Solar Eclipse 2012

smurfjed

Taken from eclipse2012.com

A Total Eclipse of the Sun will occur over Northern Australia early in the morning of 14 November 2012. This spectacular phenomenon is probably the most awe inspiring event in the natural world.

What is a Total Solar Eclipse

An eclipse of the Sun occurs when the moon passes between the earth and the Sun. The Sun is much larger than the moon it is also much further away, such that the two bodies appear to be about he same size in the sky. During a total solar eclipse, the moon moves in front of the Sun and completely covers it. This casts a shadow on the Earth’s surface. As the moon orbits the Earth and the Earth rotates, the shadow moves across the Earths surface in a narrow path generally from west to east. To see a Total Solar Eclipse you must be in the shadow’s path. If you are outside the shadow’s path at the time of the eclipse, the moon will not completely cover the Sun and you will only see partial eclipse.
During the partial phase of the eclipse, the moon gradually covers the Sun. This takes about an hour. As the total part of the eclipse approaches, the sky becomes darker and an ominous black shadow approaches from the west. The Sun is reduced to a thin crescent. The temperature can drop significantly. In the final few seconds before totality, the last brilliant parts of the Sun’s surface shine through valleys on the moon in a shimmering display called Baily’s Beads. Finally the beads are reduced to a single point and the Sun looks like a dazzling diamond ring. As the last bright point winks out, the Sun’s pink upper surface called the chromosphere can be seen around the edge of the moon and often prominences, pink loops of plasma extending above the chromosphere, are visible. During totality, the moon appears as a black hole in the sky surrounded by the pearly white Corona, the Sun’s outer atmosphere composed of ionised gas which curves out from the Sun, usually in a pattern formed by the Sun’s magnetic field. The whole sky is dark in a surreal twilight with a glowing light around the horizon with a sunset tinge which is caused by the scattering of different wavelengths of light in the atmosphere. At the end of totality the sequence is reversed, with prominences, chromosphere, diamond ring and Baily’s Beads again being visible. The moon then gradually uncovers the Sun, taking about an hour until the partial phase is over.


Aggghhhhhh.... the forecast is for a cloudy morning :mad::mad:


smurfjed

Indricotherium

smurfjed wrote: »

Taken from eclipse2012.com



Aggghhhhhh.... the forecast is for a cloudy morning :mad::mad:


smurfjed

And on the other side of the planet.

jfSDAS

Some Irish amateur astronomers have made the journey to see the eclipse from Cairns.

Intrepid eclipse chaser Daniel Lynch has brought a couple of the students from Gonzaga and one of the parents to see the event. They plan to make a detailed video of the eclipse and will use the footage to measure the solar diameter. This is part of a project accepted for the 2013 Young Scientists Exhibition.

We will have some of the IAS/SDAS members giving short presentations of their trip at our December 3rd meeting in Gonzaga (Ranelagh, Dublin) -- I'll post more details later in the "Events" thread.

Next total solar eclipse from Ireland? It's not 'til 2090, and then only over the southwest of the country. If you plan to hold out until the next total solar eclipse visible from Dublin then that's not until the year 2600! I took the data from "Solar Eclipses from Year 1 to 3000" by Sheridan Williams.

He's got a fascinating table at http://www.shindles.co.uk/total.htm which highlights how many solar eclipses some umbraphiles have seen. There have only been 40 TSE's since 1932 with a cumulative duration of just over 2 hours -- it's a stark statistic on how brief total solar eclipses are.

atb,

John