LEONID METEOR SHOWER: Earth is entering a stream of debris from Comet Tempel-Tuttle, source of the annual Leonid meteor shower. Watch this Leonid disintegrate over Michigan on Nov. 12th. Forecasters expect the shower to peak on the morning of Nov. 17th with 15 to 20 Leonids per hour: sky map.
TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE: Mark your calendar. On Dec. 14, 2020, the new Moon will pass directly in front of the sun, producing a total solar eclipse--the only one this year. The path of totality cuts across southern Chile and Argentina, as shown in this new video from space artist Larry Koehn:
At maximum, the sun will be hidden for 2 minutes and 10 seconds, revealing the sun's ghostly corona to onlookers inside the Moon's shadow. The sky will darken, a cool breeze will move across the landscape, and night birds will sing at midday. On a scale of 1 to 10, it's a million.
Normally, a solar eclipse prompts warnings of eye safety. Wear your eclipse glasses! This year it's important to wear a mask as well. The eclipse is occurring during a global pandemic. To prevent it from becoming a super-spreader event, crowds should obey all local masking and social distancing ordinances.
Above: A word cloud from Chile's official COVID website shows cities with high infection rates.
Most of the people who see the eclipse will be in Chile. The path of totality passes directly through the country's 3rd largest tourist area including popular resort destinations Pucon and Villarrica. Chile will open its borders to international travelers with negative COVID-19 tests on Nov. 30th, allowing access to the eclipse zone. Using a government website, travelers can explore infection rates along the path of totality. Unfortunately, the largest city in the path of totality, Temuco (population 220,000) is in complete lockdown, so eclipse chasers need to be very careful indeed.
Spaceweather.com has local photographers on the ground in Chile who will be sending us pictures during the eclipse. Stay tuned for a live view of the greatest show on Earth! (One month from now.)
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ROSE QUARTZ ECLIPSE PENDANT: On Aug. 21, 2017, during the Great American Solar Eclipse, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched 11 space weather balloons from the path of totality. They aimed to photograph the Moon's shadow from the stratosphere--and they succeeded. As a fundraiser, some of the balloons carried jewelry. Here is a rose quartz crystal pendant entering the Moon's shadow more than 90,000 feet above the Malheur National Forest in eastern Oregon:
During the 2.5 hour flight, the pendants were wrapped in the Moon's shadow for more than two minutes, experiencing a spooky darkness colder than -50 C.
You can have one for $169.95. Each crystal pendant comes with a unique gift card showing the jewelry passing through the Moon's shadow and floating at the top of Earth's atmosphere. The interior of the card tells the story of the flight and confirms that this gift has been to the edge of space and back again.
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