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Posted on 08/17/2017 7:46:43 AM PDT by Heartlander
Things get a little weird during an eclipse. Here are six things to look for.
While there are many superstitions about eclipses, there are also a lot of weird things that happen during an eclipse that are completely real -- and super cool. Here are six incredible things to look for during the eclipse on August 21.
"A totally eclipsed sun is 10,000 times fainter than one that is 99 percent covered by the moon," Meg Pickett, astrophysicist and a professor of physics at Lawrence University told CNET. The change in light during an eclipse makes the temperature drop suddenly, which makes animals think that night is coming.
As the total eclipse begins, animals begin their evening songs and behavior, such as crickets chirping. As the eclipse ends, the animals think that morning is coming. If you're in the country, you'll be able to hear roosters crow.
During the eclipse, the sky will get so dark that stars will look just as bright as they would during the evening. If you live close to the total eclipse zone, you'll even be able to see planets like Jupiter and Venus easily.
Right before a total eclipse, little snake-like shadows will appear to slither across the ground. According to NASA, scientists aren't completely sure why shadow bands happen. Many scientists believe that they are caused by light from the eclipse being focused and refocused through cells of air in the atmosphere.
Shadow bands are a rare sight during the eclipse, but you may be able to see them with the right equipment, timing and location. The most important part is the color of the ground. You can see the bands best on light colors. Some people lay a large white sheet on the ground. You may also spot them by looking at concrete, sand, snow or ice.
"In 2015, I saw the eclipse in Svalbard, just 800 miles from the North Pole," said Mark Bender, a longtime eclipse chaser who has followed eclipses from Norway to Australia, and also the director of CuriosityStream docu-series Eclipse Across America. "I was standing on a landscape covered with ice -- just like an enormous white sheet. And there they were! It's all about being at the right place at the right time."
Bailey's beads are pearls of sunlight shining through the valleys and mountains of the moon, explained Pickett. You'll see them around the edges of the moon as it passes over the sun.
"The beads may look reddish in color, exposing the upper atmosphere of the sun, the chromosphere, or 'Sphere of Color.,'" said Pickett.
Corona rainbows happens when the air is full of water molecules. "During the eclipse in 1999, I was watching in Cornwall, England," said Bender. "It was a completely overcast and rainy day. Leading up to the eclipse, you couldn't see the sun at all. Three minutes before totality, the sun started to peak though, and with one minute to go, clouds dissipated and the entire sky opened up. We lucked out, but the best was yet to come. Even though the rain had stopped, there was still so much water vapor in the air. When the sun eclipsed, the corona was full of tiny rainbows! Imagine seeing the stunning corona in full color! I have never seen that since, but anything is possible. You just don't know how it will play out."
During totality, or when the sun is completely covered by the moon, you can see a what looks like a sunset-- in every direction-- around the horizon.
When he was 15 in July 1963, NASA researcher and Dickinson College Professor of physics and astronomy Robert Boyle witnessed his first solar eclipse in Bangor, Maine. "When totality arrived, I was amazed at how dark it got," Boyle told CNET. "The silence that descended around us was as profound as it was unexpected. The birds stopped chirping. The air grew still. And all around the horizon where the clouds left a little gap of sky, there was a crimson band of light as if sunset was a 360-degree phenomenon."
The strange 360-sunset effect happens, Boyle says, because the sun is still shining outside the path of totality.
It’s a racist eclipse. The path of totality will include 5 state capitols—Salem, OR; Lincoln, NE; Jefferson City, MO; Nashville, TN, and Columbia, SC. Three of those were Confederate states. Nebraska was opened to slavery by the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Oregon did not have slavery, but it forbade free black people from coming there to live.
Pink Floyd must be enjoying a boost in Dark Side of the Moon sales.
There is no dark side of the moon, really. Matter of fact, it’s all dark.
We'll be right in the center of it on Monday (our son lives just 5 miles from dead-center in South Carolina). We're driving up in the motorhome, arriving tomorrow to beat the crowds.
I do have a concern about people being on the road, freeways especially, who (unbelievable as it may seem) have no idea the eclipse is coming. Sadly, I think there will be lots of accidents.
I see what you did there :D
Topple the racist eclipse!! Put out the word...space ships taking reservations, now!
Is there a chart showing the time the eclipse begins in each area ?
I was wondering the same thing!
Thanks, bigbob, for posting that interactive map.
Shadows of leaves on the ground under trees turn into dark rings ... very weird.
They’ll crow any time they hear another in the distance crow, or something that vaguely sounds like a crow will set them off.
Any light source appearing in the dark’ll make them crow, too...
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