Solar Eclipse 2024

[ChrisGreaves]

... but plan to move to the center for viewing that day. ...

I envy you, PJ.
Just don't try to match the speed of The Shadow, OK? (1648 to 1679)
Cheers, Chris

[Leif]

If you want to add some extra sparkle to your life, Chris, then Space debris: 'Grandfather satellite' ERS-2 due to fall to Earth - BBC News may be of interest.

The article states "...but the chances of these fragments hitting populated areas and causing damage are slim."
As I understand you don't live in a 'populated area', this may be right up your street.
Literally.

[ChrisGreaves]

If you want to add some extra sparkle to your life, Chris, then Space debris: 'Grandfather satellite' ERS-2 due to fall to Earth - BBC News may be of interest. The article states "...but the chances of these fragments hitting populated areas and causing damage are slim." As I understand you don't live in a 'populated area', this may be right up your street. Literally.

Leif, we can discuss this article on one condition: That you don't rattle of the names of moons on other planets, invoke periods, inclinations, areas, and all other aspects of an online dating service. Agreed?

"The European Space Agency (Esa) says most of the two-tonne satellite will burn up on the way down." I detest the phrase "most of" as much as i detest the knee-jerk response "I have no idea". "Most of" is a devious attempt to avoid saying "some of". That is, we are to believe that we aren't in any danger of having our beetroot seedlings crushed by a four-tin chunk of metal. It doesn't help that I am reading "Breakup|" by Dana Stabenow.

" but the chances of these fragments hitting populated areas and causing damage are slim. " more deviation . Damage to property is insurable. Damage to my body is not; at least, not in any way that I could contemplate turning it into a profit.
But please see also "It's time for me to move to a quieter town"

""And it's worth highlighting that none of the elements that might re-enter the atmosphere (and reach the surface) are radioactive or toxic,"" yet more deviation . I am mostly concerned with Energy, of the Kinetic kind especially, but also the heat aspect, both of which have a propensity to hasten my journey towards entropy. (entropropensity?)

"The agency launched two near-identical Earth Remote Sensing (ERS) satellites" Even more deviation (deveniation?). Near-identical is synonymous with "different", but delivers more words, takes more time, as this paragraph proves.

"And ERS really showed ... that there were big changes happening already." Where do these people get their ideas? I was at Uni more than twenty years before the 90s, and at HIGH SCHOOL (mid 1960s) we knew that there had been an ice-age. (Students who weren't good enough for the science-stream went on to B.A.s and studied skating on the Thames in the 1680s as a one-hour lecture that was part of what must have seemed like a ten-year-long course in UK history).

"Those fragments that do impact the planet might include internal paneling and some metal parts, such as fuel and pressure tanks. " This was the only bit of good news I could see . One of those tanks lands just outside my bedroom, and if David will lend me his drill-thingy with a circular disk that cuts metal, I could have TWO bins, and double-buffer what vegetable scraps I don't leave out for the family of crows. If the tanks are hot, that would be a bonus right now - melt the snow and make a path to where I drop meat scraps to feed the fox.

Thanks again (I think)
Chris

[Graeme]

If you want to add some extra sparkle to your life, Chris, then Space debris: 'Grandfather satellite' ERS-2 due to fall to Earth - BBC News may be of interest.

The article states "...but the chances of these fragments hitting populated areas and causing damage are slim."
As I understand you don't live in a 'populated area', this may be right up your street.
Literally.

It fell into the Pacific Ocean.

https://www.space.com/satellite-ers-2-e ... ing-photos

Someone said that the odds of getting hit by it were one in a billion. Since there are now eight billion of us, that's not good odds for the unlucky eight people!

Graeme

[ChrisGreaves]

Since there are now eight billion of us, that's not good odds for the unlucky eight people!

Oh, I dunno.
Since we are basing our understanding on statistics,
(1) Unless the significant fragments can be individually targeted, then you need a pretty good navigation scheme to hit those eight individuals who are spread around the globe (and about to be even spreadier)
(2) Given that the specific satellite ERS-2 is no longer controlled, you have to assemble eight people (chosen at random from a popuation of 8,000,000,000) and fly them to where you think the satellite might crash.
(3) Since there is a large area where the satellite might crash, you are reduced to air-lifting the population of the globe (8,000, etc.) to various coral atolls scattered across the Pacific ocean.

