Category: - Ascension Now

DREAM SHOTS OF THE TOTAL ECLIPSE:

4/7/2019

When a total eclipse of the sun occurs over one of the world's greatest observatories, you know someone's going to take a good picture. Maybe even a "dream shot." Here it is:

Petr Horálek took the picture overlooking ESO's La Silla Observatory during the July 2nd total eclipse in Chile. "This was definitely my 'dream shot'," says Horálek. "The weather was just perfect, sky clear, wind calm, pleasant chill... and the eclipse--just wow!"
Meanwhile, floating above the clouds at 37,000 feet, Bill Reyna captured his own dream shot:

"I watched the eclipse from a plane flying through the path of totality," explains Reyna. "The oval shape of the Moon's shadow was visible on the cloudtops."
Browse the Solar Eclipse Photo Gallery for more images from the path of totality, which stretched from the South Pacific across great observatories in Chile to the eastern reaches of Argentina.
www.spaceweather.com

RARE SUNSET ECLIPSE OF THE SUN:

28/6/2019

Residents of Chile and Argentina are about to witness a rare total eclipse of the sun. On July 2, 2019, the new Moon will pass across the solar disk, creating a black hole in the sky just before sunset in the two South American countries. This animated map, created by space artist Larry Koehn, includes a detailed local timetable of events:

Total Eclipse of the Sun On July 2, 2019 in Chile and Argentina (no sound) from LarryKoehn on Vimeo.

The path of totality cuts across ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile and barely misses the center of Buenos Aires in Argentina. The Moon's elongated sunset shadow will swallow observers for 1 to 2 minutes depending on their exact location.
Outside the path of totality, the eclipse is partial with significant coverage in large cities such as Santiago, Chile (93%); Montevideo, Uruguay (94%); La Paz, Bolivia (63%); and Lima, Peru (54%). During the partial phase of the eclipse, the sun looks like a crescent, and it casts crescent-shaped shadows on the ground. South Americans should look for them underneath the canopies of leafy trees. Using safe eclipse glasses, it is possible to view the crescent sun directly.
The sun and Moon align for an eclipse once or twice every year. Aligning directly over a major observatory, however, is very rare. This video shows what the eclipse will look like over La Silla:

La Silla is home to some of the world's biggest telescopes and many skilled observers. Observatory staff will host more than a thousand members of the public in a viewing party among the telescope domes. A live high-definition webcast of the eclipse will be available on ESO's website and on ESO's Youtube Channel. The action begins on Tuesday, July 2nd. Stay tuned!

More live webcasts: from Chile; from Argentina; from La Silla.
www.spaceweather.com

Last year's solar eclipse set off a wave in the upper atmosphere that was detected as far away as Brazil

4/5/2018

Lisa Grossman; Science News; 30 April 2018

It was the eclipse felt 'round the world'. The August 21, 2017, total solar eclipse that crossed the United States launched a wave in the upper atmosphere that was detected nearly an hour later from Brazil (SN Online: 8/11/17). "The eclipse itself is a local phenomenon, but our study shows that it had effects around the world," says space scientist Brian Harding of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Harding watched the eclipse from St. Louis. But he and his colleagues activated a probe near São João do Cariri, Brazil, to observe uncharged particles 250 kilometers high in a part of the atmosphere called the thermosphere.

The probe recorded a fast-moving wave in the thermosphere go by half an hour after sunset in São João do Cariri and 55 minutes after the end of the total eclipse, the team reported April 24 in Geophysical Research Letters. The wave is produced by the motion of the moon's shadow, which cooled the atmosphere below it. That cold spot then acted like a sink, sucking in the warmer air ahead of it and causing a ripple in the atmosphere as the cold spot moved across the globe.

Previous eclipses also have launched waves at similar altitudes in the ionosphere, the charged plasma of the atmosphere, which overlaps with the electrically neutral thermosphere (SN Online: 8/13/17). This is the first time that scientists have observed a wave in the uncharged part of the atmosphere. Neutral particles are 100 to 1,000 times denser than plasma in the atmosphere, and it's important to know how they behave too, Harding says.

Science News: Published on Apr 30, 2018
This simulation predicts the atmosphere’s response to a solar eclipse. Color shows how temperature changes, and black lines trace motion in the atmosphere. The moon’s shadow cooled the atmosphere, producing a large wave that was visible from a research station in Brazil (black square) after the eclipse had ended. Read more: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/g... Credit: B.J. Harding et al/Geophysical Research Letters 2018.

