There was a great episode of NOVA on pbs last night talking indepth about eclipses and their frequency. The gist wad that they have known how to predict them to within 4 minutes and they occur about every 7 years
Everytime I do something I’m gonna say to people " that won’t happen for another 150 years".
You won’t see another comment like this for another 160 years people.
I’ve seen somebody on Facebook post 2024 has 366 days. This won’t happen again for another thousand years.
Yeah, leap years.
They were right, though.
A year with 366 days and ending in “024” won’t happen for another thousand years.Interestingly, the years 2100, 2200, 2300, and 2400 won’t be leap years, but IIRC, the years 2500, and 3000 will be.
It’s a leap year if it’s:
divisible by 4
AND
( not divisible by 100 OR
divisible by 250
)There are more rules than that, but yeah
Even with cloud cover, seeing it at home was something special. I know what it’s supposed to look and sound like at that hour. It wasn’t the same as night - I could still see sunlight on the horizon all around me. I could sense that the wildlife was confused by it - all the birds just flew to the tops of the trees and were trying to make sense of what was happening. The bugs went quiet, and we were all whispering for no apparent reason - it just felt appropriate. The slow descent into darkness was unsettling, especially under cloud cover - it felt like we were under the gaze of a passing giant we could not see. I was surprised by how relieved I felt when the light started to return. It wasn’t what I was expecting but the strangeness of it didn’t disappoint, and I don’t think seeing it away from home would have been quite the same.
You put it very eloquently. I had the same feeling - it was a primal uneasiness.
I just had this argument with my family, timely!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_solar_eclipses_in_the_21st_century
Not a lot of TOTAL eclipses. And the next US total is 20 years.
Unless you can afford to fly (and stay) internationally, it might very well be once in a lifetime to witness totality.
People tend to forget only 37% of US americans have a working passport.
That’s because only 63% of us can afford international travel and most of the 37% goes to Canada, Mexico, or the Caribbean.
Or go outside at midnight, which is technically a total eclipse.
Uh, how do you figure that?
Yeah, all I could think of. Not exactly the same thing…
I guess it’s the sun being “eclipsed” by the Earth? Since it’s between us and the sun?
That’s all I got, and it feels like a hell of a stretch
Yes, lame joke. I have to stop posting before I finish my coffee.
I hear that
South East Asia here, no total eclipse for the next 200 years. And I slept through the last one when I was in middle school, FML.
There are two crossing through eastern Australia in the next decade, maybe take a trip there?
2035 is reasonably promising, depending on where you are
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_September_2,_2035
Nope LOL. The edge is barely skate by where I live.
Trust me, I looked it up with a whole bunch of “eclipse prediction” websites.
Oh are you like at the equator? Yeah that’s gonna be a really hard location to get and you will need to go north or south a bit for most of them.
You’re so knowledgeable. And yes, I’m ~2500km up north from the equator.
Nah, the crash of the 1999 AN10 in August, 2027 keeps humans survivors from seeing that one.
We aren’t sure yet, but we are likely the only place in the galaxy that has the perfect total eclipses. If humanity ever manages to unite and take to the stars, there’s a strong argument to be made for our flag to just be a black field with a solar corona. We may even have to worry about too much extra-terrestrial eclipse tourism.
Solar eclipses on Mars are underwhelming.
I can see eclipses being an interstellar tourist attraction.
I was talking to some friends about it actually. Probably makes for memorable vacations.
Source?
It looks like you would get a perfect solar eclipse on Mars if Pandora were spherical.
If there’s another planet in our solar system where you can almost get an earth-like “perfect” solar eclipse, I find it highly unlikely that there isn’t a single other planet in our entire galaxy where one might also see a “perfect” solar eclipse.
Forbes messed up their math.Both of Mars’ moons are either too small or too far from the planet to completely occlude the sun, but your article is about a moon of Saturn.
I’m not sure I would count a planet that no human or rover has a chance to see the eclipse, and at that distance the sun is TINY, but I’ll bet that Pandora completely occludes both the sun and it’s corona.
It’s highly likely that no other planet in the galaxy has the correct conditions for a perfect solar eclipse.
I find it highly unlikely that there isn’t a single other planet in our entire galaxy where one might also see a “perfect” solar eclipse.
yup, they think they can speak for literally billions of stars with potentially billions and billions of planets… seems like a tall order lol
We aren’t sure yet, but we are likely the only place in the galaxy that has the perfect total eclipses.
I’m frankly dubious about this - tons of extrasolar planets will have moons, and those moons will occlude their stars. what in any way makes earth special? citation requested.
No planet in our solar system has a moon large enough to completely eclipse the sun from the planet surface POV
do you mean, no OTHER planet? aside from the one we’re on?
also: restricting it to the few rocks in our back yard seems specious as there are literally billion so of other stars out there.