KingCove50.png

(4) Even if you restrict the landing site to the North Pacific (so essentially the Aleutian Islands in Alaska), you’d first have to airlift all the US immigration officers up there.
(5) The logistics get worse (food, accommodation, Netflix etc) when you realise that you’ll have to airlift in immigration support staff from around the world.
(6) You can make small economies by way of example of loading each aeroplane that departs Australia with enough Australian Immigration authorities to process a specific (statistical, again) portion of that plane once they touch down in Alaska.
(7) This effectively reduces the available population of each plane by 0.5% of an immigration officer.
(8) Immigration officers from countries other than the USA would have to be flown in to the USA in advance to receive training in US Immigration policies.
(9) Either that or you’d have to fly US Immigration officers around the globe to instruct Aussies, Kiwis, and the rest of the 8, etc), which would leave the USA border with Canada essentially unguarded

Lewiston50.png

(10) Some reduction in costs and inconvenience can be gained at road border crossings such as Lewiston NY, by having immigration officers just walk across the bridge and meet counterparts for coffee and doughnuts donuts
(11) Probably an education session on tax deductions for travel & food, but could be handled by a Zoom meeting, providing we use the same sort of electricity.
(12) Some financial guru will have to address the cost of claims for lost earning income while on an enforced holiday to the icy wastes of King Cove.

Now if someone as well-grounded in Statistics as I (B.Sc{maths} Uni WA 1967) is struggling with this concept, how much more so our politicians. And I haven't yet considered getting the remaining population back to where they came from.

The Good news is that we have a scheduled Power Outage today 10am-3pm¹ (this is NL Hydro's way of making the statistics on UNscheduled power outages look not so bad), so I will have time to think about it on my way to the Post Office and back. (But there again, will the Post Office be able to operate without electricty?)

Cheers, Chris
¹No, you won't find the outage listed here. I called using the telephone and was told that there is not enough time to update the outage page, which is why they sent out a gazillion voice-mails at lunchtime yesterday. <sup>2

2</sup> (this is NL)

[ChrisGreaves]

Anyone else making plans for that day?

Well, PJ, it's funny you should ask ...
In plane view: Tickets to watch total solar eclipse at 30,000 feet sell out
I've seen these flights before, and have always wondered how they do it.
By definition the sun - eclipsed or not - can be visible from only one side of the plane at a time. So if you're on the other side, how do you see the eclipse?
Only by making the plane circle the sky in an ellipse, where the long axis of the ellipse must track the path of totality.
"The path of the ecliptical"?

But then you couldn't see the eclipse as a single event.
And since the shadow's speed starts at around 1,500 Mph, a passenger jet can't keep up with the shadow.

I'd feel cheated if I had bought a ticket to fly from Austin to Detroit and then spent four hours listening to Muzac and reading a book while the other side of the aisle went "Oooh! Ahhhh!" for four hours.

grumblingly yours
Chris

[ChrisGreaves]

I have my afternoon planned for Monday, April 8th, at a little resort in Texas.

I went to bed with an "almost" case of sun-stroke yesterday. We were at 6c for three hours during the afternoon.
Made me wish I were in Texas. But don't tell anyone that I wrote that.

Which led me to thinking that when I observe the eclipse here in Newfoundland at 5pm it cannot be as impressive as in Texas at mid-day, on account of temperature.

Texas temperatures around 1pm in April will be significantly higher than Newfoundland temperatures at 5:30pm.
Consequently in Bonavista I will not experience the sudden cooling as the shadow settles as a veil, but anyone lucky enough to be outside in Texas ought to feel (and be able to record!) the rapid drop in temperature. I suspect that the temperature drop in tropical zones must have been as frightening as the darkness.

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Interesting too to note that because this eclipse crosses the North American part of the world, from coast-to-coast, the human response to the video matches, roughly, the elevation-profile of the same land mass.
Cheers, Chris

[ChrisGreaves]

...The simplest way to do that is to use a pinhole projector, like this:
    https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/mak ... ector.html

I've made a pinhole camera before; two sheets of paper will do it.
But tonight I realized that I hoard cadboard cartons, especially long cartons - think six feet long and a foot square.
The referenced web site says "... Hold it at a distance ..." and "To make the image of the Sun larger, hold the screen paper further away from the paper with the pinhole"

That made me wonder - is there an optimal distance to make a clear, sharp image. In photography this is called the focal length, right?
In my case I am wondering about the ideal dimensions for a cardboard box or tube.
Thanks, Chris

[GeoffW]

In my case I am wondering about the ideal dimensions for a cardboard box or tube.

As the saying goes, how long is a piece of string?

Though the saying is actually wrong.

Howlong is an Australian town.

[Graeme]

That made me wonder - is there an optimal distance to make a clear, sharp image. In photography this is called the focal length, right?
In my case I am wondering about the ideal dimensions for a cardboard box or tube.
Thanks, Chris

Not really. If you change the focal length of a pinhole camera you just change the size of the projected image. Your ideal box dimensions will need to be ascertained by experiment.

When you focus a refracting or reflecting telescope you move the position of the eye piece (and so the eye) with respect to the point of focus, the focal length remains unchanged. My Schmitt Cassegrain telescope is a Catadioptric design that changes the focal length in order to get focus at the eye piece.