Half a world away: the above simulation predicts the atmosphere's response to a solar eclipse.
https://www.sott.net/article/384617-Last-years-solar-eclipse-set-off-a-wave-in-the-upper-atmosphere-that-was-detected-as-far-away-as-Brazil

AS THE ECLIPSE NEARS, SOLAR ACTIVITY INCREASES:

20/8/2017

Only a few weeks ago, it seemed that the sun would be quiet and featureless when the Moon eclipsed it on Aug. 21st. Solar Minimum was in full swing. This weekend, however, the sun is welcoming the eclipse with a burst of renewed activity. "As the Moon approaches the sun, our nearest star is extending a friendly hand towards it," says Dave Eagle who sends this picture from Higham Ferrers, England:

"There is a huge prominence on the sun's eastern limb. If you are in the total eclipse path set your clock to greet this awesome spectacle on Monday," he says.

And that's just for starters. In addition, a remarkably-long sunspot group is sprawling across the solar disk. AR2671 stretches 140,000 miles from end to end, almost twice as wide as the planet Jupiter. Bill Hrudey sends this picture of the behemoth from the Cayman Islands:

Amateur astronomers watching the eclipse through safe solar telescopes will have no trouble seeing the rugged edge of the Moon cut across this impressive sunspot, eclipsing one dark core after another. If we're really lucky, the sunspot will explode. AR2671 has a 'beta-gamma' magnetic field that harbors energy for M-class solar flares. Free: Solar Flare Alerts
www.spaceweather.com

TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE: THE PATH OF TOTALITY

16/8/2017

On Aug. 21, 2017, every square inch of the USA will experience a solar eclipse. In most places, the eclipse will be partial - that is, the Moon will cross the sun off-center, leaving a crescent shaped portion of the solar disk exposed. Is it really worth the trip to the path of totality when you can stay home and see the partial eclipse? Pulitzer prize winner Annie Dillard, who witnessed both types of eclipses in 1979, compared them as follows:

"A partial eclipse is very interesting. It bears almost no relation to a total eclipse. Seeing a partial eclipse bears the same relation to seeing a total eclipse as kissing a man does to marrying him, or as flying in an airplane does to falling out of an airplane."

Indeed, during the minutes of totality, the whole world changes. Saying that day turns into night barely scratches the surface of it. The shadow of the Moon lances down to Earth from a quarter million miles away. On one end is you; on the other end is a million square miles of dusty lunar terrain. You're connected, and you can feel the cold.

Image Credit & Copyright: Tunç Tezel (TWAN), Alkim Ün

Darkness inside the path of totality has an alien quality. Because the shadow is only 70 miles wide, you can see daylight at the edges even while you stand in the dark core. This distant scattered light produces a slight reddish glow and unusual shadow effects. Many birds stop singing, daytime flower blossoms begin to close as if for the night, and bees return to their hives.

"What you see in an eclipse is entirely different from what you know," says Dillard, whose brilliant essay "Total Eclipse" is a must-read for anyone deciding whether to stay home ... or have their minds blown.
www.spaceweather.com

Calling all Lightworkers: Eclipse SUNday Meditations & Activations

25/2/2017

Blessings Beloved Light Tribe ~

Global Meditations occurring during the eclipse peak and our three Unity sessions on SUNday. This is a powerful Gateway for embodiment of the New HUman template, Christed/Crystalline Consciousness. Gaia’s Solar aspects, Grid activation and the massive stargate templates approaching for Solar activation on many levels.

We request every awakened Soul to be on board this SUNday, since this passage determines the strength of the March unfoldments. Encourage your groups, friends, communities to add as many souls to this activity as possible. Tremendous activation available with this influx. Our Higher Levels are holding the Gateways open for the collective.

In Love, Light and Service
Sandra Walter
http://www.sandrawalter.com/global-meditations-eclipse-sunday/

ANNULAR SOLAR ECLIPSE:

20/2/2017

It's not a total eclipse, but it's the next best thing. On Sunday, Feb. 26th, the Moon will pass in front of the southern hemisphere sun, covering as much as 99% of the solar disk. Astronomers call this an "annular" solar eclipse. Observers in parts of South America and Africa will be able to witness a magnificent "ring of fire" in the sky as crescent-shaped sunbeams dance on the ground below.
Watch this cool animation from ShadowandSubstance.com.
www.spaceweather.com

TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE SUN:

4/3/2016

Next week, there's going to be a total eclipse of the sun. During the early hours of March 9th the new Moon will pass directly in front of the sun. The Moon's shadow will lance down toward Earth, making landfall only on the islands of Indonesia before it races out onto the waters of the Pacific Ocean. Graphic artist Larry Koehn of Shadow and Substance created this animated visibility map:

March 9, 2016 Total Solar Eclipse over the Pacific from LarryKoehn on Vimeo.

Inside the Moon's cool shadow, sky watchers can look up and see the sun's ghostly corona, a mesmerizing sight that longtime NASA eclipse expert Fred Espenak says "on a scale of 1 to 10--it's a million!"

