar eclipse.
So next year there may be another solar eclipse but New York will not experience a total solar eclipse for a long time.
Also two-thirds of the earth is water so most of the time the umbra falls on the sea.
It’s hard to say because all of the figures come from different places, and the news articles always like to say the longer figures to gather more attention.
ex: There won’t be another eclipse over Ohio for ___ years vs There won’t be another eclipse over the continental U.S. for ___ years vs There won’t be another eclipse anywhere in the world for ___ years
Got lucky here as the clouds melted away enabling a good look from about 30% onward. Reinforced for me the fact that even though we are not even a microscopic part of the cosmic whole this event, also not a microscopic part of the infinity of the universe, is still a very moving and impressive thing
Even with cloud cover, seeing it at home was something special. I know what it’s supposed to look and sound like at that hour. It wasn’t the same as night - I could still see sunlight on the horizon all around me. I could sense that the wildlife was confused by it - all the birds just flew to the tops of the trees and were trying to make sense of what was happening. The bugs went quiet, and we were all whispering for no apparent reason - it just felt appropriate. The slow descent into darkness was unsettling, especially under cloud cover - it felt like we were under the gaze of a passing giant we could not see. I was surprised by how relieved I felt when the light started to return. It wasn’t what I was expecting but the strangeness of it didn’t disappoint, and I don’t think seeing it away from home would have been quite the same.
Hey, you can’t tell people in the past that! They might figure out the moon gets destroyed later. You want the time authority to vaporize you or something?
I am a Time Authority. Not a Lord, mind you. Those worthies get to tool around those fancy teleboxes doing all kinds of adventurous, dare i say, romatic escapades. We mere Authorities merely monitor and report. Vaporization is above my pay grade
Jesus, imagine missing out on one of the most incredible things you could witness, that you may never have a chance to experience again, because you didn’t want to miss a couple hours of work. Freaking capitalism, man.
Unless you are a surgeon or something else that could result in lost lives if you took off 2 hours to see possibly the most spectacular thing our planet has to offer… I think you really need to reevaluate your job if you would have gotten fired for that. Personally, I’d be bitter as fuck.
99% coverage is essentially the same as 1% coverage. Things may get a little dimmer, but it’s completely different from 100% coverage. It’s not a gradient, you don’t get 99% of the experience by being in 99% coverage. I really can’t stress how much you missed out on, and hope that you make an effort to see the next US one in 20 years, or travel internationally to see a sooner one. Hopefully you’ll have a better job by that time.
Here’s a relevant xkcd on the matter. I think the alt-text sums it up. “A partial eclipse is like a cool sunset. A total eclipse is like someone broke the sky.”
You act as though I’m not bitter about it. You pointing out how great it was and how much it sucks that I missed it only makes me more bitter.
There is no job market where I live. As in within my friend group, we have collectively applied to ~30 jobs in the last year and gotten 2 responses. My employer was very clear that they were not giving time off for the eclipse, so that wasn’t an option. And had I just left, bye bye job. Can’t pay rent, can’t afford food.
If you want to point out how much it sucks, by all means. But don’t act like you know my situation, like I don’t know what I had to miss out on, and then point to fucking xkcd saying “see? I’m right”.
I saw the 2017 one and I’m curious what you mean by worth it? Like, worth the effort to go outside and look up? I personally wouldn’t go out of my way to see it again. It was cool but not, $1000 dollar for a campsite cool.
I saw the 2017, and spent well over $3k to travel with my family to see it again today. Granted it was more so I could show it to THEM, but I wanted to see it again too.
Same. Travelled to SC for 2017 with my wife and 1 year old.
Was so awe-struck that I flew my wife, now-7-year old, and 4 year old, to Texas to view it here. Also to check out Houston, Austin, and Dallas. Austin was by far the coolest. Wish I spent more time there. Almost want to move.
It cost us a hotel room at a marginally inflated rate (less than $200). Eclipses aren’t a secret so you can plan/buy ahead, you don’t get caught up in the price gouging. We packed food and drinks in a cooler to save $.
I’m not sure what you mean by going “outside and looking up” other than maybe trying to be dismissive. If you live in the path of totality, going outside and looking up (with appropriate eye protection) is a serious piece of luck, a luxury, and paying “1000 for a campsite” isn’t a problem. If you don’t live in the path of totality then you don’t get to see it - and seeing totality is what’s “worth it”, not just the moon partially blocking the sun.
The comment said “worth it” without specifying what it was worth. That was the reason for me asking what worth it meant. Was it worth traveling? Paying for a flight? Taking a day off? Simply walking outside? The effort to see it is relevant to know what it means when they said “worth it.” Hope that helps you understand.
Don’t know what to tell you. “Worth it” was my personal opinion of the event and efforts to see it, to which you seemed clearly to indicate that such an event was not worth going out of your way for or paying lots of money to see. I don’t understand what me providing further information could offer you.
If you want I’ll gladly share our process, but I cannot help you with your personal feelings of whether our efforts were subjectively “worth it” by your measure.
You did tell me what you did to see the eclipse in your follow up comment, which showed me what you thought was worth it. It seems like you are taking more offense than was implied. My question was simply to learn what the effort was.
As for my personal feelings I don’t need help. I’ve seen a total solar eclipse and know what effort I would go through to see another. There isn’t even an argument her. I was simply looking for clarification which you provided in your follow up.
Yeah, after seeing a total eclipse, all those partial eclipses seem like nothing. I’m not sure I’ll even bother watching a partial or annular eclipse again.
Glad you were able to see it without cloud cover. I ended up changing my destination this morning due to cloud forecast.
Maybe a location thing. The current eclipse passes through NY today, the next one touching NY won’t be until 2079. Texas 2045. So it’s all over the place time-wise between eclipses and location.
Or to make a giant disc that can be positioned in an orbit that totally eclipses the sun and/or our hearts regularly so that when we’re old we can bitch at kids about how total eclipses used to be rare and special but now everyone takes them for granted because NASA wasted a bunch of money making them mundane and that’s what happened to our retirement funds and is why grandparents live in boxes and look forward to the relative comfort of the final box.
Eclipses might be a dime-a-dozen, but Halley’s Comet doesn’t mess around. My grandad saw it twice. I hope to, too. It comes once every 75 years. The last time was 1986. The next is 2061. If you were born today, you’d have to live to be 112 years-old to see it a second time.
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