So, what was your point?
The formation of our moon isn’t terribly likely to happen frequently. Also the moon, star, and planet have to be in the correct places. Our moon won’t create perfect eclipses in a few hundred million years
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/earth-has-the-solar-systems-best-eclipses/
sorry, this is hardly definitive. we need more extrasolar surveys before you can posit that we’re the only place. anything else is conjecture.
It’s speculation, but there are only 100 billion stars in the galaxy. I’m willing to bet that we have a 1 in a 100 billion chance of our solar systems creation being different from the others.
that’s pretty silly. you’re suggesting that in our galaxy we’re the only place this happens - what about our solar system is so exceptional, when we see similar planetary formation all over the galaxy?
and also, there are between 200 billion (2×1011) to 2 trillion galaxies in the observable universe - you gonna write them off too?
you have a sample size of one - one solar system. that’s it.
seems fucking moronic to be making billions or trillions of assumptions based on your experience.
Now you’re just making shit up I never said. Have fun being ignorant.
In fact, in my original comment, and another reply specifically said that I was only talking about our galaxy, and not even our local group.
The extremely unlikely, a d actually entirely coincidental, fact that our moon happens to be precisely the right size and distance from the sun and moon to perfectly obscure it.
If it were further away or smaller, it wouldn’t block it out completely and we’d just get annular eclipses, which doesn’t let you see the corona, just a ring you shouldn’t look at directly without eye protection.
If it were bigger or closer, it would obscure the corona and we’d just see darkness.
Stellar bodies lining up is perfectly normal and commonplace. Them being exactly the right size shape and distance to create a total eclipse is fantastically unlikely.
Doubly so when you consider that the moon is slowly moving away, and so a long time ago the moon was too big in the sky, and in about 50 million years it’ll be too small.Something so unlikely happening during the time there’s intelligent life on the planet that can understand and appreciate it is, literally and figuratively, astronomicaly unlikely. 😀
The extremely unlikely, a d actually entirely coincidental, fact that our moon happens to be precisely the right size and distance from the sun and moon to perfectly obscure it.
it’s extremely unlikely and entirely coincidental that your hand is exactly the size to obscure your vision. this doesn’t speak for the odds of it never happening again elsewhere in the universe.
I only specified the Milky Way, not the entire universe. It would be highly unlikely that we’d be the only place in the universe that it happened, but the chances are potentially low enough for it being the only one among a mere 100,000,000,000 stars.
What?
Like, the thing about the hand aside, if something is extremely unlikely, that literally speaks to the odds of it happening. That’s what unlikely means.
Your hand covering your face isn’t coincidental or unlikely; everyone’s hand does and it’s written into your genetics that it should.
There’s no particular reason why a big rock should end up in the particular place it did for us, and it’s surprising that it did.
It’s not likely that it happens often because there’s no reason for it to happen, unlike other interesting phenomenon we see like the big red spot on Jupiter or the hexagon on Saturn. Those should be common because there’s a systemic reason they happened.Like, the thing about the hand aside,
they’re both conjecture based on a microscopic sample size.
Your hand covering your face isn’t coincidental or unlikely; everyone’s hand does and it’s written into your genetics that it should.
ahem, this is so wrong in so many ways.
everyone’s hand does
Nope.
and it’s written into your genetics that it should.
pshew wow nope nope nope.
Nothing in your genes controls a proportional size relationship of your hands to your head. And not everyone has large hands, look at trump for example.
There’s no particular reason why a big rock should end up in the particular place it did for us,
you really don’t understand planetary formation, stability in orbital mechanics and a bunch of subjects. there’s tons of good reasons to suspect the other planets had moons as well; they simply weren’t as orbitally stable as ours ended up.
The only thing your (and other person I’m responding to here) argument has going for it is the extraordinarily difficulty of resolving exomoons orbiting exoplanets around our neighborhood.
It’s also massively over hyped imo. I did the last one and the coolest part was the shadows, but the actual darkness was super underwhelming. Hearing everyone say it was like some spiritual experience makes me roll my eyes a bit. It got dark for a bit. It does that shit every day smh.
Did you forget to look at it?
No one is getting hyped for it being dark outside, they’re hyped for being able to see the corona of the sun with their naked eyes.
Maybe that’s it, my vision isn’t that great. It just looked like a blurry ring of light in the sky to me.
That seems likely, and unfortunate. To a lot of people it looks like all of the pictures that get posted to the Internet after the eclipse, except a fair bit more impactful because it’s there. The sky turns dark blue, you see the coronal glow as tendrils of light coming away from the hole in the sky where the sun was a moment before.
Easily one of the more beautiful things I’ve seen, and I’ve seen quite a few.
