Posted on 04/07/2024 7:50:15 PM PDT by DoodleBob
… What is the value in the coming spectacle, beyond oohs and aahs?
Perhaps it is in the dramatic demonstration that we are all, regardless of our divisive politics and cultural strife today, riding the same floating sphere, one among countless of them, some of which line up in random but beautiful ways from time to time.
Democrats and Republicans alike will look up together in fascination on Monday. It will be a bipartisan moment of galactic proportions.
The eclipse's path will take it far north of Washington, D.C. That's too bad. If there's any crowd that needs reminding of its own insignificance in the universe, it's that one.
Science isn't flawless. But it's infinitely more trustworthy than those who don't trust it: those who blithely assume their favorite cable news hosts know better than medical experts whether vaccines are safe and effective; those who choose to believe the self-serving obfuscation of industry over the sober factual analyses of climate scientists regarding global warming; those who, in service to ideology, denigrate the very notion of objective scientific fact.
Everyone in a position to see it - but especially those who spurn the value of scientific expertise - should make sure they're outside on Monday as the moon slides in front of the sun, right on schedule, exactly as the science has told us it will.
(Excerpt) Read more at stltoday.com ...
Amateur astronomer John Irwin released a new map of the 115-mile path from Maine through Texas which has revealed its changed by roughly 2,000 feet.
However, despite the reports that the path has shifted, NASA said it isn't altering its predictions.
Best movie to watch for the eclipse:
Night of the Comet (1984)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087799/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
If we throw Helen Thomas into a volcano the sun will triumph and there will be no eclipse...it’s science!
I’ll bet the EV charging action will be fun.
Especially as the Solar Panels take an energy input hit.
They’ve been accurately predicting eclipses for thousands of years.
The Geeks had solar eclipses figured out OVER 2000 YEARS AGO with that Zamboni Mechanism or whatever the hell it’s called.
This is nothing new.
A little education goes a long ways toward understanding what to barf about:
Eclipse maps are computed based on a set of parameters and assumptions. The choice of parameters values and assumptions lead to slightly different eclipse maps.
The eclipse limits in John Irwin’s map have been computed using an accurate eclipse computational methodology, using an improved value of the solar radius and accounting for the topography of both the lunar limb and Earth. This leads to a more accurate eclipse map, we believe the most accurate we can achieve with today’s knowledge and the closest to reality.
Some other maps use the “standard” solar radius as a parameter. This solar radius was measured more than a century ago, but recent determinations give support to a solar radius slightly larger than the standard value.
I went to Hawaii to see the eclipse in 1991. Got to see the bottom of clouds for that one. But while there I bought a book that showed that two eclipses would occur over my home in Southeast Missouri. One in 2017 and one tomorrow. Predicting eclipses in something ‘science’ is really good at and has been for a very long time. Predicting the efficacy of vaccines or men getting pregnant, maybe not so much.
Then, why hasn’t NASA used the more accurate data?
How did they get pwned by an “amateur”?
And why are they sticking to their inaccurate map?
Yes, 2,000 feet is peanuts. But still…
There might be a comet visible during this eclipse. Bring binoculars just in case!
The barf alert was well-deserved, and the rhetoric could only have been the issue of a committee of editors, no self-respecting writer would affix his solo name to this tripe.Didn’t take long either to get right to reviving the undying COVID paradigm, undermining the argument that this brings us all together (SOME people need reminding I suppose is the message) Insufferable!
I gassed up my 700 mile range all ICE truck today.
I don’t expect a personal, local, travel energy reservoir problem tomorrow.
Global Warming causes eclipse. The science is settled.
Scientific authoritarianism is not science.
#Lysenkoism
As was pointed out elsewhere—cowering crowds will be clamoring for the aim of the archer’s flaming arrows be true so that the Sun will be re-ignited.
“Antikythera mechanism”
Thanks, couldn’t remember the name.
Very minor changes in the position of the Moon or of the rotation of the Earth make significant changes to the path of totality.
And both have small scale variations that are impossible to predict.
Now imagine another situation where the Department of Commerce funded the astronomers to predict different days and a different path for the eclipse because it fit various regions' desire for tourism.
Or if the Department of Energy wanted to reduce travel to see the eclipse "predicted" that the entire country would be under totality. Then some astronomers produced a different map showing a hundred mile wide path from Texas to Maine, but then their grant money for research was pulled. Imagine if a Presidential candidate held a "sun's gone, Biden's gone" rally in Missouri, but 51 intelligence officers signed a letter saying that location was picked because of the Russians. Imagine if the government told Google and various social networks to suppress alternate eclipse maps.
We can trust the science behind the eclipse path prediction solely because it hasn't been polluted by politics. Because of that This editorial makes me think of Eisenhower's warning in his farewell address:
Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded.
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