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Great American Eclipse August 21, 2017


RV ME
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An eclipse is an awesome event. But viewing it incorrectly can cause severe eye injury. Sun glasses are not enough. Look for a NASA  APPROVED glasses. I found a pair at a local camera store for about $6. If you find pair DO NOT LOOK AT THE ECLIPSE DIRECTLY THROUGH BINOCULARS OR TELESCOPE. 

HOPE FOR CLEAR SKIES!

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17 minutes ago, magawatt said:

An eclipse is an awesome event. But viewing it incorrectly can cause severe eye injury. Sun glasses are not enough. Look for a NASA  APPROVED glasses. I found a pair at a local camera store for about $6. If you find pair DO NOT LOOK AT THE ECLIPSE DIRECTLY THROUGH BINOCULARS OR TELESCOPE. 

HOPE FOR CLEAR SKIES!

 

That is true leading up to and coming out of the eclipse.  However, during totality eye protection is not needed.


 

Looking directly at the sun is unsafe except during the brief total phase of a solar eclipse (“totality”), when the moon entirely blocks the sun’s bright face, which will happen only within the narrow path of totality.

https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/safety

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Remember, anything less than 100% totality will not suffice.  If you are looking at a map and are on the edge of totality you might want to move more towards the center line.  The “experts” are now saying the maps could be off by a mile or more around the edges.  I think it’s funny they are saying that, but this article talks about how the KC City Hall will see a partial eclipse while the Federal Courthouse (only a few blocks away) will be in totality.  Also, a good video and link to interactive map on page, but I could not get them to post here.  RV ME

 

Those maps of eclipse’s path? ‘Wrong,’ experts say — off by up to a half-mile at edge


By Eric Adler

August 10, 2017 7:00 AM

Anyone who has been using online maps to decide where they intend to view the historic Aug. 21 total eclipse of the sun may want to take another look.

 

Those maps, provided by NASA and others, show a crisply defined, 70-mile-wide path of totality where the moon will block 100 percent of the sun. But they are not as precise as they appear, at least on their edges.

 

The southern edge of the path as shown on the maps could be off by as little as the length of a football field or as much as a half-mile, eclipse mapping experts say. Likewise for the northern edge, meaning the path of totality might be just 69 miles wide.

 

“This is an issue. This is really an issue, but it’s not advertised. … Yeah, all the maps are wrong,” Mike Kentrianakis, who is the solar eclipse project manager for the American Astronomical Society and who routinely consults with NASA, told The Star.

 

It effectively means that people who assumed, based on the Google maps, that their location was just within the path of totality — thus expecting to witness a few seconds of total eclipse — will instead see a partial eclipse. That could turn out to be a total disappointment, according to eclipse experts, who say that observing even a 99.9 percent partial eclipse is not at all the same as viewing a total eclipse.

 

It’s been nearly 40 years since a total solar eclipse crossed part of the contiguous United States. Ninty-nine years have passed since one spanned the breadth of the continent, as will happen Aug. 21. Knowing precisely where the path of totality begins and ends is crucial.

 

Current maps show the eclipse’s southern edge cutting through downtown Kansas City south of Interstate 70, slicing across buildings, including The Kansas City Star’s brick edifice at 1729 Grand Blvd. The maps place the north part of The Star’s block inside the path of totality and the south part outside the path.

 

And they do it with great precision. Click on a point in the parking lot south of The Star building: no totality.

 

Click on a point in the north parking lot and the map says, to a tenth of a second, that the total eclipse will start at 1:08:49.2 p.m. and end at 1:08:57.9.

But Kentrianakis, who discusses the issue as part of a new documentary, “Totality: The American Eclipse,” said a more accurate line runs about a half-mile north, cutting through Ilus W. Davis Park, which separates Kansas City’s City Hall (partial eclipse) and the federal courthouse (total eclipse).

Documentary on eclipse explains importance of location for downtown KC, on the edge of totality

From the documentary "Totality: The American Eclipse," Mike Kentrianakis, solar eclipse project manager for the American Astronomical Society, explains how important location is to see the Aug. 21 eclipse in totality when in areas on the edge of totality, like downtown Kansas City. The full documentary can be found on Amazon.

Current maps also show the path cutting a sharp line through parts of St. Louis.

 

“St. Louis also is wrong,” Kentrianakis said. Indeed, the map’s edges are off along the entire path from Oregon through South Carolina.