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People aren’t amazed because it gets dark for a bit. People are amazed because it reminds us that the sun and the moon are real 3d objects incredibly far away, not just images in the sky. I can understand how it is a spiritual experience for a lot of people.
It’s also an incredible coincidence (or otherwise, depending on your beliefs) how the distance and size of the two bodies matches perfectly for the total eclipse to be a thing at all.
Technically it would be fine for the moon to be bigger or closer and you’d still get a total eclipse.
Sure, but if the moon was much bigger you wouldn’t be able to see the Sun’s corona. Also, life as we know it wouldn’t be possible, but that’s neither here nor there.
People like to find meaning in all sorts of things.
This is the most wrong comment I have ever seen on this entire fucking website.
I can assure anyone reading this, that this guy is just being a contrarian to seem better than other people.
The eclipse was the single greatest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.
I mean it was cool, don’t get me wrong. But greatest thing I’ve ever seen? IDK, I saw a space shuttle launch live. That was way cooler. Dark Knight in IMAX is a contender. The coolest thing I’ve ever seen is basically the entire country of Iceland. The Eclipse is maybe top 20.
It’s possible I just did the eclipse wrong. I am glad you enjoyed it. I don’t quite understand why so many people take it personally that I was not moved by it.
Space shuttle is pretty cool. Personally wouldn’t put any movie experience in the same universe as the eclipse.
Like it’s entirely possible that we’re the only planet in the galaxy that has eclipses like that and quite possibly the only one in the universe with life on it to witness such an event.
And you’re stood there watching as a incomprehensiblely big ball of rock held above us by nothing more than its own angular momentum happe s to perfectly cross infront of and block out and even possibly bigger ball of fusing gas and do it so perfectly it blocks the disk of the sin but leave the corona and solar flares still visible to the naked eye, you watch the world around start to die in the most unnatural way, the temperature drops and then suddenly its night time in the middle of the day, the animals go crazy, you have a 360° sunset and the sun is replaced by black disk surrounded by s ring of fire. Its pretty much a supernatural event.
So I just really cannot comprehend how anyone could /possibly/ compare it watching a movie. That’s like comparing witnessing the birth of your own child to finding a dollar on the street.
But all that stuff is still true whether you see it yourself or not. I don’t quite get this line of reasoning. Were you unsure about the nature of astral bodies before that point?
Again, I have no intention of diminishing your experience, unlike you mine. I am super happy that you had a surreal experience. I just felt extremely underwhelmed personally.
Also, people keep saying this about animals, but I didn’t witness that at all. My dog slept through it.
I am so sad for you. Your life must have been a painful disappointment up until today.
Man with people like you it’s really like I never left reddit.
I’m sure everybody thinks you’re really cool because you’re not impressed by a thing that impresses a lot of people.
glad it was good for you man. having seen a few… both full and partial… it was just some thing that happened. I did really appreciate seeing the wiggly shadow bands, was not expecting that, but it isn’t anywhere near the ‘greatest single thing I’ve ever seen in my life’. Not even in the top 20.
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Don’t yuck my yum 🖖
I’m gonna yum your yuck 🤌
🙏✌️
You’re getting downvoted, however it’s quite honestly a valid opinion.
Yeah I saw the last one and was honestly pretty annoyed by all the hype. It got dark. The shadows were cool though.
They’re really not that interesting unless you’re in totality.
Then the world turns upside down. The sun is replaced with a black disk in the sky, with whispy tendrils of corona. The birds all land in the trees and the dogs all start barking. The crickets and frogs think it’s nighttime and start making a huge racket. For a couple minutes the world is unlike anything you’ve seen.
And then it ends and you’re stuck in a 15 hour traffic jam with all the rest of the people who’ve experienced an other-worldly event.
(I saw the one in 2017 but I’m skipping this one.)
Unlike anything you’ve seen, except for a dark evening. I saw 2017 as well and the shadows were cool but I really don’t think it was worth the hype.
I still found the 85% one in 2017 really freaking cool. Getting about 90% this time!
“it’s just the moon” is honestly a wild opinion to me.
It’s just the massive orb that circles our world through all of known history, which bends the oceans and tectonic crusts with it’s movement, that inspired incredible amounts of art and culture, and is about to create a phenomenon which blots out the sun, in an incredible coincidence of size, position and timing, as the latest iteration of a pattern that may well have been the original inspiration for ways of thinking that went on to become the foundation for all of scientific thought. Nbd.
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I’m sorry you have to work during the eclipse. I understand that it’s moot whether or not you would enjoy it when it isn’t something that you have time for anyways, and that would make me frustrated by everyone talking about it too.
I don’t really believe you that don’t care about any of that tho lol. Maybe not as much as your responsibilities, but no way you don’t care at all.
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In other words: your existence is pitiful.
