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ithilwenI just found out what (knock on wood) I'll be doing about 7 years from now for my summer vacation. There's a total solar eclipse of the sun happening on August 21, 2017 which crosses directly over the middle of the United States - and I'm lucky enough to be only a 1-hour drive from the path of totality! If you live in the US or are planning to be traveling here during that time, check out this NASA map to see how far away from the path of the eclipse you're sitting, and start making your own vacation plans. Everyone should see a total eclipse at least once in their life if at all possible! There's simply no grander sight in Nature.
I think I'd better hold off on the actual vacation request form, though; I don't think my hospital's Human Resources department is up for scheduling an absence so far in advance. But barring some unforeseen catastrophe, there's no chance in Hell I'll be anywhere but in the path of totality on that day!
(For my non-US LJ friends, I can recommend looking at the charts halfway down this page to find some total eclipse possibilities closer to home. Looks like the Aussies and Kiwis get a crack at one on November 13, 2012 (although it looks like most of the path of totality occurs over the sea, so some traveling would still be involved), and northern Europe sees one on March 20, 2015.)
Edited to Add: Did you know we're incredibly lucky to be living in the brief window of time when a total solar eclipse seen from the surface of the Earth is even possible? The moon is slowly moving farther away from Earth; right now, it's at just the right distance to be the same angular diameter in the sky as the sun, and thus can cover the sun's disk completely. In a few tens of thousands of years, the moon will have moved far enough away that its angular diameter will be too small to cover the sun's disk completely, and that will be the end of total solar eclipses viewable from Earth; they'll all be either annular or partial from that point on. So total eclipses are even rarer than you knew!
Edited Again to Add: Talk about an appropriate photo - check out today's APOD eclipse pic!
I think I'd better hold off on the actual vacation request form, though; I don't think my hospital's Human Resources department is up for scheduling an absence so far in advance. But barring some unforeseen catastrophe, there's no chance in Hell I'll be anywhere but in the path of totality on that day!
(For my non-US LJ friends, I can recommend looking at the charts halfway down this page to find some total eclipse possibilities closer to home. Looks like the Aussies and Kiwis get a crack at one on November 13, 2012 (although it looks like most of the path of totality occurs over the sea, so some traveling would still be involved), and northern Europe sees one on March 20, 2015.)
Edited to Add: Did you know we're incredibly lucky to be living in the brief window of time when a total solar eclipse seen from the surface of the Earth is even possible? The moon is slowly moving farther away from Earth; right now, it's at just the right distance to be the same angular diameter in the sky as the sun, and thus can cover the sun's disk completely. In a few tens of thousands of years, the moon will have moved far enough away that its angular diameter will be too small to cover the sun's disk completely, and that will be the end of total solar eclipses viewable from Earth; they'll all be either annular or partial from that point on. So total eclipses are even rarer than you knew!
Edited Again to Add: Talk about an appropriate photo - check out today's APOD eclipse pic!
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Date: 2010-08-04 04:35 pm (UTC)I did not know that about the moon. Very interesting! So many eclipses as plot points in fiction but they're really just a massive Earth-specific coincidence.
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Date: 2010-08-04 07:35 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2010-08-04 09:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-04 09:57 pm (UTC)I've been into astronomy since I was sixteen, courtesy of attending a high school that had its own planetarium and offered an elective astronomy class. One of my earliest eclipse memories is from that class: we spent an afternoon watching the solar eclipse of 1979 in the school parking lot. (It was a total eclipse in Montana, but only a partial eclipse in the Chicago area. Still, it was a pretty special sight!)
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Date: 2010-08-04 10:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-04 10:12 pm (UTC)Oops. There.
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Date: 2010-08-05 01:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-05 03:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-05 04:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-04 11:22 pm (UTC)Hotel Himring sounds great (I've got a good sleeping bag I could pack for the occasion). Are you quite serious?
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Date: 2010-08-05 01:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-05 01:26 am (UTC)However, even old stick-in-the-mud Moi may have to venture forth for that. I mean, aren't these usually only visible over a tiny portion of some uninhabitable wasteland halfway around the world (from me, anyway)? This one is too close not to go!
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Date: 2010-08-05 04:04 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2010-08-05 01:40 pm (UTC)