Educational Eclipse

Last night around midnight I laid in bed hoping that thousands of people on the other side of the world took the opportunity to experience the once in a life time experience that would be a total solar eclipse.

If you agree that a wonderful piece of prose can help recreate the experience, I recommend this literary non-fiction from 1982 by Annie Dillard.

Today I'd like to share three things I learned about the solar eclipse, considering I'm somewhat of an astronomy geek.

1) Shadow Bands

One of the amazing things about total solar eclipses is because they are relatively rare, there are still phenomena that science is trying to explain.

This video of an eclipse (which I recommend with a little sound) actually shows none of the classic imagery of a solar eclipse, but it captures so much of the awe.



And should I be lucky enough to witness one in future, I would have to ensure I experienced all that's available, even if it meant sticking up some big sheets of paper!

I think I might have a look like that of Katie Mack in the second photo, and probably the third.

2) Gravitational Lensing

In addition to the fact these eclipses are so awe inspiring, they do offer a bit of science, beyond helping calculate the dimensions of the solar system.

This example includes one of my favourite phenomena, more frequently associated with deep space imagery - gravitational lensing.

It turns out when the total eclipse happens, astronomers can take the opportunity to locate stars prominent enough to shine through. Compare distance between stars as observed at night, and astronomers can see how the sun's mass has nudged light, thereby confirming general relativity.
Stunning.

A concise article here with two great images, or google "Eddington 1919 eclipse"

3) Flight of the Concorde

All speeds involved with the eclipse are pretty wild, but back in the 70s, long before SpaceX started landing rockets on sea barges, there was a curious supersonic jet about to go commercial that took the public relations opportunity to fly faster than the speed of sound across Africa to accompany a 1973 eclipse.
Curious Droid - NASA chasing a shadow at 50k feet | Concorde 1973

I've been quite addicted to that channel recently, some great videos to watch during a lunchtime subway.

The first two I learned directly from Skeptoid Episode #584 by Brian Dunning. It's a great 12 minute podcast (now with ads) that I might describe as mixing science with anthropology. Very easy to pick a few interesting topics, then get hooked.

Did you see #Eclipse2017? Did you travel to get there?