22/03/2024
Sharing for knowledge
“Public Service Announcement:
I really cannot emphasize this enough. Don’t stop reading just because “astronomy isn’t your thing” or you’re “not a science nerd like Nathaniel.”
In 23 days, on the afternoon of April 8, one of the most important global events you will ever have the incredible privilege of being able to witness will be right on our doorstep.
The Total Solar Eclipse typically is a once in a lifetime event or even less for people who are unaware or unable to travel for it. By some miracle, our generation of Southerners has been afforded 3 of them - in 2017, 2024, and 2044. Before 2017, the last one that was accessible to people in this portion of the country was in 1918, and we were on the tail end of that one. We are now front and center for the second of the three for this generation, the most magnificent and longest-lasting of the three, and if you love yourself and your family, then I beseech you, consider your plans on this day.
When I ask people if they experienced totality in 2017, some people say “yeah, I think so.” If you don’t know, then no you did not. You would remember. The distinction between 99% coverage and 100% coverage is SIGNIFICANT and ASTRONOMICAL. There are no words that suffice.
At 99%, you can kind of see that the moon is covering the sun quite a bit, you put on some paper glasses and say “huh, that’s cool,” and move on with your life after 30 seconds.
During the few minutes of 100% totality, you don’t have to wear glasses - the disc of the moon blots out the sun but makes all the more visible the peripheral rage of the sun - the true extent of its light and radiation, the phenomena of the sun that you don’t get to see because it is too bright. Your whole world goes dark in the middle of the day, the crickets chirp, animals become uneasy and howl, it gets noticeably colder, and shadows of the unseen elements of the Earth’s atmosphere dance across the ground like an astronomical disco. It is awe-inspiring, and there is no way to explain it to someone who hasn’t seen it before without sounding crazy.
I have traveled this incredible planet and seen so many wonderful things - the sun rising and setting on every ocean, the polar ice caps and the highest dunes of the most vast deserts, the highest mountains and widest valleys, and nothing, I mean nothing, compared to experiencing the total solar eclipse of 08-21-2017 in the parking lot of a transmission shop in Paducah, Kentucky. I am making plans to see this in a more aesthetic location.
If you have children, and you want them to have incredible memories of their childhood and the things you facilitated for them, drive them to totality. If you yourself just want to be a little more fulfilled with your life experiences and travels and are always seeking out new ways to enjoy God’s creation, drive to totality. If you have an older loved one who has never been able to travel far and see all the natural wonders of the world, take them with you to totality.
Many of my friends work in museums or are park rangers in the 80-99% zone and plan on having “eclipse parties.” That is, with all due respect, a really bad idea. This is bigger than your business, park, museum, club, whatever. If you do anything, rent a bus and take people to totality.
I know it sounds crazy, but I hope others who experienced it in 2017 can chime in and attest - you need to make this happen for yourself. It is an incredibly rare and beautiful thing that we were placed on a planet where this is even possible EVER - that the sizes of the sun and moon, their distances from Earth and all the orbits could ever align to make this happen. Then, for it to happen a few times a century on that planet in a few local areas and we are it. The solar eclipse is a wonder of Creation and the most understated event of the decade.”