 

Xavier Jubier, a French engineer whose calculations have been used to create the interactive Google maps of the eclipse, confirmed to The Star by email that the actual path of the totality is slightly narrower than the 70 miles shown on current maps.

 

Ernest Wright, who created maps and other multimedia presentations on the eclipse for NASA, said he thought the map might be narrower by about 100 meters, slightly longer than a football field.

 

He also said it’s possible that Kentrianakis is correct in his estimation that the path is narrower by a half-mile or more.

“He could be,” Wright said.

 

The reason the maps are slightly off has nothing to do with mistakes, all agree. Wright explained that eclipse maps are made based on what is known about the relative sizes and positions of the moon and the sun.

 

“We have really good information about the orbit of the moon, the positions of the sun, the positions of the Earth. All of that is really well nailed down,” Wright said. “In order to get more accuracy, we need to take into account the mountains and valleys on the moon, and the elevations on the Earth. And we’re starting to do that, as well.”

 

The size of the moon, in fact, has been measured to within a meter, and its position in the heavens has been measured to within a centimeter.

 

“But the last sort of uncertainty might surprise you,” Wright said. “It’s the size of the sun.”

 

It’s a roiling ball of gas. “It doesn’t have a solid surface,” he said, making its size hard to pin down.

 

Scientists have calculated the sun’s radius at roughly 696,000 kilometers (432,500 miles) from edge to center, but they do not know its size with precision.

 

A bigger sun would make the moon’s shadow, and thus the path of totality, narrower.

 

“You would think you could send a satellite up there, take a picture of the sun and put a ruler on the picture and decide how big the sun is,” Wright said.

 

But it doesn’t work that way. Scientists have space-based and Earth-based telescopes constantly trained on the sun. Earth-based telescopes must contend with atmospheric interference. Space-based telescopes also have limitations.

 

“Most of the telescopes pointed at the sun use very narrow-band filters,” Wright said. “So instead of looking at the sun in white light, it is kind of splitting the light into a prism and picking only one color to look at. And the different colors are going to give you slightly different sizes.”

 

Jubier said that the current maps are accurate using the the 696,000-kilometer radius and other standards agreed upon in 1976 at a meeting of the International Astronomical Union.

 

“This is perfectly accurate but we know it does use a solar diameter that is not large enough. Why don’t we change the value(?)” Jubier wrote. “Well simply because the IAU (International Astronomical Union) has not yet approved a new value. This is part of the research we’re doing and for which we’re looking for funding.”

 

He continued, “So technically speaking if the Sun is larger than the adopted IAU value, and we know it is, the eclipse path is necessarily narrower and our tools can simulate this, yet the standard maps for the public will still retain the currently adopted solar radius until a new value has been accepted. Such a process will take years as everything needs to be peer-reviewed and then validated during a General Assembly.”

 

Jubier also does not think the small difference will change much for the average eclipse viewer, “as usually people don’t go near the edges of the eclipse path.”

But for untold thousands of people, including in Kansas City and St. Louis, who live near the edge, Wright with NASA and Kentrianakis with the American Astronomical Society offer this advice: Do your best to move closer toward the middle of the path of totality.

 

The closer one gets to the middle of the path, the longer the totality will last, up to a maximum of about 2 minutes and 40 seconds. At the edge, totality lasts less than 10 seconds.

 

“There are cool things to see at the edge, too,” Wright said. Some astronomers argue that viewing a solar eclipse from the edge of the path of totality offers wonderful views, including a protracted view of the sun’s rosy-red chromosphere, a layer of atmosphere just above its surface.

 

“But the big show,” Wright said, “is going to be the closer you are to the center. And you don’t have to drive 35 miles. You can go 10 miles and get up to a minute of totality. If you stay at the edge, you’re only going to get a couple of seconds.”

http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article166394247.html

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On 8/10/2017 at 10:55 PM, SnowGlobe7 said:

 

You know we do!!!!

 

Hope all is good my dear friend

 

I'm good my dear...sorry to hear about your lack of work...believe me I know how trying that can be!   Keep your chin up, and keep the faith...it will work out someway, somehow!  

