Talk about beating "astronomical" odds. It's rare enough for a particular town to be in the path of a total eclipse. But TWO of them within a span of seven years. Indeed the odds of that occurring are phenomenally long. However, the path of totality for today's Great American Eclipse and the April 8, 2024 eclipse intersect at Carbondale, Illinois. Just incredible !!!

 

The 2024 eclipse is just 2,422 days away. Make your plans early.

The 2024 eclipse is just 2,422 days away. Make your plans early.

I heard a guy on the Weather Channel say the 2024 eclipse totality would be longer than this one, over 4 minutes in some place. I'm going to try to be there for that one too if possible. After seeing this one there's no way I would miss it. Probably drive to somewhere in Indiana.

Talk about beating "astronomical" odds. It's rare enough for a particular town to be in the path of a total eclipse. But TWO of them within a span of seven years. Indeed the odds of that occurring are phenomenally long. However, the path of totality for today's Great American Eclipse and the April 8, 2024 eclipse intersect at Carbondale, Illinois. Just incredible !!!

 

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That one I'm making. If I have to walk to be there.:walk:

I heard a guy on the Weather Channel say the 2024 eclipse totality would be longer than this one, over 4 minutes in some place. I'm going to try to be there for that one too if possible. After seeing this one there's no way I would miss it. Probably drive to somewhere in Indiana.

 

That's what I plan on doing as well.

That's what I plan on doing as well.

 

Let me add... if I don't get smashed by a falling tree before 2024.

 

I'd rather do by way of an asteroid than a tree from my backyard.

Here's an article from a National Geographic writer who was at the Tsali Notch Vineyard where I viewed the eclipse yesterday. The link to the full article is at the end of the post.

 

MADISONVILLE, TENNESSEE Squint a little, and this might have looked like an ordinary day south of Knoxville, Tennessee—but at 2:31 p.m., all semblance of normalcy had fled with the afternoon sun.

 

The total solar eclipse, the first in nearly a century to traverse the entire continental U.S., threw normally quiet east Tennessee into jubilant chaos. The nearby town of Sweetwater had braced for its population to more than double, thanks to thousands of out-of-towners eager to stare at the sun. Hotels had been booked up for months; local schools have closed for the day. (See the most mesmerizing pictures of the eclipse.)

 

Some entrepreneurial landowners offered up their hayfields and front lawns for sky-watchers—for a price. One high school we drove by advertised its parking lot for $10 a spot, offering the luxury of “(real) bathrooms.”

 

This bustling scene is playing out across the country today. National Geographic photographers, writers, and editors have fanned out nationwide along the eclipse’s path of totality, with the hopes of giving you extraordinary glimpses of a darkened sky afire. A group of National Geographic writers and editors, myself included, decided to road-trip down to Rocky Top to see the eclipse firsthand.

 

Sunlight dappled the road, and Bonnie Tyler belted through the car radio as we snaked our way to Tsali Notch Vineyard, our base camp for the day. The rows of grapevines and tents were within spitting distance of the path of totality’s center. The vineyard had estimated that it would host more than 3,000 people for the eclipse—one of the biggest events they’ve ever had.

 

What It Was Like to See a Total Solar Eclipse

The longest possible duration of a total eclipse is 7 min, 32 sec. That is, "totality" can last no longer than 7:32. The Apr. 8, 2024 total eclipse that many of us are hoping to view will have a maximum duration of 4:28, almost two minutes longer than this week's GAE. So, if you are still alive and kickin' , make every effort to get to totality on that day.

 

Btw, if you miss that one, there will be a total solar eclipse whose path of totality cuts right through the heart of the Buckeye State and has a duration of a whopping 5:18. The date for that one ..... September 14, 2099 !!!! Be there or be square!

Astronomers have captured the best-ever image of the red supergiant Antares. Antares is the 15th brightest star in the night sky and is the brightest star in the constellation Scorpius. The supergiant is about 15 to 18 times as massive as the Sun and has a radius about 883 times our sun. If Antares was in our solar system, its outer surface would extend out to between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

 

The new images, produced using the ESO's Very Large Telescope in Chile, are the most detailed ever taken of a star's surface and atmosphere, besides our sun. Antares is 550 LY from the Sun.

