27
Mar
Total Solar Eclipse Map
Topic: Stuff and Nonsense
I’ve been an astronomy buff all my life, but I’ve never seen a total solar eclipse. There’s going to be a total solar eclipse in two days, but you need to be in Brazil, the Atlantic Ocean, Africa, or the Middle East to see it. I came across this very cool map of where to see total eclipses between 2001-2025. The next one that will be visible in the US is in 2017, so mark your calendars ;-).
This article explains what it’s like to witness a solar eclipse, and why they’re visible only within paths that are typically thousands of miles long but only about 100 miles wide:
Only during totality can one observe the pearly white solar corona, as well as the ruddy chromosphere, and prominences – sights that are normally hidden from our view by the brilliant light of the Sun. In addition, darkness similar to 20 or 30 minutes after sundown suddenly falls over the surrounding landscape, allowing the brighter stars and planets to appear while strange and exotic colors rim the horizon…The regions from where the spectacular sight of a totally eclipsed Sun can be seen, however, are strictly confined to a narrow track; the path that the dark central shadow of the Moon (called the “umbra”) traces out over the Earth’s surface. That track may run for thousands of miles, yet may average less than a hundred miles in width. So while the dark lunar shadow might sweep over the Earth twice over a span of just three years, for a specific geographical location, the odds of lying directly in the path of that shadow is very small.
Print
