by "John Norris (AngryDrifter)" (angrydrifter)
Published 08/20/2017 at 19:42
by "John Norris (AngryDrifter)" (angrydrifter)
Published 08/20/2017 at 19:42
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STARS: 2
The total eclipse starts in Salem OR at 10:18 Pacific Time. It starts in Columbia SC at 2:47 Eastern Time. There is 3 hours difference between Pacific Time and Eastern Time so Salem OR gets the total eclipse 89 minutes before Columbia SC.
The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. The moon rises in the east and sets in the west. But the eclipse starts in the west and moves east. This didn’t make sense to me so I put some thought into it.
The moon orbits the earth, albeit slower than the earth rotates on its axis. The moon takes 27 days to get around the earth and orbits in the same direction as the earth rotates. Of course the earth takes only one day to rotate. So although they are rotating the same direction the moons slower orbit speed relative to the earth’s faster rotation speed makes the eclipse rising / setting work backwards.
There, I’ll be able to sleep tonight.
"lone_liberal" (token-liberal)
08/20/2017 at 19:49, STARS: 1
What I’d really like to see is it reach totality close to sunset. That would be cool.
"John Norris (AngryDrifter)" (angrydrifter)
08/21/2017 at 16:52, STARS: 0
Not sure where you are at but I really enjoyed the 96 - 97% coverage driving through Atlanta in the middle of the day. It was definitely dim but not dark. But the contrast was dialed way up. It was very eerie.
I could see how people could panic if they didn’t know this was coming. If it would have been at sunset I think it would have lost some of its weirdness.
"lone_liberal" (token-liberal)
08/21/2017 at 17:07, STARS: 0
I’m in Washington state and it was about 90% here so it got dim but never really dark. I still thought it was very cool.