Graeme

[ChrisGreaves]

... Your ideal box dimensions will need to be ascertained by experiment.

Graeme, thank you once more for pushing me out into the wide world to learn more!
This search led me to what I should have read before posting my enquiry.
This page and this page were digestible for someone at my level.

I agree with the sentiment that "experiment" is a good way to go, especially with a pin-hole camera for solar eclipses.
For one thing I can experiment in the days leading up to the eclipse (if the sun pops out any time soon).
For another, I can use stand-alone trials to confirm the results of any formula I use or devise.
Thirdly I can collect a few cartons of different dimensions, make the camera, ...

Onwards and ever Upwards!

P.S. A bonus would be obtained if any of Ken's friends take me up on my offer of coffee, tea, or pasta with meat sauce. With my own pinhole camera at least I would have a dog in the fight
Thanks again, Chris

[ChrisGreaves]

To my mind this is another example of poorly-written "news"
How the 2024 total solar eclipse will differ from 2017
"While April’s eclipse has a path similar to the one that occurred on August 21, 2017, albeit moving in the opposite direction and covering more ground, ..."
I thought we covered this a few days ago, that all solar eclipses (which is to say, the shadows on the Earth) move in a consistent direction, generally west-to-east.

I think that Ashley (a space and science writer for CNN) wanted to say that the path tracked SW to NE as distinct from NW to SE, but I confess that I dn't know how to say that in English.
Cheers, Chris

[ChrisGreaves]

Anyone else making plans for that day?

Canada Post has decided to star Bonavista on a new postage stamp.
Not that a lot of us use postage stamps nowadays, what with distances being reduced to near-zero since the invention of eMail.
Cheers, Chris
p.s. It is a jolly little image, though, with Newfoundland ("The Rock") sitting just off the mainland. C.

[HansV]

Not that a lot of us use postage stamps nowadays

You could send everyone you know a postcard with the new stamp, to push Bonavista's fame to new heights...

[GeoffW]

You could send everyone you know a postcard with the new stamp, to push Bonavista's fame to new heights...

If it was me, I'd only need two stamps.

[ChrisGreaves]

You could send everyone you know a postcard with the new stamp, to push Bonavista's fame to new heights...

Been there; Done that!
My first year here I met so many people that I decided to send Christmas Cards. Bought a dozen packets, took three photos of significant sights aorund Bonavista and had postage stamps made with the images. (Real postage stamps, valid in Canada!). Posted them off.
After Christmas I asked people what they thought of the stamp. "Stamp?". No-one had noticed the stamp; all had tossed the envelope in the garbage and put the card on the mantelpiece.

I have asked about a dozen people here what their plans are for the day; the most common response is "Watch it on TV", which to my mind is base stupidity; may as well watch an old eclipse on YouTube.
The big thing, without a doubt, is to watch the birds and grazing mammals go berserk, especially if your totality is around mid-day.
My plan now is to be the last human in Canada to experience the total eclipse, for the next twenty years.
All I need is someone to give me a lift to the lighthouse and take the photo. It's a 90-minute walk in cold weather.

Untitled2.png

Cheers, Chris

[HansV]

Or rent or loan a bicycle - 20 minutes one-way...

[ChrisGreaves]

Or rent or loan a bicycle - 20 minutes one-way...

In this weather?
Problem is that the edges, let alond the shoulders of the roads are icy. It would take me one slight slip and I;d be under the wheels of a tourist's car before you can say "he was the first person to die while trying to be the last human in Canada to experience the total eclipse" (If I;ve got that right).

This isn't The Netherlands, you know. No bulb blossoms for another two months yet ...
I own two bicycles. I use the red one for biking to Foodland, and the Green one for biking back home.
Cheers, Chris

[HansV]

Come on...

S2517.png

Oh wait, that's Bonavista, Curaçao.

[ChrisGreaves]

Come on...

S2517.png

Hans! You had me going there for a while, until I realized that BobH would be reading this. I've cleaned it up and yes, it makes more sense now.

Oh wait, that's Bonavista, Curaçao.

Thanks too for this; this explains a lot.
On Wednesday 2019-01-30 ("Escape from Ontario") I wrote "In a respectable travel forum I was advised to use the Highway 30 bypass and avoid taking #20 through the heart of Montreal. This I do, watching as I go for consistent signs that read “Québec City”. I see signs that say consistently “Sorel”, so I carry on along #30 until I come to a sign that advises me that there are stop-lights at the end of #30 in about one kilometre. Where did the Trans-Canada Highway go? The TCH is supposed to take me all the way to Clarenville in Newfoundland."
I must have made a wrong turn leaving Sorel!
Cheers, Chris