[HN Gopher] Live NASA telescope feed for today's solar eclipse [...
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Live NASA telescope feed for today's solar eclipse [video]
Author : revicon
Score : 94 points
Date : 2024-04-08 17:08 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.youtube.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.youtube.com)
| ck2 wrote:
| also https://eclipse-explorer.smce.nasa.gov/
| hyperorca wrote:
| Here is the NASA stream with commentary:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MJY_ptQW1o
| doakes wrote:
| Is it just coincidence that from our point of view the moon looks
| like it's the exact same size as the sun? Or is there something
| else going on?
| atonse wrote:
| Yes it's an absolutely crazy coincidence that the moon is the
| correct proportion to its distance that results in perfect
| total eclipses.
|
| I remember learning this fact in an astronomy class and that
| we're not aware of this happening anywhere else in our solar
| system.
| eichin wrote:
| It's also "temporary" (moon's orbital radius increases
| ~4cm/year)
| doakes wrote:
| Interesting! I wonder how long ago (if ever) eclipses
| weren't even possible
| pie420 wrote:
| it's the opposite, a long time ago eclipses were "bigger"
| and happened more often, as the moon drifts farther away,
| it seems smaller to us and will no longer be big enough
| in our sky to block the sun one day.
| doakes wrote:
| Thanks for clarifying
| piptastic wrote:
| Estimates suggest that total solar eclipses could cease
| to occur in about 600 million years from now, give or
| take, depending on the precise nature of lunar recession
| and changes in Earth's rotation. This timeframe is long
| enough that many other changes on Earth and in the solar
| system will also occur, making the cessation of total
| solar eclipses just one of many transformations.
| Lerc wrote:
| Then we will have to endure a few million years of people
| arguing whether or not it should be called an eclipse or
| a transit
| mturmon wrote:
| Part of that is that Earth's moon is quite large compared to
| other moons like Phobos.
|
| Here's a nice pic of Phobos and Deimos as seen from the mast-
| camera of Curiosity, compared with Luna.
|
| I remember reading an Asimov piece many years ago where he
| was (typically) spinning out a kind of what-if about how the
| large size of the moon, and the consequent majorly-obvious
| eclipses, influenced the importance of ancient astronomy. Not
| to mention other effects like tides and moonlight.
| atonse wrote:
| Nice, I'd love to read that.
| basementcat wrote:
| Is this the link?
| https://www.universetoday.com/166028/perseverance-sees-
| phobo...
| phinnaeus wrote:
| He uses the "planet with a giant satellite" description of
| Earth as a plot point in Foundation (I think the final
| novel).
| make_clean wrote:
| I recall reading that is a remarkable and fortunate
| coincidence. Cannot find citation at the moment.
| netcraft wrote:
| check out this minutephysics video that explains and also talks
| about other eclipses in the solar system
| https://youtu.be/CikPFdZdY4k?si=NXpXHz06X3nZklt4
| theodorejb wrote:
| From my perspective it's one of many evidences that our planet
| was intentionally created by God. I think He wanted us to
| experience these rare and spectacular events and use them to
| make astronomical discoveries.
| 11101010001100 wrote:
| why can't it be 'accidentally' by God?
| aquova wrote:
| "It's a feature, not a bug" ~ God, probably
| m0rdoor54 wrote:
| Although I do not consider myself to be a very religious
| person I have to say, that is a very beautiful thought. It's
| exceedingly rare these days that any topic brought up on
| religion will actually give me pause and for a moment make me
| wonder if there is something beyond scientific coincidence.
| It just really goes to show how all the fanfare behind a
| natural phenomenon as simple as an eclipse can be such a
| worthwhile human experience to share.
| atonse wrote:
| I just want to say that I don't understand why this is being
| downvoted. I'm an atheist and still see it as a wonderful
| (and different) way to interpret this fact. Even I am in awe
| of that fact, and it's only natural for crazy coincidences to
| feel "intentional"
| exitb wrote:
| It's not the same size BTW. Depending on a particular
| configuration, the moon can be between 10% bigger and 10%
| smaller than sun.
