SPACE WEATHER SERVICE ALERT: On Monday, Aug. 21st, during the Great American Solar Eclipse, Spaceweather.com and the students of Earth to Sky Calculus plan to launch as many as a dozen space weather balloons into the Moon's shadow. Floating high above the path of totality, cameras will snap pictures while cosmic ray sensors map radiation levels. Because webmaster Dr. Tony Phillips is leading one of the launch teams, regular updates to Spaceweather.com might not take place on Aug. 20th and 21st. The consolation prize will be unique data and photos, post-eclipse. Sorry for the interruption! Browse: Realtime Eclipse Photo Gallery
WHY GO TO THE PATH OF TOTALITY? The USA is about to experience an historic solar eclipse. In most places, the eclipse will be partial--that is, the Moon will cross the sun off-center leaving only a crescent-shaped portion of the solar disk exposed. Is it really worth the trip to the path of totality when you can see most of the sun covered from the comfort of your own home? Pulitzer prize winner Annie Dillard witnessed both types of eclipse in 1979, and her comparison might help you make up your mind:
"A partial eclipse is very interesting. It bears almost no relation to a total eclipse. Seeing a partial eclipse bears the same relation to seeing a total eclipse as kissing a man does to marrying him, or as flying in an airplane does to falling out of an airplane."
During the minutes of totality, the whole world changes. Saying that day turns into night barely scratches the surface of it. The shadow of the Moon lances down to Earth from a quarter million miles away. On one end is you; on the other end is a million square miles of dusty lunar terrain. You're connected, and you can feel the cold.
Image Credit & Copyright: Tunç Tezel (TWAN), Alkim Ün
Darkness inside the path of totality has an alien quality. Because the shadow is only 70 miles wide, you can see daylight at the edges even while you stand in the dark core. This distant scattered light produces a slight reddish glow and unusual shadow effects. Many birds stop singing, daytime flower blossoms begin to close as if for the night, and bees return to their hives.
"What you see in an eclipse is entirely different from what you know," says Dillard, whose brilliant essay "Total Eclipse" is a must-read for anyone deciding whether to stay home ... or have their minds blown.
Realtime Eclipse Photo Gallery
WEIRD WAYS TO OBSERVE THE SOLAR ECLIPSE: During the Great American Solar Eclipse on Aug. 21, 2017, only a narrow slice of the USA will experience totality--the magical moment when the disk of the Moon completely covers the sun. The rest of the country will see a partial eclipse. The sun, still blindingly bright, will turn into a crescent as the Moon passes in front of it off-center. How do you safely observe this phenomenon? Believe it or not, you probably already own a solar eclipse viewer. It's in your kitchen. John Stetson of Maine demonstrates:
"It's a vegetable steamer," explains Stetson. "During the eclipse on the 21st, sunbeams projected through holes in the steamer will appear as crescents."
"The Chinese were the first to record the use of pinhole projection to observe eclipses in 500 BCE," he adds. "At the beginning of Western Civilization, Aristotle also wrote about this phenomenon."
Looking through his kitchen in Brisbane, Australia, Duncan Waldron found something else that works. "Try a water biscuit," he suggests. "With smaller holes, you'll see more detail of the bright crescent Sun."
This proves that you have have your eclipse and eat it, too.
Anything with pinholes or tiny gaps can serve this purpose. Colanders are ideal. Even a tree will do the trick. Sunbeams lancing through gaps in the leafy canopy form crescent shaped spots on sidewalks and other surfaces. "Here is my son, Charley, standing behind a bush on June 10, 2002 during a partial eclipse," says Stetson. "Crescents may be seen projected onto his shirt."
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
SOLAR ECLIPSE PENDANTS: Would you like to support our Solar Eclipse Balloon Network? Here's one way: Buy a space pendant. This solar eclipse-themed necklace flew to the stratosphere on July 2, 2017, attached to the payload of an Earth to Sky Calculus space weather balloon:
The payload contained more just like it. If you buy one now for $99.95, we will fly it back to the stratosphere during the Great American Solar Eclipse on August 21, 2017, where it will be enveloped by the Moon's cool shadow above our launch site in Oregon. No additional charge! Just make a note in the COMMENTS BOX of the shopping cart: "Please fly my pendant into the eclipse!" Each pendant comes with a greeting card showing the jewelry in flight and telling the story of its journey to the stratosphere and back again.
More items from the edge of space may be found in the Earth to Sky Store. All proceeds support atmospheric radiation monitoring and hands-on STEM education.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All proceeds support hands-on STEM education