Total Solar Eclipse - Aug 21, 2017

[AudubonB]

5280 feet in a mile ?

View attachment 243599

Ding ding ding! Now I'm free to blather on with more drivel. Was held in abeyance until released by the TEGster's solution.

 

[Nikxice]

Did you take that photo? Wow! That is the first photo I have seen that portrays what I saw with my own eyes. It has a lot of detail. Can I post that on my blog page In the Path of Totality: Direct Experience is Best! (with credit to you of course) at

It's certainly a glorious image. I think it was one of the images shown Monday night on that slick quick NOVA special. If it was TEG's, WOW!

 

[Electroman]

View attachment 243587

This is the best picture I have seen anywhere on the internet.. period. Lovely beautiful picture.

 

[TEG]

That image is from this show:
Eclipse Over America — NOVA | PBS
You should watch it.

Three years of preparation, two minutes of totality. For this eclipse scientist, it's all worth it

 

[TEG]

Jay Pasachoff, Williams College – Today’s Total Solar Eclipse

 

[TEG]

 

[abasile]

The size of the Moon relative to the distance to the Sun is trivial when you consider all the other constants and physical properties of materials. I was discussing this with a Geophysicist friend the other day. Considering the long list of these things that have to be just right for the universe to work is amazing.

Just a couple, matter only exists because of a knife edge balance between the strong and weak nuclear forces. If one was a tiny bit stronger, all matter would collapse on itself and the entire universe would not exist. If the other was a tiny bit weaker, all atoms would fly apart and again, there would be no matter other than a sea of poorly organized protons, neutrons, and electrons.

Water is just about the weirdest liquid in the universe. It's density decreases as it freezes, which is almost a unique property. I believe liquid selenium is the only other liquid that does that. It allows life to live under ice when it's cold. Otherwise all bodies of water would freeze from the bottom up and life would be unable to live under ice. Water getting less dense as it freezes means it also expands and ice wedging is one major component in breaking down rock into soil in some climates. Water gets into small cracks and when it freezes, it breaks the rock because it expands.

Another weird property of water is it's insanely high surface density. That is used both in biology as well as in human engineering quite a bit. For example ships take advantage of that high surface tension to float.

If you stand back and look at these properties and see how they are all so carefully balanced, it's amazing.

It isn't proof there is any kind of divine intelligence, but Elon Musk may have been thinking of these things when he proposed the idea we're all living in a computer simulation. Though there would have to be some kind of intelligence beyond us controlling this, and it or they would likely exist in a realm very different from ours, possibly non-physical. In practical terms a god or gods, or something we would easily mistake for such beings.

Ultimately we probably can't come up with a definitive answer while still inside the "simulation".

Yes, compared with everything else in the universe that has to be "just right", I agree that the match between the angular diameters of the sun and moon is "trivial". It just happens to be something that attracts a lot of attention. That said, that Earth has a satellite of the Moon's mass and orbit is quite significant, beneficial, and apparently unusual.

As long as one of the requirements for advanced life to evolve on Earth is a moon with the properties of our Moon, why not set it up such that impressive eclipses reveal the sun's corona at the perfect time in Earth's history? I mean, we're already blessed with existence early enough in the history of the universe to be able to see back in time nearly all the way to the Big Bang, which provides huge learning opportunities, yet we're just barely late enough for the necessary heavier elements to have been formed in earlier generations of stars. We're here on Earth late enough to benefit from tremendous resources of cosmic and biological origin, yet just barely early enough to avoid being cooked out of existence by a sun with ever-increasing luminosity (on the time scale of millions of years, not relevant to today's global warming). And on and on...

Although I find the evidence for design quite compelling, I agree that from inside this universe, we may never be able to prove beyond all doubt that God exists, that there's no God, or that we are in a "simulation". For many of us, whether theist or atheist, that's where faith comes in - it's whatever we as humans decide to do with the evidence available to us.

 

[animorph]

Now that all the other problems in the world are solved God had some extra time on his hands.

Someone Tweet Him to stop with the Easter eggs and get on with the big problems

 

[ecarfan]

As long as one of the requirements for advanced life to evolve on Earth is a moon with the properties of our Moon...

In my opinion that is not a "requirement". Life on Earth evolved and has adapted to the Moon's existence just like it has adapted to other aspects of the terrestrial environment.

The fact that sometimes, in some locations on Earth, the apparent size of the Moon matches very closely to the apparent size of the Sun has no deeper meaning or significance in my opinion. And has been pointed out previously in this thread, millions of years ago the Moon was closer to the Earth and millions of years in the future it will be farther away, so during those time periods it's apparent size did not match the Sun.

 

[TEG]

I think all who see it agree that it is beautiful, regardless of their theories as to the origin and significance.

From the "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" standpoint can we think of anything thing else that more people would agree is beautiful ?

I have yet to encounter anyone who has seen an unobstructed totality who said it was a letdown.

 

[abasile]

IMG_0551_downsized

• abasile
• Aug 25, 2017

2017 total eclipse - panoramic "sunset" view from Torrington, WY airport

Okay, this isn't nearly as impressive as above views of the corona, but we were impressed by the "sunset" on the horizon in all directions. (And our Model S is near the center, with the hatch open...)

In my opinion that is not a "requirement". Life on Earth evolved and has adapted to the Moon's existence just like it has adapted to other aspects of the terrestrial environment.

Without the gravitational pull of the moon to greatly slow Earth's rotation rate, stabilize the tilt of Earth's rotation axis, produce significant tides, etc., it doesn't seem that we'd have life on Earth that's anything like what we have today. It seems certain that, without the moon, Earth would be a harsher place for life.

 

[Zaxxon]

Cool pic. I kicked myself for not getting a shot of the 360-degree sunset, but didn't want to move my camera from pointing up for fear of not getting all my sun shots.

 

[swaltner]

I took a photo that looked almost exactly like yours with the corona. I was hoping that there was something simple I could do to filter out the corona part which I'm guessing is essentially what you did. I see that you are way ahead of me and my 10 year old camera and zoom lens.

Cool software.

If you took your image in RAW format (generally only on a DSLR camera), there's a chance you could extract the data out of the image by loading it into photo manipulation software. If your camera compressed the data down into a JPG format, the information is likely gone for good.

 

[TEG]

None of the still images will ever capture the shimmering character of the corona.
It reminded me a bit of the pure / intense light I see when someone is doing arc welding off in the distance.
You aren't really supposed to look at that either without protective glasses. It is an intense light right on the edge of damaging your eyes.

 

[Incredulocious]

I created a video of our experience using multiple cameras (and a telescope and a drone):
A Total Eclipse of the Sun

 

[TEG]

That is great the way you jump between the different perspectives.

 

[TEG]

 

[TEG]

 

[HankLloydRight]

This is totally cool ... Science bitch!!!

 

[TEG]

That was crazy. 4K 60p video too...