• cordlesslamp@lemmy.today
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      9 months ago

      South East Asia here, no total eclipse for the next 200 years. And I slept through the last one when I was in middle school, FML.

    • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      We aren’t sure yet, but we are likely the only place in the galaxy that has the perfect total eclipses. If humanity ever manages to unite and take to the stars, there’s a strong argument to be made for our flag to just be a black field with a solar corona. We may even have to worry about too much extra-terrestrial eclipse tourism.

      Solar eclipses on Mars are underwhelming.

        • Grimy@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          I was talking to some friends about it actually. Probably makes for memorable vacations.

      • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        We aren’t sure yet, but we are likely the only place in the galaxy that has the perfect total eclipses.

        I’m frankly dubious about this - tons of extrasolar planets will have moons, and those moons will occlude their stars. what in any way makes earth special? citation requested.

        • ricecake@sh.itjust.works
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          9 months ago

          The extremely unlikely, a d actually entirely coincidental, fact that our moon happens to be precisely the right size and distance from the sun and moon to perfectly obscure it.

          If it were further away or smaller, it wouldn’t block it out completely and we’d just get annular eclipses, which doesn’t let you see the corona, just a ring you shouldn’t look at directly without eye protection.

          If it were bigger or closer, it would obscure the corona and we’d just see darkness.

          Stellar bodies lining up is perfectly normal and commonplace. Them being exactly the right size shape and distance to create a total eclipse is fantastically unlikely.
          Doubly so when you consider that the moon is slowly moving away, and so a long time ago the moon was too big in the sky, and in about 50 million years it’ll be too small.

          Something so unlikely happening during the time there’s intelligent life on the planet that can understand and appreciate it is, literally and figuratively, astronomicaly unlikely. 😀

          • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            The extremely unlikely, a d actually entirely coincidental, fact that our moon happens to be precisely the right size and distance from the sun and moon to perfectly obscure it.

            it’s extremely unlikely and entirely coincidental that your hand is exactly the size to obscure your vision. this doesn’t speak for the odds of it never happening again elsewhere in the universe.

            • ricecake@sh.itjust.works
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              9 months ago

              What?

              Like, the thing about the hand aside, if something is extremely unlikely, that literally speaks to the odds of it happening. That’s what unlikely means.

              Your hand covering your face isn’t coincidental or unlikely; everyone’s hand does and it’s written into your genetics that it should.

              There’s no particular reason why a big rock should end up in the particular place it did for us, and it’s surprising that it did.
              It’s not likely that it happens often because there’s no reason for it to happen, unlike other interesting phenomenon we see like the big red spot on Jupiter or the hexagon on Saturn. Those should be common because there’s a systemic reason they happened.

              • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
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                9 months ago

                Like, the thing about the hand aside,

                they’re both conjecture based on a microscopic sample size.

                Your hand covering your face isn’t coincidental or unlikely; everyone’s hand does and it’s written into your genetics that it should.

                ahem, this is so wrong in so many ways.

                everyone’s hand does

                Nope.

                and it’s written into your genetics that it should.

                pshew wow nope nope nope.

                Nothing in your genes controls a proportional size relationship of your hands to your head. And not everyone has large hands, look at trump for example.

                There’s no particular reason why a big rock should end up in the particular place it did for us,

                you really don’t understand planetary formation, stability in orbital mechanics and a bunch of subjects. there’s tons of good reasons to suspect the other planets had moons as well; they simply weren’t as orbitally stable as ours ended up.

                The only thing your (and other person I’m responding to here) argument has going for it is the extraordinarily difficulty of resolving exomoons orbiting exoplanets around our neighborhood.

            • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              I only specified the Milky Way, not the entire universe. It would be highly unlikely that we’d be the only place in the universe that it happened, but the chances are potentially low enough for it being the only one among a mere 100,000,000,000 stars.

          • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            sorry, this is hardly definitive. we need more extrasolar surveys before you can posit that we’re the only place. anything else is conjecture.

            • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              It’s speculation, but there are only 100 billion stars in the galaxy. I’m willing to bet that we have a 1 in a 100 billion chance of our solar systems creation being different from the others.

              • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
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                9 months ago

                that’s pretty silly. you’re suggesting that in our galaxy we’re the only place this happens - what about our solar system is so exceptional, when we see similar planetary formation all over the galaxy?

                and also, there are between 200 billion (2×1011) to 2 trillion galaxies in the observable universe - you gonna write them off too?

                you have a sample size of one - one solar system. that’s it.

                seems fucking moronic to be making billions or trillions of assumptions based on your experience.

                • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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                  9 months ago

                  Now you’re just making shit up I never said. Have fun being ignorant.

                  In fact, in my original comment, and another reply specifically said that I was only talking about our galaxy, and not even our local group.

          • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            do you mean, no OTHER planet? aside from the one we’re on?

            also: restricting it to the few rocks in our back yard seems specious as there are literally billion so of other stars out there.

            So, what was your point?

      • Jordan_U
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        8 months ago

        Source?

        It looks like you would get a perfect solar eclipse on Mars if Pandora were spherical.

        https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiecartereurope/2018/08/10/earth-is-not-the-only-planet-in-the-solar-system-that-gets-total-solar-eclipses/

        If there’s another planet in our solar system where you can almost get an earth-like “perfect” solar eclipse, I find it highly unlikely that there isn’t a single other planet in our entire galaxy where one might also see a “perfect” solar eclipse.

        • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/04/08/solar-eclipse-mars-phobos-nasa-photos/73242215007/

          Forbes messed up their math.

          Both of Mars’ moons are either too small or too far from the planet to completely occlude the sun, but your article is about a moon of Saturn.

          I’m not sure I would count a planet that no human or rover has a chance to see the eclipse, and at that distance the sun is TINY, but I’ll bet that Pandora completely occludes both the sun and it’s corona.

          It’s highly likely that no other planet in the galaxy has the correct conditions for a perfect solar eclipse.

        • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          I find it highly unlikely that there isn’t a single other planet in our entire galaxy where one might also see a “perfect” solar eclipse.

          yup, they think they can speak for literally billions of stars with potentially billions and billions of planets… seems like a tall order lol

    • Socsa@sh.itjust.works
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      9 months ago

      It’s also massively over hyped imo. I did the last one and the coolest part was the shadows, but the actual darkness was super underwhelming. Hearing everyone say it was like some spiritual experience makes me roll my eyes a bit. It got dark for a bit. It does that shit every day smh.

      • SpacetimeMachine@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        People aren’t amazed because it gets dark for a bit. People are amazed because it reminds us that the sun and the moon are real 3d objects incredibly far away, not just images in the sky. I can understand how it is a spiritual experience for a lot of people.

        • filcuk@lemmy.zip
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          9 months ago

          It’s also an incredible coincidence (or otherwise, depending on your beliefs) how the distance and size of the two bodies matches perfectly for the total eclipse to be a thing at all.

          • Whelks_chance@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            Technically it would be fine for the moon to be bigger or closer and you’d still get a total eclipse.

      • protozoan_ninja@sh.itjust.works
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        9 months ago

        It turns out, animals get freaked out when sun does weird thing, and we’re animals too

        EDIT: I went and it was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. That still just means I was bowled over by a rock casting a shadow. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

      • gmtom@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        This is the most wrong comment I have ever seen on this entire fucking website.

        I can assure anyone reading this, that this guy is just being a contrarian to seem better than other people.

        The eclipse was the single greatest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.

        • Socsa@sh.itjust.works
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          9 months ago

          I mean it was cool, don’t get me wrong. But greatest thing I’ve ever seen? IDK, I saw a space shuttle launch live. That was way cooler. Dark Knight in IMAX is a contender. The coolest thing I’ve ever seen is basically the entire country of Iceland. The Eclipse is maybe top 20.

          It’s possible I just did the eclipse wrong. I am glad you enjoyed it. I don’t quite understand why so many people take it personally that I was not moved by it.

          • gmtom@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            Space shuttle is pretty cool. Personally wouldn’t put any movie experience in the same universe as the eclipse.

            Like it’s entirely possible that we’re the only planet in the galaxy that has eclipses like that and quite possibly the only one in the universe with life on it to witness such an event.

