THE SOUTHWORTH PLANETARIUM

96 Falmouth Street

Portland, Maine 04103
43.6667° N    70.2667° W 

207-780-4249         usm.maine.edu/planet

Founded January 1970

          "Proud to be one of the extant wonders of the ancient world."

THE DAILY ASTRONOMER

Monday, April 10, 2023

ONE YEAR AWAY!!

_____________________________________________

YES, WE HAVE ECLIPSE GLASSES!

So, you're driving madly around the Greater Portland area in a  frantic effort to find shades that will enable you to safely watch the GREAT AMERICAN ECLIPSE 2024 and have had no luck whatsoever.  Oh, heavens, you lament, too bad the cannabis smoke pervading the city can't provide the necessary eye protection.  Well, lament no longer, frustrated soul, because you need only venture down into the star-studded, subterranean dungeons of the Southworth Planetarium to find eclipse shades.   Not only will they allow you to view the Sun without risking irreversible retinal damage, they're also vibrantly colorful and so stylish as to complement any attire.     

You can buy a pair for merely $2.00!  Considering that Disney World is already selling eclipse glasses in preparation for the 2045 eclipse at the bargain basement price of $145.37 plus, tax, shipping and obligatory contribution to the campaign of anyone who runs against Governor Desantis,  our prices are as modest as the blush of a mid-spring rose. You may also order them by replying to this e-mail, or by calling 207-780-4249. We'll add a $1 fee to cover mailing costs. 

__________________________________________________

We  had to create something of a time twist here at the DA today.  We have been waiting and waiting and waiting for the day when we could post the 'One Year Away' DA only to discover that April 8, 2023 was most inconveniently a Saturday.    Hence, our quandary.  Consequently, we're writing a DA for Monday, but posting it on Saturday which, unlike Monday, is actually a year away from the eclipse.   To avoid confusion, please be aware that the TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE is due to happen on APRIL 8, 2024 and not April 10, 2024.         I hope that this incoherent paragraph with all its circumlocutions has helped clarify the situation that, honestly, probably didn't require clarification in the first place.

ONE YEAR FROM TODAY, approximately 55 - 75 million people will watch as the moon moves slowly across the Solar disk until it covers it entirely.    In only 366 days -remember, Herr Clavius, that 2024 is a leap year- an eerie darkness will descend at mid-afternoon to the consternation of the wild things and to the unbridled delight of the human things fortunate enough to bear witness to this spectacular event.  

Throughout the next year, the DA will devote substantial time to this impending eclipse with highly informational charts, fascinating facts, illuminating diagrams, intriguing folklore, and, naturally, answers to your eclipse questions.     After all, we want you to join us in this febrile and infectious excitement that is already attending this impending eclipse.

Today's focus is on your questions and our attempts at answers

DO I NEED SPECIAL PROTECTION TO VIEW THIS ECLIPSE?

Absolutely!    Have you ever tried looking at the Sun?     If not, please don't start now.  Even though Sol is about 93 million miles away, it blazes so brightly as to be intolerable to our eyes.  You will need special eye protection to watch the eclipse both before and after totality.  You may look at the eclipse during totality, BUT YOU MUST BE SURE TO LOOK AWAY OR TO USE PROTECTION JUST BEFORE TOTALITY ENDS.     The eclipse timetable is location specific.  Your totality duration is not the same as another person's, so please be aware of the precise totality time at your location

Just for added emphasis, regard the above diagram -  the anatomy of the eye, the unfathomably complex, exquisitely beautiful organ we use to scrutinize others unfairly is the product of millions of years of evolutionary development. It is a wondrous part of your magnificent body and should be shielded from all harmful radiation.

WILL THE ECLIPSE BE TOTAL EVERYWHERE IN MAINE?

No, unfortunately, this eclipse will be total only along a swath of northern and western Maine

Only observers within the region marked by the gray band will be able to see a total solar eclipse.      Everybody outside this area will see most of the Sun blocked by the moon. However, one must be within the totality path to watch a total solar eclipse.     Note that nothing compares to the experience of a total solar eclipse!   If at all possible, find your way to the totality path by any means necessary, provided. of course,  that you don't resort to any criminal activity.

IF I MISS THIS ECLIPSE, HOW LONG WILL I HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL THE NEXT ONE?

Well, if you don't mind traveling, the next total solar eclipse after the April 8, 2024 event will occur on August 12, 2026.  That eclipse will be best seen in Greenland (brrrrrrrr!) and Iceland (warmer, just brr!)     If you don't want to leave the contiguous US, you'll have to wait until August 23, 2044.  The totality path will slice through Canada and part of the upper Midwest.  If you are determined to remain in Maine, well you'll have to wait until May 1, 2079.   That totality path will sweep across the arctic -veering close to the north pole- and drop down along coastal New England.      So, Portlanders who feel cheated at not being able to see the 2024 eclipse can take solace from the assurance that they'll definitely see the 2079 event. Ahem, weather permitting, of course.

WILL I SEE STARS DURING TOTALITY?

Most assuredly.    During the eclipse you'll see Venus to the west, Jupiter to the east, the stars of Pisces around the Sun as well as the Great Square of Pegasus to the north.  Also, and most wonderfully, the Andromeda Galaxy will become visible for  a brief time.   Remember that in 1919 Sir Arthur Eddington led an expedition to observe the starfield around the eclipsed Sun in order to provide observational evidence in support of Einstein's assertion that gravity bends starlight.   Granted, we won't notice much of a difference in our star field because this deflection amounts to less than 2 arc-seconds.      

WHAT IS IT LIKE TO SEE A TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE

Beyond all bounds of effability. 

We assure you that you'll find out.  

An experience that runs the entire gamut of emotions from existential fear to breathless wonderment as you drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees their medicinable gum. Conjoined with all humanity for an all-too-fleeting moment as celestial spheres that loom exponentially larger than life, itself,  cross their paths from our perspective.   Sun bejeweled lunar mountains, restless shimmers of the rarefied corona and prominences looping flame-like above the shadows.       Crescent shadows, emerging stars and night-chilled winds in the middle of a spring afternoon.    Something that could induce even the most obstinately austere person to suspect that perhaps we are spirits having a human experience after all.    Nothing more than that.