A major source of frustration for me... if I were to live forever, then I'd love to replicate all of Newton's experiments, Einstein's reasoning and Feynman's pranks... but no, time is limited and one has to either trust people with recognized authority, or live a mediocre intellectual life.

But this Allais thing has me flabbergasted...

While I've not 'crunched the numbers' - considering the sun's mass and the moon's proximity I suppose it's not entirely impossible said 'effect' owes to 'alignment phenomena' (though I very much doubt it inasmuch as the 'inverse square law' is a real 'killjoy' in that regard) moreover said bodies' (i.e. sun, Earth and moon) relative positions during a solar eclipse are not unique for said purposes

All of which is to say -- Agreed! It's a puzzle - albeit an intriguing one

it's almost like the infamous ball-lighting phenomena... for a long time physicists dismissed it as either hallucinations or flat out frauds, but in time it was so widely reported that they had to take it seriously due to the vast amount of circumstantial evidence. And it wasn't until very recently that it has finally been replicated in a lab and partially explained.

Interestingly (and, perhaps, tellingly) "ball lightning's" protracted 'evasion' of scientific documentation owed, in large part, to the practice of limiting observation of atmospheric electrical phenomena to areas marked by highly 'uneven' terrain (i.e. mountainous regions, etc...) which being ideal for observation of 'conventional' lightning but, as it turned out, all but preclusive of the phenomena in question --- The 'lesson' being neatly 'encapsulated' via a familiar catchphrase Re: assumption


Best regards
HP

 

No!

Many, many thanks! -- My faith in humanity (and, indeed, the scientific community in general) has been restored!

Very best regards and TTFN
HP

 

the practice of limiting observation of atmospheric electrical phenomena to areas marked by highly 'uneven' terrain (i.e. mountainous regions, etc...)

You can add the interior of passenger airplanes to that list...

The 'lesson' being neatly 'encapsulated' via a familiar catchphrase Re: assumption

Thanks for the laugh... you've just conjured into my mind the very wise phrase: "assumption is the mother of all screw-ups"

 

https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/testing-general-relativity

 

https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/testing-general-relativity

Ahhh... the objective beauty of science...

Many thanks!

 

You can add the interior of passenger airplanes to that list...

FWIW I've long held that the significantly less energetic nature of said phenomena where so contained within a conductive 'shield' (and, hence, electromagnetically 'sealed') argues strongly in favor of the 'Maser-Soliton' (aka Handel) hypothesis...

Please note that, owing to the wavelengths involved, 'resonator-soliton' is more accurate nomenclature - thus it seems there's even less 'in a name' than The Bard would allow

Very best regards
HP

 

Behold the prerogatives of high office!

TTFN
HP

So now it's the blind leading the blind?

 

Superimposed lin/log solar panel power chart during the solar eclipse.

For those disappointed by the lack of dimming outside of totality unless you were really close (90%+) you didn't see very much because our 'magic' eyes and brain fixed the light conditions for us.
http://www.pathwaylighting.com/prod...Linear+vs+Logarithmic+Dimming+White+Paper.pdf

 

Dustin was at it again! Must-see video.

 

http://www.blogto.com/music/2017/08/rapper-cancels-toronto-show-after-looking-eclipse/​

 

http://www.blogto.com/music/2017/08/rapper-cancels-toronto-show-after-looking-eclipse/​

I feel sorry for the poor idiot... the silver lining is that he might've saved other fools' eyesight with his bad example

 

More eye damage fallout. And not what you might think.


http://www.foxnews.com/health/2017/...creen-on-their-eyeballs-to-watch-eclipse.html

 

More eye damage fallout. And not what you might think.


http://www.foxnews.com/health/2017/...creen-on-their-eyeballs-to-watch-eclipse.html

Health professionals report cases where people put sunscreen on their eyeballs to watch eclipse

SMH

Best regards
HP

 

SMH

Best regards
HP

Good to see that evolution may still have some work to do.

 

Good to see that evolution may still have some work to do.

It would have been far better if they were rendered sterile. A bonus if they have not had a chance to procreate.

 

The mother-ship coming in for a landing.
View Hi-Def at 1/4 speed

One of the best vantage points for today’s total solar eclipse is out of this world — literally. Scientists at UW–Madison’s Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC) observed the eclipse through the eye of one of the world’s most advanced weather satellites, GOES-16. The eclipse images from the satellite were taken at a rate of one every five minutes. Stitched together, the images show the shadow of the moon tracking west to east across the continental United States.

 

For those disappointed by the lack of dimming outside of totality unless you were really close (90%+) you didn't see very much because our 'magic' eyes and brain fixed the light conditions for us.
http://www.pathwaylighting.com/prod...Linear+vs+Logarithmic+Dimming+White+Paper.pdf

We were at 90% and the dimming was essentially imperceptible. The cooling was more so, but even that was well within what is commonly experienced as air masses move around. Some folks have said that it wasn't even very noticeable at 95% or even a bit more. If I hadn't known that we were having an eclipse, I would never have thought anything was happening -- unless I had happened to notice the crescents in the shadows of the leaves.

This experience explained something I had always wondered about. Solar eclipses were extremely profound events leading to all kinds of extreme reactions. But I had always wondered why that was the case since they are natural events that happen on a sufficiently frequent basis that many people alive when one happens would have been alive when prior ones had happened and would know that it wasn't the end of the world.

But considering, now, that unless an eclipse is, say, 97% or more, it would probably go unnoticed, and given the very narrow path of totality of a given eclipse, combined with the relative isolation of most human societies throughout our history, I can easily imagine that it would be a frequent situation in which an eclipse sufficiently close to totality in a given region would result in panic because there wouldn't be anyone around that had ever experienced one or even ever heard of one.

I would still expect lunar eclipses to be a different matter since those do happen with a significant occurrence rate and are visible from about half of the planet when they do occur. So while I have little doubt -- humans being human -- that all kinds of things would likely get blamed or associated with them (even if those same things had happened dozens of times since the last eclipse), I doubt they were ever seen as indications of the end of the world.

 

 

One I would add to that chart, in the area of more cool in person than it sounds, is a planetary transit, ie. Mercury or Venus passing in front of the sun. It has a bigger impact on your perspective of the world than you expect. Nothing like the eclipse, but it lasts longer.

On that point, anybody know why this eclipse lasted 2:40 while the next one will be over 4 minutes? It's also a little mysterious to me how the paths can be so different and cross each other.

I get that the moon varies in distance from Earth, and therefore velocity. I can also almost visualize that an eclipse will be longer if the plane of the moon's orbit is better aligned with the plane of Earth's orbit around the sun.

 

It's because of the direction of earth vs moon angle at crossing. The moon angle changes.