            And you’re stood there watching as a incomprehensiblely big ball of rock held above us by nothing more than its own angular momentum happe s to perfectly cross infront of and block out and even possibly bigger ball of fusing gas and do it so perfectly it blocks the disk of the sin but leave the corona and solar flares still visible to the naked eye, you watch the world around start to die in the most unnatural way, the temperature drops and then suddenly its night time in the middle of the day, the animals go crazy, you have a 360° sunset and the sun is replaced by black disk surrounded by s ring of fire. Its pretty much a supernatural event.

            So I just really cannot comprehend how anyone could /possibly/ compare it watching a movie. That’s like comparing witnessing the birth of your own child to finding a dollar on the street.

            • Socsa@sh.itjust.works
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              9 months ago

              But all that stuff is still true whether you see it yourself or not. I don’t quite get this line of reasoning. Were you unsure about the nature of astral bodies before that point?

              Again, I have no intention of diminishing your experience, unlike you mine. I am super happy that you had a surreal experience. I just felt extremely underwhelmed personally.

              Also, people keep saying this about animals, but I didn’t witness that at all. My dog slept through it.

        • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          glad it was good for you man. having seen a few… both full and partial… it was just some thing that happened. I did really appreciate seeing the wiggly shadow bands, was not expecting that, but it isn’t anywhere near the ‘greatest single thing I’ve ever seen in my life’. Not even in the top 20.

        • Agrivar@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          I am so sad for you. Your life must have been a painful disappointment up until today.

          • gmtom@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            Man with people like you it’s really like I never left reddit.

            I’m sure everybody thinks you’re really cool because you’re not impressed by a thing that impresses a lot of people.

      • ricecake@sh.itjust.works
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        9 months ago

        Did you forget to look at it?

        No one is getting hyped for it being dark outside, they’re hyped for being able to see the corona of the sun with their naked eyes.

        • Socsa@sh.itjust.works
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          9 months ago

          Maybe that’s it, my vision isn’t that great. It just looked like a blurry ring of light in the sky to me.

          • ricecake@sh.itjust.works
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            9 months ago

            That seems likely, and unfortunate. To a lot of people it looks like all of the pictures that get posted to the Internet after the eclipse, except a fair bit more impactful because it’s there. The sky turns dark blue, you see the coronal glow as tendrils of light coming away from the hole in the sky where the sun was a moment before.
            Easily one of the more beautiful things I’ve seen, and I’ve seen quite a few.

      • Death_Equity@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        That’s because only 63% of us can afford international travel and most of the 37% goes to Canada, Mexico, or the Caribbean.

      • Magnergy@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Is akin to people complaining about how the posts in a thread don’t all agree on something, so the forum and its participants are hypocritical.

    • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Yeah, after seeing a total eclipse, all those partial eclipses seem like nothing. I’m not sure I’ll even bother watching a partial or annular eclipse again.

      Glad you were able to see it without cloud cover. I ended up changing my destination this morning due to cloud forecast.

    • Conyak@lemmy.tf
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      9 months ago

      I saw the 2017 one and I’m curious what you mean by worth it? Like, worth the effort to go outside and look up? I personally wouldn’t go out of my way to see it again. It was cool but not, $1000 dollar for a campsite cool.

      • g_the_b@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        I saw the 2017, and spent well over $3k to travel with my family to see it again today. Granted it was more so I could show it to THEM, but I wanted to see it again too.

        • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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          9 months ago

          Same. Travelled to SC for 2017 with my wife and 1 year old.

          Was so awe-struck that I flew my wife, now-7-year old, and 4 year old, to Texas to view it here. Also to check out Houston, Austin, and Dallas. Austin was by far the coolest. Wish I spent more time there. Almost want to move.

      • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        It cost us a hotel room at a marginally inflated rate (less than $200). Eclipses aren’t a secret so you can plan/buy ahead, you don’t get caught up in the price gouging. We packed food and drinks in a cooler to save $.

