08/21/17 Total eclipse -- Time to get serious.

Quote: GWAE

next solar eclipse in a few days, but only to south america. 1744 days until our next eclipse.

I just learned recently that eclipses follow a regular pattern, and that the "same" eclipse occurs every 18 years, 11 days, 8 hours. This period is called a "Saros".

Similar, but different.

In astronomy, an analemma is a diagram showing the position of the Sun in the sky, as seen from a fixed location on Earth at the same mean solar time, as that position varies over the course of a year. The diagram will resemble the figure 8. Globes of Earth often display an analemma.

Which looks like this:

so you are saying the sun will be in those positions at say 1pm in consecutive days? I never knew that.

Quote: Ayecarumba

I just learned recently that eclipses follow a regular pattern, and that the "same" eclipse occurs every 18 years, 11 days, 8 hours. This period is called a "Saros".

I find it fascinating that there is an exact pattern like this. The earth/planets/stars are traveling as such crazy speeds and rotating and everything else that it is amazing that this happens to an exact minute

Quote: GWAE

Quote: Ayecarumba

I just learned recently that eclipses follow a regular pattern, and that the "same" eclipse occurs every 18 years, 11 days, 8 hours. This period is called a "Saros".

I find it fascinating that there is an exact pattern like this. The earth/planets/stars are traveling as such crazy speeds and rotating and everything else that it is amazing that this happens to an exact minute

It makes sense if you think about how we mark time. Sunrise and sunset are tied to the rotation of the Earth, the phases of the Moon are tied to the rotation of the Earth around the Sun... These regular cycles repeat and we divide and sub-divide these periods into years, months, days, hours, etc. Since eclipses involve objects that move in regular rhythms, it makes sense that the shadows also follow a regular pattern. The problem for us is our relatively short lifespan compared to the time between the events in the pattern.

Trivia!:

Deep six your wristwatch and try to understand
the time it seems to capture is just the movement of its hands.
Time is relative. A two hour concert might be four hours too short for me, but three hours too long for someone else.
Ten minutes of making love goes by in a flash but it takes an eternity to run to your car in a cloudburst.

Quote: Ayecarumba

Trivia!:

On July 16, 2186 the longest total eclipse between 3000 BC and 6000 AD will last...

7 minutes and 29 seconds. It is likely that I'm going to miss that one.

It doesn't have to be that way.

https://www.cryonics.org/

Today's episode of xkcd seems relevant...

https://xkcd.com/2685/