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I watched NASA live program on C-Span and saw totality approach, arrive and leave at five locations: Oregon; somewhere in Wyoming, I think; Jefferson City, MO; Hopkinsville, KY (where a friend lives); Smoky Mts.; and finally, Charleston, SC. It was magnificent except in Charleston, where cloud cover prevented your seeing the corona, which in turn prevented your seeing the sun as a black disk (because EVERYTHING was black). Afterward I went outside,and the clouds here had gone away from the sun. I sneaked a quick peek at the sun through the special dark glasses, and sure enough, there was the sun, orange-colored and like an orange with a bite eaten out of it. All in all, it was a wonderfully satisfying time of viewing. The next issues of Time and Newsweek might be worth buying at the newsstand, and an upcoming issue of National Geographic perhaps best of all. There probably will be special publications devoted to the eclipse, too. The weather across the US cooperated very nicely.
Also--strange--I think it was the view from the Smoky Mts.--showed long, triangular shaped shafts of light emanating from the circumference of the blacked-out sun so it actually looked like a five-pointed STAR. I don't know what made it appear like that; perhaps we'll learn. Stars are NOT pointed, of course; they, like all celestial bodies, are spherical. The spherical shape is due to the inward gravitational pull, equal in all directions (barring competing disturbances) the body itself exerts on its own mass from the center of that mass.
Glad you enjoyed watching the eclipse on TV, Elaine, and you have found me out for the plagiarist I am. A couple of months ago watched a C-Span new book interview with Neil DeGrasse Tyson as the guest author. He was so interesting I bought his book, "Astrophysics for People in a Hurry." I've read books for laypersons on this subject before, and invariably—no matter how the book is advertised as "easy to understand"—by the third chapter I am in over my head, forgetting what was in chapter one. But DeGrasse Tyson's book WAS easier to understand much of the way through. Not the mathematics, of course—he doesn't even attempt to explain that. I don't remember him saying a whole lot about eclipses, but toward the end, he is discussing something and explains why celestial bodies are necessarily spherical. I didn't exactly quote him, but I used what he said in my comment, and I remember checking the book to make sure I was right. Caught by CV's Sherlock Holmes!
I watched NASA live program on C-Span and saw totality approach, arrive and leave at five locations: Oregon; somewhere in Wyoming, I think; Jefferson City, MO; Hopkinsville, KY (where a friend lives); Smoky Mts.; and finally, Charleston, SC. It was magnificent except in Charleston, where cloud cover prevented your seeing the corona, which in turn prevented your seeing the sun as a black disk (because EVERYTHING was black). Afterward I went outside,and the clouds here had gone away from the sun. I sneaked a quick peek at the sun through the special dark glasses, and sure enough, there was the sun, orange-colored and like an orange with a bite eaten out of it. All in all, it was a wonderfully satisfying time of viewing. The next issues of Time and Newsweek might be worth buying at the newsstand, and an upcoming issue of National Geographic perhaps best of all. There probably will be special publications devoted to the eclipse, too. The weather across the US cooperated very nicely.
ReplyDeleteAlso--strange--I think it was the view from the Smoky Mts.--showed long, triangular shaped shafts of light emanating from the circumference of the blacked-out sun so it actually looked like a five-pointed STAR. I don't know what made it appear like that; perhaps we'll learn. Stars are NOT pointed, of course; they, like all celestial bodies, are spherical. The spherical shape is due to the inward gravitational pull, equal in all directions (barring competing disturbances) the body itself exerts on its own mass from the center of that mass.
Thanks for all the advice Lanny DeGrasse Howe. I watched NASA, CNN, and for real - a treat.
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed watching the eclipse on TV, Elaine, and you have found me out for the plagiarist I am. A couple of months ago watched a C-Span new book interview with Neil DeGrasse Tyson as the guest author. He was so interesting I bought his book, "Astrophysics for People in a Hurry." I've read books for laypersons on this subject before, and invariably—no matter how the book is advertised as "easy to understand"—by the third chapter I am in over my head, forgetting what was in chapter one. But DeGrasse Tyson's book WAS easier to understand much of the way through. Not the mathematics, of course—he doesn't even attempt to explain that. I don't remember him saying a whole lot about eclipses, but toward the end, he is discussing something and explains why celestial bodies are necessarily spherical. I didn't exactly quote him, but I used what he said in my comment, and I remember checking the book to make sure I was right. Caught by CV's Sherlock Holmes!
ReplyDelete