 

This superb program was televised tonight by PBS (9:00-11:00) in association to the celebration of the upcoming 40th anniversary of the launching of Voyager 1, and its twin Voyager 2 in 1977.

 

If you missed it, I highly recommend catching it if they happen to air it again, or try finding it online.

 

Super interesting. Not only is the subject matter cosmically fascinating, I just loved listening to all of these highly intelligent scientists of NASA recount the Voyager mission, while this program also reminds us that they too are simply just down to earth, feeling, emotional human beings.

 

The Farthest: Voyager in Space (Running Time: 1:40)

 

w/ an additional 15 minute program that followed entitled "Second Genesis" that examined Saturn's icy moon Enceladus with gigantic geysers that blast water into space at supersonic speeds, and the push for further study of it to see what clues it might hold in understanding the origins of life.

 

Learn how NASA’s epic Voyager missions, launched in 1977, revolutionized our understanding of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and their dazzling moons and rings. In 2012, Voyager 1 left our solar system and ushered humanity into the interstellar age.

 

NEW EPISODE

This superb program was televised tonight by PBS (9:00-11:00) in association to the celebration of the upcoming 40th anniversary of the launching of Voyager 1, and its twin Voyager 2 in 1977.

 

If you missed it, I highly recommend catching it if they happen to air it again, or try finding it online.

 

Super interesting. Not only is the subject matter cosmically fascinating, I just loved listening to all of these highly intelligent scientists of NASA recount the Voyager mission, while this program also reminds us that they too are simply just down to earth, feeling, emotional human beings.

 

The Farthest: Voyager in Space (Running Time: 1:40)

 

w/ an additional 15 minute program that followed entitled "Second Genesis" that examined Saturn's icy moon Enceladus with gigantic geysers that blast water into space at supersonic speeds, and the push for further study of it to see what clues if might hold in understanding the origins of life.

 

Learn how NASA’s epic Voyager missions, launched in 1977, revolutionized our understanding of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and their dazzling moons and rings. In 2012, Voyager 1 left our solar system and ushered humanity into the interstellar age.

 

NEW EPISODE

 

Great post. Thank you, my friend. I was away from the house, but will surely catch it later. Btw, Enceledus is one of only four bodies in our solar system that is known to have volcanic activity. The others--- Earth , Triton, and Io.

Great post. Thank you, my friend. I was away from the house, but will surely catch it later. Btw, Enceledus is one of only four bodies in our solar system that is known to have volcanic activity. The others--- Earth , Triton, and Io.

 

Cool...I think that you'll really dig it.

 

BTW...my windows face the western sky, and though I have a lot of light pollution here in the city, and rarely can see much in the night sky, presently I can clearly see a brilliant shimmering star just a short distance above my neighbor's roof top and was wondering if by chance you might know what I'm looking at?

 

Of course where you are you're probably fortunate enough to see a ton of stuff in your western sky, but I imagine that this star that I'm able to see would jump out at you brighter than anything else you're capable of seeing there.

Cool...I think that you'll really dig it.

 

BTW...my windows face the western sky, and though I have a lot of light pollution here in the city, and rarely can see much in the night sky, presently I can clearly see a brilliant shimmering star just a short distance above my neighbor's roof top and was wondering if by chance you might know what I'm looking at?

 

Of course where you are you're probably fortunate enough to see a ton of stuff in your western sky, but I imagine that this star that I'm able to see would jump out at you brighter than anything else you're capable of seeing there.

 

Though it's dropping now from my view, and almost sitting on my neighbors roof, from what I found online I believe that I might be looking at Jupiter.

Though it's dropping now from my view, and almost sitting on my neighbors roof, from what I found online I believe that I might be looking at Jupiter.

 

Jupiter would be very low in the western sky.

 

There's an exciting Venus-Jupiter conjunction that is coming up in a few days. I will write about it tonight or tomorrow. Stay tuned....