| lambdaba wrote:
| Yes, this is the strangest coincidence of this entire setup to
| me, it doesn't seem related to enabling the development of life
| (besides, when life arose, the position of the moon was quite
| different), but it was instrumental in verifying the theory of
| relativity, just in time for humanity to discover it.
|
| And here's the backstory about verifying relativity:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_May_29,_1919
| nicklecompte wrote:
| The whole idea of an annular solar eclipse is that the size is
| not actually exact :)
|
| I think part of the perception that a total eclipse "perfectly"
| blocks the sun is that the corona has a fuzzy edge but the
| surface does not, so when the moon is actually larger than the
| sun in the sky you still see the same eerie coronal glow. In
| particular there's little perceptible difference between
| blocking 100% of the sun and blocking 105% of the sun, compared
| to 100% versus 95%.
| xandrius wrote:
| That was absolutely amazing and it was "just" a video. I wish I
| could get to see it again (saw it only once as a kid).
| sva_ wrote:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_August_12,_20...
| pavel_lishin wrote:
| I'm planning on taking my family to Reykjavik - we went
| earlier this year, and it was great, and it'll be greater
| still with a total eclipse!
| rootusrootus wrote:
| And a couple years later there is another one making a nice
| path all the way across Australia. Might be time to visit
| down under...
| davely wrote:
| If you want to what the Moon's shadow looks like as it crosses
| Earth, from space, I highly encourage you to check out NOAA's
| GOES Image Viewer! As of this moment, you can see a very dark
| circle crossing over the central United States.
|
| Even better, the website will animate the last 24 or so images
| (captured every 10 minutes). It's awesome! [1]
|
| [1]
| https://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/goes/fulldisk_band.php?sat=...
| BurningFrog wrote:
| This shows the last 4 hours, which looks great right now.
|
| Is there a way to "permalink" to these four hours in the
| future?
| fragmede wrote:
| there's a download link. could upload that to, eg imgur
| dylan604 wrote:
| Sitting under the cloud cover just praying that some of the
| gaps in the clouds would buddy up and make bigger gaps, I found
| myself looking forward this view of being able to distinctly
| see the shadow racing across the cloud tops prevent the
| terrestrial views. While the moment of totality was reached was
| obscured so that I barely made out the diamond ring effect, the
| majority of totality was behind very thin clouds.
|
| As luck would have it, within minutes after totality completed,
| it was blue sky with pretty much no clouds. I swear the gawds
| hate me or someone in my town!
| xyst wrote:
| Kind of cool to see it. But a bit overhyped.
|
| Just a small distraction that keeps us "united" for a moment in
| time.
| cjaybo wrote:
| Small?! Actually, despite how small it looks from here on
| Earth, the sun is very large!
| throwup238 wrote:
| Very large?
|
| I've covered that glorified fire ball with my thumb!
| qup wrote:
| Once covered up today, it revealed its true color: pink.
| Hardly the raging fireball they make it out to be.
| BrianHenryIE wrote:
| Did you experience totality?
|
| I saw the 2017 eclipse and found it was way better than I
| expected.
| xyst wrote:
| yea - I was in the path of totality. Just another
| "experience" I checked off the ole "bucket list".
|
| People really got emotional about it though. People were
| screaming, crying. Almost a mass hysteria event.
| dotnet00 wrote:
| And that's despite our scientific understanding of the
| phenomenon, really explains why people who lacked that
| understanding viewed eclipses as a bad omen.
| sophacles wrote:
| You're totally right. This was obviously just a nasa conspiracy
| where they sent the moon on a different trajectory for a little
| bit to keep us all from noticing the aliens!
| sourcecodeplz wrote:
| Nah, when I saw it as a kid it was amazing.