Outside the narrow path of totality, the eclipse will be partial. Observers all around the Pacific will be able to see a crescent-shaped sun in the sky casting crescent-shaped shadows on the ground below. In Hawaii, 60% to 70% of the sun will be covered, quite a bit more than the 20% coverage in Alaska. The Australian sun will be as much as 50% blocked.

This is the last solar eclipse before the "Big One" next year. On August 21st, 2017, the sun and Moon will line up again. This time the Moon's shadow will cross the entire USA, creating a total eclipse in easy driving distance of tens of millions of people. It will likely be the best observed eclipse in human history. Stay tuned for a preview from Indonesia.
www.spaceweather com

TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE SUN:

3/3/2016

In less than a week, there's going to be a total eclipse of the sun. On March 9th, the new Moon will pass directly in front of the sun, bringing night to day and revealing the sun's ghostly corona. The path of totality cuts across Indonesia and the Pacific Ocean: animated map. Spaceweather.com is sending a team of students to observe the eclipse and test cameras for the Solar Eclipse Balloon Network. www.spaceweather.com

DOUBLE ECLIPSE OF THE SUN:

14/9/2015

On Sept. 13th, the sun was eclipsed--twice! No one on Earth has ever seen anything like it. Indeed, it was only visible from Earth orbit. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) recorded the event:

The double eclipse began around 06:30 UT when Earth passed directly between the sun and SDO. The observatory watched as the body of our planet moved slowly across the face of the sun, producing a near black-out. When the Earth finally moved aside about an hour later, another eclipse was in progress. This time, the Moon was in the way. A movie from the SDO science team explains the crazy-perfect alignment required for such a view.

(In the snaphots above, note how the edge of the Earth looks so much fuzzier than the edge of the Moon. That's because our planet has an atmosphere and the Moon does not.)

Meanwhile on Earth, an ordinary partial eclipse was visible. People in South Africa and parts of Antarctica saw the Moon pass in front of the sun, off-center, producing crescent-shaped shadows and strange sunrises. Check the realtime photo gallery for their images. www.spaceweather.com

Moon shadow during sun eclipse, 20 March 2015

26/3/2015

Sylvain Chapeland

Published on 23 Mar 2015
Timelapse movie of the moon shadow seen from the stratosphere, in a plane flying along the umbral path of the sun eclipse of 20th March 2015.

CHASING MOON SHADOWS: Total eclipses of the sun are achingly brief. The Moon's shadow races across the landscape at thousands of kilometers per hour, enveloping sky watchers for a matter of minutes at most. On March 20th, when the Moon passed in front of the sun over the Arctic Ocean, a few observers extended the experience--in an airplane. "Flying at 14,000 m was an incredible way to watch the eclipse," reports Sylvain Chapeland. "Our velocity of 950 km/h allowed an extra minute of totality." She recorded this must-see video over a stretch of ocean between Iceland and the Faroe Islands:

"I have never seen anything like the shadow of the Moon rushing upon us during totality, overtaking us and continuing its path at 3000 km/h," says Chapeland. "This was a dramatic perspective. Our view of the sun's corona with Venus shining on the east side were incredible."

Three rare celestial events in one day: Solar eclipse, Supermoon and Spring Equinox

18/3/2015

Andrew Griffin : The Independent, UK : 16 Mar 2015

© Independent

As the eclipse plunges the UK and other places into darkness this Friday, two other rare, if less spectacular, celestial events will be taking place too: a Supermoon and the Spring equinox.

A Supermoon, or perigee moon, happens when the full or new moon does its closest fly-by of the Earth, making it look bigger than it normally does. And the spring equinox refers to the time of the year when the day and night are of equal duration, mid-way between the longest and shortest days.

The solar eclipse refers to a phenomenon where the sun and moon line up, so that the latter obscures the former. And while it won't be affected by the two other events, it is rare that the three events happen even individually.

Supermoon

Most of the time, there are between three and six Supermoons a year. There is set to be six in 2015, two of which have already happened. The next will take place on March 20, the day of the eclipse, and the others will come in August, September and October.

Eclipses can only happen at new moon, when the moon appears almost entirely in shadow. And the spectacular Supermoon images that are often spotted can only happen when the moon is full, since it can only be seen then. As a result, only the last three Supermoons of this year will be visible — because the moon is new rather than full on March 20, it won't be seen. But it will be gliding past us closer than ever, and its shadow will be visible as it blocks out the sun on Friday morning.

Spring equinox

The equinox will also happen on March 20. While it won't have any discernable, direct impact on how the solar eclipse looks, it will contribute to a rare collision of three unusual celestial events.

On March 20, the Earth's axis will be perpendicular to the sun's rays — which only happens twice a year, at the two equinoxes. After that, it will start tipping over, making the days longer in the northern hemisphere. As such, the equinox has long been celebrated as a time of beginning and renewal, by a number of historic cultures, and is linked to Easter and Passover.

