Solar eclipse 2017: The best places to see the rare phenomenon this August
On August 21, for the first time in 99 years, a total solar eclipse will cut through the entire continental United States. It’s going to be awesome. If you’re in the bull’s eye center of the moon’s shadow known as the totality — the sky will go dark for a few minutes in the middle of the day, stars will appear, birds will become confused and start chirping their nighttime songs. And it’s all because of a cosmic coincidence: From the Earth, both the moon and sun appear to be roughly the same size.
Most of the country will see a partial eclipse, which is also cool. But for the complete show, you need to be in the 60-mile wide path of the totality. Luckily NASA has mapped the path of the totality to an absurd detail.
As NASA data visualizer Ernie Wright explains in the video below, normally people draw the path of an eclipse by assuming that the moon’s shape is perfectly round. But “we know that the moon isn't smooth,” he says. “Around the edge of the moon we have these sort of jagged peaks and valleys.” The resulting shadow’s shape is not a perfectly smooth oval. “It’s more like a polygon,” he says.
https://youtu.be/MJgXaqW3md8
https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/6/15/15804336/2017-solar-eclipse-map-united-states-nasa
On August 21, for the first time in 99 years, a total solar eclipse will cut through the entire continental United States. It’s going to be awesome. If you’re in the bull’s eye center of the moon’s shadow known as the totality — the sky will go dark for a few minutes in the middle of the day, stars will appear, birds will become confused and start chirping their nighttime songs. And it’s all because of a cosmic coincidence: From the Earth, both the moon and sun appear to be roughly the same size.
Most of the country will see a partial eclipse, which is also cool. But for the complete show, you need to be in the 60-mile wide path of the totality. Luckily NASA has mapped the path of the totality to an absurd detail.
As NASA data visualizer Ernie Wright explains in the video below, normally people draw the path of an eclipse by assuming that the moon’s shape is perfectly round. But “we know that the moon isn't smooth,” he says. “Around the edge of the moon we have these sort of jagged peaks and valleys.” The resulting shadow’s shape is not a perfectly smooth oval. “It’s more like a polygon,” he says.
https://youtu.be/MJgXaqW3md8
https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/6/15/15804336/2017-solar-eclipse-map-united-states-nasa