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Ui ui ui, someone got grumpy. Maybe it has something to do with the fact you don’t have any wonder for the beauty of the universe.
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Wow, the wittle troll got weally mad! So spoopy.
Let people enjoy things.
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It’s hard to say because all of the figures come from different places, and the news articles always like to say the longer figures to gather more attention.
ex: There won’t be another eclipse over Ohio for ___ years vs There won’t be another eclipse over the continental U.S. for ___ years vs There won’t be another eclipse anywhere in the world for ___ years
The next total eclipse over the US will be in 2078
2044
2024
Everytime I put Bonnie Tyler on
That’s soon
It depends on where you’re on the timeline.
But there will be a European one in 2026.
The Total Eclipse in Europe will cross southern Spain on the evening of 12th August, 2026. Next total eclipse in Europe will rarely be the following year, 2027, in the southern Spain. Next after will only happen in 2061, over Russia and Kazajstan
And I’m gonna remember this April American one being hyped and I’m half a world away from seeing it.
Some form of frequency illusoon, I’m sure.
200 million people either live in, or within driving distance of, the path of totality.
And lots of hotels and Airbnbs have been booked. So much hype.
that’s a really cool map, thank you for posting 🙂
Proof the eclipse was manufactured by Big Bnb!
I’d like to solve, Alex:
What are different places on Earth from where the eclipse is visible?
Correct, that’s $200 for you and you still have control of the board
Is akin to people complaining about how the posts in a thread don’t all agree on something, so the forum and its participants are hypocritical.
Once in a lifetime on the current track maybe. But the next one after this one happend in 2033.
I was 20km from the path of the totality. The next one I’ll even be able to see a partial eclipse isn’t happening until ~2045.
Sadly (or not), Life is a crapshoot.
You didn’t bother to travel 20km to see the totality?
It was 3pm on a work day, so no that wasn’t an option.
Jesus, imagine missing out on one of the most incredible things you could witness, that you may never have a chance to experience again, because you didn’t want to miss a couple hours of work. Freaking capitalism, man.
Buddy, I have bills and the options were “see totality and lose job” or “see 99% coverage and keep job”.
Unless you are a surgeon or something else that could result in lost lives if you took off 2 hours to see possibly the most spectacular thing our planet has to offer… I think you really need to reevaluate your job if you would have gotten fired for that. Personally, I’d be bitter as fuck.
99% coverage is essentially the same as 1% coverage. Things may get a little dimmer, but it’s completely different from 100% coverage. It’s not a gradient, you don’t get 99% of the experience by being in 99% coverage. I really can’t stress how much you missed out on, and hope that you make an effort to see the next US one in 20 years, or travel internationally to see a sooner one. Hopefully you’ll have a better job by that time.
Here’s a relevant xkcd on the matter. I think the alt-text sums it up. “A partial eclipse is like a cool sunset. A total eclipse is like someone broke the sky.”
You act as though I’m not bitter about it. You pointing out how great it was and how much it sucks that I missed it only makes me more bitter.
There is no job market where I live. As in within my friend group, we have collectively applied to ~30 jobs in the last year and gotten 2 responses. My employer was very clear that they were not giving time off for the eclipse, so that wasn’t an option. And had I just left, bye bye job. Can’t pay rent, can’t afford food.
If you want to point out how much it sucks, by all means. But don’t act like you know my situation, like I don’t know what I had to miss out on, and then point to fucking xkcd saying “see? I’m right”.
Grow some fucking perspective.
Hey, you can’t tell people in the past that! They might figure out the moon gets destroyed later. You want the time authority to vaporize you or something?
I am a Time Authority. Not a Lord, mind you. Those worthies get to tool around those fancy teleboxes doing all kinds of adventurous, dare i say, romatic escapades. We mere Authorities merely monitor and report. Vaporization is above my pay grade
not if you don’t want to take a plane to see it
you either have to take a plane/long drive or be very lucky
the likelihood that you get an eclipse with totality near enough to you where you can see it.
Is basically zero.
* Terms and conditions apply
Eclipses might be a dime-a-dozen, but Halley’s Comet doesn’t mess around. My grandad saw it twice. I hope to, too. It comes once every 75 years. The last time was 1986. The next is 2061. If you were born today, you’d have to live to be 112 years-old to see it a second time.
Hmm, it’s possible I will never have been around when it has passed earth. I’m healthy, but life is harsh.
I wish you luck.
Good luck to humanity for 2061
Yeah, this is all provided the atmosphere remains transparent to the human eye in any case.
I was 6 the last time Halley’s Comet swung through. I’m honestly hoping to see it three times.
I wish you even more luck.
Planning to live to at least 156? Well, good luck!
Eclipses happen during eclipse seasons, which happen every six months.