The equinox will happen at the same time as a solar eclipse in 2053 and 2072, though it doesn't always appear as close together as that.
Source

Total Solar Eclipse of 2015 occurs 20 March : How to see it

16/3/2015

by Joe Rao, SPACE.com Skywatching Columnist | March 16, 2015

This week, the moon will completely cover the disk of the sun, creating a solar eclipse that only a small part of the world can see. The March 20 total solar eclipse event will be the first since Nov. 3, 2013. The dark umbral shadow cone of the moon will trace a curved path primarily over the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, beginning off the southern tip of Greenland and then winding its way counterclockwise to the northeast, passing between Iceland and the United Kingdom. The shadow will then pass over the Danish-owned Faroe Islands, the sparsely inhabited Norwegian island group of Svalbard and then it will hook counterclockwise toward the northwest, where it leaves the Earth’s surface just short of the North Pole. [Solar Eclipses: An Observer's Guide (Infographic)]

The March 20 total solar eclipse event will be the first since Nov. 3, 2013. The dark umbral shadow cone of the moon will trace a curved path primarily over the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, beginning off the southern tip of Greenland and then winding its way counterclockwise to the northeast, passing between Iceland and the United Kingdom. The shadow will then pass over the Danish-owned Faroe Islands, the sparsely inhabited Norwegian island group of Svalbard and then it will hook counterclockwise toward the northwest, where it leaves the Earth’s surface just short of the North Pole. [Solar Eclipses: An Observer's Guide (Infographic)]

If you don't have the chance to see the solar eclipse in person, you can catch it live online as well. The online Slooh Community Observatory will broadcast live views of the solar eclipse through its website Slooh.com, beginning at 4:30 a.m. EDT (0830 GMT). You can also watch the total solar eclipse webcast on Space.com on March 20, courtesy of Slooh.The Virtual Telescope Project will also air live views of the eclipse through the project's website beginning at 4 a.m. EDT (0800 GMT), and it will also be carried on Space.com if possible.

You can read more information, including timings for specific locations, at :
http://www.space.com/28820-total-solar-eclipse-march-2015.html

PARTIAL SOLAR ECLIPSE:

21/10/2014

This Thursday Oct. 23rd, the Moon will pass in front of the sun, off center, producing a partial solar eclipse visible from almost all of North America. Get the full story from Science@NASA. www.spaceweather.com

Update 22/10/2014 :
North America to experience spectacular sunset due to partial solar eclipse October 23
RT : 22 Oct 2014

Much of North America will experience a solar eclipse on Thursday, with the moon covering up to 70 percent of the sun in the late afternoon. Along most of the East Coast and Midwest, the event will occur during sunset, allowing for dramatic photography.

"Sunsets are always pretty. One sunset this month could be out of this world. On Thursday, Oct. 23rd, the setting sun across eastern parts of the USA will be red, beautiful and... crescent-shaped," NASA Science wrote. The alignment of the two orbs on the East Coast at the end of the day "will be especially beautiful... transforming the usual sunset into something weird and wonderful."

The farther north viewers are, the deeper the eclipse they'll see, and the farther west they are, the higher the sun and moon will be in the sky. Thus the comparatively later dusk of the Midwest may provide the most spectacular views of sunset-enhanced phenomenon. "Observers in the Central Time zone have the best view because the eclipse is in its maximum phase at sunset," longtime NASA eclipse expert Fred Espenak said. "They will see a fiery crescent sinking below the horizon, dimmed to human visibility by low-hanging clouds and mist."

Sciencecasts : Sunset Solar Eclipse

ScienceAtNASA

Read more at : http://www.sott.net/article/287779-North-America-to-experience-spectacular-sunset-due-to-partial-solar-eclipse-October-23

Strong M6-flare following Lunar Transit of Sun

31/1/2014

STRONG M-FLARE: Big sunspot AR1967 unleashed a strong M6-class solar flare on Jan. 30th at approximately 1617 UTC. The explosion, which may be seen at the end of this movie of today's solar eclipse, hurled a CME into space. Radio emissions from shock waves preceding the CME suggest that it could be leaving the sun faster than 2100 km/s (4.7 million mph). Stay tuned for updates about this potentially significant event.

LUNAR TRANSIT OF THE SUN: Earlier today, the Moon eclipsed the sun. No one on Earth saw it. The "lunar transit" was only visible from space. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the whole thing from geosynchronous orbit:

At maximum eclipse as much as 90% of the sun was covered. SDO is solar powered, but it did not "brown out" because mission controllers put an extra charge on the spacecraft's batteries ahead of time.

Every year, SDO observes multiple lunar transits. This one, lasting almost 2.5 hours, was the longest in the history of the spacecraft's 4 year mission. www.spaceweather.com