|
| It got cold & pitch dark in the middle of a summer day.
|
| Chickens went to sleep.
| pavel_lishin wrote:
| I just saw it. It felt like the exact correct level of hype.
| Incredible, and easily worth driving six hours for.
|
| The image of the corona around the sun is seared into my memory
| now, and I want to see it again - I see why some people become
| "eclipse-chasers", and travel the world to experience this
| again.
| staplers wrote:
| I hope you are able to find joy in this universe. Don't let
| others ruin your chance at a fulfilled life.
| remoquete wrote:
| TIL that eclipses have supersonic shadows that generate
| gravitational waves. https://www.livescience.com/61279-moon-s-
| supersonic-shadow-c...
| EForEndeavour wrote:
| Where in that article are gravitational waves mentioned?
| pdonis wrote:
| _> gravitational waves_
|
| You mean gravity waves [1], which are not the same thing as
| gravitational waves [2].
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_wave
|
| [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational_wave
| saganus wrote:
| The article mentions "waves in the ionosphere", not
| gravitational waves.
| lenerdenator wrote:
| Y'know, seeing two of these now, I totally get why a peasant in
| the olde times would freak out about this. It suddenly gets cold,
| your animals are freaking out, and the thing that makes your food
| grow is disappearing. Yeah, that's a problem.
| pavel_lishin wrote:
| Not only does it disappear, but it suddenly grows a lot of
| weird glowing hair!
| chasd00 wrote:
| I live in Dallas TX and this is the first total eclipse i
| remember. When totality got closer my shadow on the ground
| become strange, i can't put my finger on it but something about
| my shadow seemed different. The last minute or so increased the
| darkness very fast, it got wayyy darker than i was expecting.
| The streetlights came on, all my neighbor's porch lights came
| on, and I could see a star/planet next to the sun.
| pests wrote:
| During partial coverings the ambient light is reduced which
| makes shadows sharper and clearer.
| NortySpock wrote:
| Also the reduced light means your eyes have less light to
| discriminate color with, resulting in ordinarily bright
| colors being muted or gray-ish.
| dylan604 wrote:
| Yeah, the severe color change was an interesting
| experience. I didn't bother trying to image it, as the
| fakey fakeness of the enhancing software would have
| "corrected" it.
| function_seven wrote:
| Not only that, but the light source that's creating the
| shadow gets smaller (in terms of arc length), so the shadow
| becomes more crisp.
| dylan604 wrote:
| Hi neighbor! Even with the clouds covering at the critical
| moment, the experience was just so one of those things you
| must experience yourself as you'll never get a sense of it
| from just someone else describing it to you. I had been
| reading and watching content from people that had previously
| experience eclipses, and even though what they describe
| happening happened, it's just totally different in person. I
| used to say this about seeing the Grand Canyon for the first
| time after seen pictures/video of it, but the eclipse was at
| least 10x that experience.
|
| I'm thankful for the clouds clearing enough for the
| experience, but I really felt that the totally clear skies
| within minutes of totality ending was really just a slap in
| the face from the universe!
| acwan93 wrote:
| > I used to say this about seeing the Grand Canyon for the
| first time after seen pictures/video of it, but the eclipse
| was at least 10x that experience.
|
| I said the same thing about seeing Tunnel View in Yosemite
| for the first time. It's the closest thing that I can say
| that describes the experience and the eclipse eclipses
| (heh) that.
| toomuchtodo wrote:
| https://electrek.co/2024/04/08/solar-eclipse-impact-us-grid-...
| ("Watch the solar eclipse impact the US grid in real time")
| barfard wrote:
| shadow puppets - nobody cares
|
| moon shadow - everyone loses their minds
| staplers wrote:
| If only shadow puppets could cast astronomical radioactive
| plasma profiles onto a 100 mile wide audience..
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(page generated 2024-04-08 23:01 UTC)