        I’m not sure what you mean by going “outside and looking up” other than maybe trying to be dismissive. If you live in the path of totality, going outside and looking up (with appropriate eye protection) is a serious piece of luck, a luxury, and paying “1000 for a campsite” isn’t a problem. If you don’t live in the path of totality then you don’t get to see it - and seeing totality is what’s “worth it”, not just the moon partially blocking the sun.

        • Conyak@lemmy.tf
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          9 months ago

          The comment said “worth it” without specifying what it was worth. That was the reason for me asking what worth it meant. Was it worth traveling? Paying for a flight? Taking a day off? Simply walking outside? The effort to see it is relevant to know what it means when they said “worth it.” Hope that helps you understand.

          • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            Don’t know what to tell you. “Worth it” was my personal opinion of the event and efforts to see it, to which you seemed clearly to indicate that such an event was not worth going out of your way for or paying lots of money to see. I don’t understand what me providing further information could offer you.

            If you want I’ll gladly share our process, but I cannot help you with your personal feelings of whether our efforts were subjectively “worth it” by your measure.

            • Conyak@lemmy.tf
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              9 months ago

              You did tell me what you did to see the eclipse in your follow up comment, which showed me what you thought was worth it. It seems like you are taking more offense than was implied. My question was simply to learn what the effort was.

              As for my personal feelings I don’t need help. I’ve seen a total solar eclipse and know what effort I would go through to see another. There isn’t even an argument her. I was simply looking for clarification which you provided in your follow up.

  • Underwaterbob@lemm.ee
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    9 months ago

    Eclipses might be a dime-a-dozen, but Halley’s Comet doesn’t mess around. My grandad saw it twice. I hope to, too. It comes once every 75 years. The last time was 1986. The next is 2061. If you were born today, you’d have to live to be 112 years-old to see it a second time.

  • umbrella
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    9 months ago

    not if you don’t want to take a plane to see it

    • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Or to make a giant disc that can be positioned in an orbit that totally eclipses the sun and/or our hearts regularly so that when we’re old we can removed at kids about how total eclipses used to be rare and special but now everyone takes them for granted because NASA wasted a bunch of money making them mundane and that’s what happened to our retirement funds and is why grandparents live in boxes and look forward to the relative comfort of the final box.

      Edit: wording

  • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Maybe a location thing. The current eclipse passes through NY today, the next one touching NY won’t be until 2079. Texas 2045. So it’s all over the place time-wise between eclipses and location.

  • dumbass@lemy.lol
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    9 months ago

    Everytime I do something I’m gonna say to people " that won’t happen for another 150 years".

  • TVgog56789@lemy.lol
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    9 months ago

    Solar eclipses happen every 1-3 years.

    But the darkest shadow called the umbra only falls in a very tiny place, slightly bigger than a few Districts and that shadow moves in a line and those places experience total solar eclipse.

    So next year there may be another solar eclipse but New York will not experience a total solar eclipse for a long time.

    Also two-thirds of the earth is water so most of the time the umbra falls on the sea.

  • Sam_Bass@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Got lucky here as the clouds melted away enabling a good look from about 30% onward. Reinforced for me the fact that even though we are not even a microscopic part of the cosmic whole this event, also not a microscopic part of the infinity of the universe, is still a very moving and impressive thing

  • Tyrangle@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Even with cloud cover, seeing it at home was something special. I know what it’s supposed to look and sound like at that hour. It wasn’t the same as night - I could still see sunlight on the horizon all around me. I could sense that the wildlife was confused by it - all the birds just flew to the tops of the trees and were trying to make sense of what was happening. The bugs went quiet, and we were all whispering for no apparent reason - it just felt appropriate. The slow descent into darkness was unsettling, especially under cloud cover - it felt like we were under the gaze of a passing giant we could not see. I was surprised by how relieved I felt when the light started to return. It wasn’t what I was expecting but the strangeness of it didn’t disappoint, and I don’t think seeing it away from home would have been quite the same.

  • AdrianTheFrog@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    It’s hard to say because all of the figures come from different places, and the news articles always like to say the longer figures to gather more attention.

    ex: There won’t be another eclipse over Ohio for ___ years vs There won’t be another eclipse over the continental U.S. for ___ years vs There won’t be another eclipse anywhere in the world for ___ years