I'm looking at knee replacement soon...so prayers appreciated!  It's hard when you've been so active all your life to have to face such invasive surgery!  One of my biggest regrets is realizing I won't be able to keep my promise to Sarge's Gals! I was really looking forward to helping out their Vet's project South of the boarder...hard to do when you can nearly walk!  Hoping for a brighter future...of coarse the RV could speed that up a bit!!! Then maybe I can keep my word after all! ;)

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1 minute ago, RodandStaff said:

I'm good my dear...sorry to hear about your lack of work...believe me I know how trying that can be!   Keep your chin up, and keep the faith...it will work out someway, somehow!  

I'm looking at knee replacement soon...so prayers appreciated!  It's hard when you've been so active all your life to have to face such invasive surgery!  One of my biggest regrets is realizing I won't be able to keep my promise to Sarge's Gals! I was really looking forward to helping out their Vet's project South of the boarder...hard to do when you can nearly walk!  Hoping for a brighter future...of coarse the RV could speed that up a bit!!! Then maybe I can keep my word after all! ;)

 

You can keep that promise...come on down and we will put you in a chair and make you the boss

 

and you can yell at the monkeys and tell them what to do!!! (good luck with that)

 

or maybe just cook that pizza I dream about!!!!!!

 

 

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Just now, SnowGlobe7 said:

 

You can keep that promise...come on down and we will put you in a chair and make you the boss

 

and you can yell at the monkeys and tell them what to do!!! (good luck with that)

 

or maybe just cook that pizza I dream about!!!!!!

 

 

Believe...I can do the pizza...even from a chair if I have to! ;)

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1 hour ago, RodandStaff said:

I'm good my dear...sorry to hear about your lack of work...believe me I know how trying that can be!   Keep your chin up, and keep the faith...it will work out someway, somehow!  

I'm looking at knee replacement soon...so prayers appreciated!  It's hard when you've been so active all your life to have to face such invasive surgery!  One of my biggest regrets is realizing I won't be able to keep my promise to Sarge's Gals! I was really looking forward to helping out their Vet's project South of the boarder...hard to do when you can nearly walk!  Hoping for a brighter future...of coarse the RV could speed that up a bit!!! Then maybe I can keep my word after all! ;)

 

Heck Rod chin up !! With an RV you could afford to have someone do knee surgery for you !!  ^_^

 

May your surgery go well and recovery speedier.

 

Side note* I love pizza !!

 

pp

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On 8/14/2017 at 6:27 PM, RodandStaff said:

I'm looking at knee replacement soon...

 

:praying:  💋

 

I dont care what they say... I'M LOOKIN'!!!   :blink:

 

 

Caution: The Solar Eclipse

Posted on August 13, 2017by stella

This was found on Facebook (posted by our friend, Menagerie) and seems like good information to share.

solareclipse.jpg?w=640&h=468Michael Schecter:

As an Optometrist , I want to express concern that I have about the solar eclipse on Monday, Aug 21. There are serious risks associated with viewing a solar eclipse directly, even with the use of solar filter glasses. Everyone should keep in mind if they or their children are considering this.

 

We have to keep in mind that some people will encounter the inability to control every aspect of this exercise. For instance, true solar eclipse glasses are made for adults, do not fit children well and should not be used without direct parental supervision. If the solar glasses do not filter out 100% of the harmful UV rays, if they are not used absolutely perfectly, or should there be a manufacturing defect in any of them, this will result in permanent and irreversible vision loss for any eye exposed. Just like sunburn to the skin, the effects are not felt or noticed immediately. I have a great fear that I will have patients in my office on Tuesday, Aug 22 who woke up with hazy, blurry vision that I cannot fix. It is a huge risk to watch the eclipse even with the use of solar glasses. There is no absolutely safe way to do so other than on TV.

The biggest danger with children is ensuring proper use without direct parental supervision. As the eclipse passes over many places, including Columbus, the moon will not block 100% of the sun. Because so much of its light is blocked by the moon, if one looks at it without full protection, it does not cause pain as looking at the sun does on a regular day. Normally if you try to look at the sun, it physically hurts and you can’t see anything. During an eclipse, however, it is easier to stare for a bit….and even less than 30 seconds of exposure to a partially eclipsed sun, you can burn a blind spot right to your most precious central vision. With solar glasses you can’t see ANYTHING except the crescent of light of the sun. Kids could have a tendency to want to peak [sic] around the filter to see what is actually going on up there. One failure, just one, where education and supervision fail, will have such a devastating consequence.

Please, please be safe. Watch it on television.

PS: Feel free to share this post.

solar-eclipse-usa-2017.jpg?w=640&h=360

 
Edited by Whatshername
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