I mentioned in the post last night that a total eclipse like the one we will observe in a little over two weeks is incredibly unique to our solar system. This is due to the astounding coincidence that the Moon and Sun have identical apparent diameters, as viewed from Earth. Nowhere else in the solar system is this the case.

 

Has this amazing mathematical coincidence always been the case? The answer is a resounding "NO." When the Moon was first formed, it was much closer to the Earth than it is now. In those early days of the Moon's existence, it is estimated to have been between 12,000 and 18,000 miles from the Earth , in contrast to the approximately 238,600 miles today. Back then, the Moon would have totally obliterated the Sun's light.

 

Since the Moon's formation, it has been gradually moving away from the Earth. This movement away from Earth continues to this day . Between tonight and about 1.4 billion years from tonight, the Moon will move another 14,600 miles away, to a distance of a little more than 253,000 miles from Earth. Eclipses will get less and less spectacular . Eventually, the Moon will become too small in the sky for any solar eclipses to ever take place again!!!

 

Think about that, my BGP fiends.... We are on this little planet at just the right time to view these spectacular total eclipses!!! How special is that !!! Have I convinced you yet? If at all possible on the 21st, take off work, skip that English class, forget Dr. Phil, play hooky from your Garden Club... by all means, travel to a place within the band of totality. You may never again get another opportunity quite like this one.

Where can I buy a few pairs of the protective glasses to observe the eclipse? I'll be leaving Booneville around 7:00 am on the 21st heading to Cookeville, Tennessee. I'd like to have the glasses before we depart.

Where can I buy a few pairs of the protective glasses to observe the eclipse? I'll be leaving Booneville around 7:00 am on the 21st heading to Cookeville, Tennessee. I'd like to have the glasses before we depart.

I'm told that you can buy them at Walmart. Some of my students found some there and sent me a photo of them wearing them, excited for the eclipse.

 

If if you can't find any, I have extras that I can mail you. Just PM me your address. I don't want you to miss it!

I'm now starting to worry about cloudy weather for the eclipse. Even though we are prepared to travel, I still worry. The first 15 day forecast should include the 21st very soon.

Where can I buy a few pairs of the protective glasses to observe the eclipse? I'll be leaving Booneville around 7:00 am on the 21st heading to Cookeville, Tennessee. I'd like to have the glasses before we depart.

 

I've heard that stores such as Kroger, Walmart and even some public libraries are gonna have them available. It should be pretty easy to locate a pair. Like TB&G said, if you can't find a pair anywhere or if you need an extra pair, I'll be glad to get em to you. I'm going back to the planetarium in a week or so.

I'm now starting to worry about cloudy weather for the eclipse. Even though we are prepared to travel, I still worry. The first 15 day forecast should include the 21st very soon.

 

Me too. But I will do my best to find the sun somewhere.

The GAE of 2017 is pretty momentous, particularly because of its accessibility. It is the first total solar eclipse visible in the US in nearly four decades. During the GAE, the Moon will cast a 70 mile wide shadow from Oregon to South Carolina. While the path of most total eclipses of our Sun take place over water or unpopulated areas, the GAE of 2017 will go down as the first total solar eclipse whose path of totality stays completely within the US since , you guessed it , 1776 !!!! How's that for some eclipse trivia? Feel free to share that little tidbit at your viewing party.

 

Over the next few days, I am going to share with you, my BGP astronomy friends, some information about a few other, what I consider, momentous solar eclipses in history. I hope you will enjoy.

Momentus Solar Eclipses in History--- Einstein's Eclipse of 1919

 

While the ancients viewed eclipses with superstition and as signs of great acts from God, physicists looked upon the 1919 solar eclipse as a triumph of science. During the epic 1919 eclipse, in which the sun vanished for a staggering 6 minutes , 51 seconds, scientists were able to measure , for the first time, the bending of light from the stars as they passed near the sun.

These momentous findings confirmed Einstein's theory of general relativity, which describes how the force of gravity is a warping of the space-time continuum.

Here's a pic of Einstein's Eclipse of May 29, 1919 , as captured by mcpapa. Look at that lovely corona!!!

 

Actually, this is a pic of that famous eclipse from Sobral , Brazil. The sun went dark for nearly 7 minutes that day!!!

 

I'll post some quizzes from time to time to let you test your astronomy knowledge. Here are the first ten questions that popped into my head. 8 or more correct answers means you have quite an impressive astronomy IQ. Don't post any answers for a day or two so everyone who is interested has a chance to mull them over. Then we'll post the answers. See how many you know without researching any of the answers.

 

Astronomy Quiz #1 :

 

1. If you were standing on the surface of this planet just as the sun was rising, you would notice something unusual. The sun would be rising in the western sky and not in the east. Not only does this planet rotate on its axis in the opposite direction that Earth does, but it rotates very, very slowly as compared to Earth. In fact, a "day" on this planet is equivalent to 243 days on Earth. _____________________

 

2. Approximately how long does it take light to travel a distance of 1 A.U.(Astronomical Unit) ? ______________

 

( 8 seconds , 8 minutes, 8 days, 8 weeks, 8 months)

 

3. What is the brightest star in the night sky? ________

 

4. The Asteroid Belt lies between which two planets? _________ and ________

 

5. Used to measure large astronomical distances, this is a unit of distance in astronomy equivalent to about 3.26 LY, or about 19 trillion miles in length. A little more mathematically speaking, this unit is the distance at which one astronomical unit subtends an angle of one second of arc. ____________

 

6. Named after the Dutch astronomer who first proposed its existence, this theoretical, roughly spherical, immense cloud of icy debris is believed to exist in the outermost reaches of the solar system. It is believed to surround the Sun to as far as somewhere between 0.8 LY and 3.2 LY. It is thought to be the origin of most of the long-period comets that have been observed. ___________________

 

7. The period of Halley's Comet is slightly more than ______ years.

( 66, 76, 86, 96, 133 )

 

8. This term refers to the boundary marking the limits of a black hole. Within this boundary, the escape velocity is greater than the speed of light. Thus, within this boundary, all paths that light could take are warped so as to fall farther into the black hole. So, not even a ray light can escape once it is inside this ______ ______.

 

9. The closest spiral galaxy to our own Milky Way, this galaxy, also known as M31, is located some 2.5 million LY away and is on a collision course with the Milky away some 4 billion years from now. _________________

 

10. SN 1054 is the best know supernova in the history of astronomy. It was first observed on July 4, 1054 and remained visible for two years. The core of the exploding star formed a pulsar. The remnant of SN 1054 consists of that pulsar and all the debris that was ejected during the explosion. The aftermath of the star's explosion is shown in the image below. It is known by what name????

______ ________

 

Edited August 5, 20179 yr by Science Friction

Here's a pic of Einstein's Eclipse of May 29, 1919 , as captured by mcpapa. Look at that lovely corona!!!

 

Actually, this is a pic of that famous eclipse from Sobral , Brazil. The sun went dark for nearly 7 minutes that day!!!

 

[ATTACH]63143[/ATTACH]

 

I'll post some quizzes from time to time to let you test your astronomy knowledge. Here are the first ten questions that popped into my head. 8 or more correct answers means you have quite an impressive astronomy IQ. Don't post any answers for a day or two so everyone who is interested has a chance to mull them over. Then we'll post the answers. See how many you know without researching any of the answers.

 

Astronomy Quiz #1 :

 

1. If you were standing on the surface of this planet just as the sun was rising, you would notice something unusual. The sun would be rising in the western sky and not in the east. Not only does this planet rotate on its axis in the opposite direction that Earth does, but it rotates very, very slowly as compared to Earth. In fact, a "day" on this planet is equivalent to 243 days on Earth. _____________________

 

2. Approximately how long does it take light to travel a distance of 1 A.U.(Astronomical Unit) ? ______________

 

( 8 seconds , 8 minutes, 8 days, 8 weeks, 8 months)

 

3. What is the brightest star in the night sky? ________

 

4. The Asteroid Belt lies between which two planets? _________ and ________

 

5. Used to measure large astronomical distances, this is a unit of distance in astronomy equivalent to about 3.26 LY, or about 19 trillion miles in length. A little more mathematically speaking, this unit is the distance at which one astronomical unit subtends an angle of one second of arc. ____________

 

6. Named after the Dutch astronomer who first proposed its existence, this theoretical, roughly spherical, immense cloud of icy debris is believed to exist in the outermost reaches of the solar system. It is believed to surround the Sun to as far as somewhere between 0.8 LY and 3.2 LY. It is thought to be the origin of most of the long-period comets that have been observed. ___________________

 

7. The period of Halley's Comet is slightly more than ______ years.

( 66, 76, 86, 96, 133 )

 

8. This term refers to the boundary marking the limits of a black hole. Within this boundary, the escape velocity is greater than the speed of light. Thus, within this boundary, all paths that light could take are warped so as to fall farther into the black hole. So, not even a ray light can escape once it is inside this ______ ______.

 

9. The closest spiral galaxy to our own Milky Way, this galaxy is located some 2.5 million LY away. and is on a collision course with the Milky away some 4 billion years from now. _________________

 

10. SN 1054 is the best know supernova in the history of astronomy. It was first observed on July 4, 1054 and remained visible for two years. The core of the exploding star formed a pulsar. The remnant of SN 1054 consists of that pulsar and all the debris that was ejected during the explosion. The aftermath of the star's explosion is shown in the image below. It is known by what name????

______ ________

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]63146[/ATTACH]

 

I missed one.

Momentous Eclipses in History: The Crucifixion of Jesus

 

Last night I was reading from the Gospels(I really was). In Ch 45, v. 27 Matthew writes, "Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour."

 

Luke, in Ch23, v. 44-45 writes, " And it was about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. And the sun was darkened, and the vail of the temple was rent in the midst."

 

I got to thinking last night that maybe we could use astronomy to pinpoint the eclipse that the gospel writers seemed to reference during Jesus' crucifixion.

 

Early historians viewed the darkened skies during the crucifixion either as a miracle or as a portent of darker times to come. Later historians, however, have tried to use astronomy to pinpoint the eclipse referenced by the gospel writers. Astronomers know there was a total solar eclipse in the year 29 C.E. that lasted 1 minute and 59 seconds(that is, totality lasted for almost two minutes). This is the year that most historians seem to think marked the death of Jesus. However, there was a second total solar eclipse that blocked out the sun for 4 min., 6 sec in the year 33 C.E. Could either of these total eclipses be the one that "darkened the sun" as Jesus was crucified at Golgotha???

 

Btw, Oldog75 was a bit too young in 29 C.E. to remember viewing this eclipse.

I missed one.

 

I officially declare you an astronomy whiz!!!!! Was #6 the one you missed?

I officially declare you an astronomy whiz!!!!! Was #6 the one you missed?

 

Yes. Drew a complete blank.