The Total Solar Eclipse of 2017
A Cool Darkness that Shines Light on How Reality Works

August 17, 2017 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

People look at what religion calls “the heavens.” They look at the stars, the galaxies. They can see a small part of the vastness of the universe, and they can imagine the greater vastness of the universe. Or they can look on a small scale, look with a microscope and see a small microbe or whatever, and be amazed by what goes on internally within that. They can ponder the relation between what you can see with a microscope and what you can see with a telescope. This is an essential quality of human beings. Human beings will always strive for this. Far from trying to suppress this, or failing to recognize it, we can and should and will give much fuller expression to it.

Communism will not put an end to—nor somehow involve the suppression of—awe and wonder, the imagination, and “the need to be amazed.” On the contrary, it will give much greater, and increasing, scope to this. It will give flight on a much grander scale to the imagination, in dialectical relation with—and in an overall sense as a part of—a systematic and comprehensive scientific outlook and method for comprehending and transforming reality.

Bob Avakian, BAsics 4:30

Take care of your eyes! Make sure to not look directly at the sun without “eclipse glasses.”

According to NASA:

Looking directly at the sun is unsafe except during the brief total phase of a solar eclipse (“totality”), when the moon entirely blocks the sun’s bright face, which will happen only within the narrow path of totality.

The only safe way to look directly at the uneclipsed or partially eclipsed sun is through special-purpose solar filters, such as “eclipse glasses” or hand-held solar viewers. Homemade filters or ordinary sunglasses, even very dark ones, are not safe for looking at the sun; they transmit thousands of times too much sunlight.

The glasses or filters need to meet the ISO 12312-2 international safety standard, and should say this somewhere on the package they come in.

Photo of the total eclipse in 2015. Photo: Wiki Commons

The path of Monday's total eclipse. Source: NASA.gov Video

This coming Monday, August 21, the shadow of the moon will cross North America in about three hours, in a line from Oregon to South Carolina—a total solar eclipse. The complete shadow will be about a 70-mile-wide circle. Anyone in the path of that complete shadow will be able to watch as the moon’s shape moves completely in front of the sun, blocking out all the sun’s direct light. For someone standing still and looking up, this “totality” (when the sun is completely blocked out) will last less than three minutes. Outside this complete shadow you would still see the moon passing in front of part of the sun. Along with the parts of North America that are not in the path of the total eclipse, parts of South America, Africa, and Europe will be able to view a partial eclipse. Watch the video on the right to see how this works. Click here to view a map of Monday’s eclipse, and the times it will pass over your location. A search online can easily give more information.

A “total solar eclipse” is when the sun is completely blocked, “eclipsed,” by the moon. A “partial solar eclipse” is when only part of the sun is blocked by the moon. This is different from a lunar eclipse, when the moon is on the opposite side of the Earth from the sun and passes through the Earth’s shadow. A total solar eclipse happens somewhere on Earth about every 18 months. Most of these are over water and only a few people get to see them. The eclipse on August 21 this year is rare because it will mostly be over land, and millions will be able to watch. And it is an awesome sight! If you are completely in the shadow (seeing a total eclipse), the sun will become completely blocked out and for a few minutes it will look and feel like nighttime. You will even see some stars.

But that’s not all. If you’re completely in the moon’s shadow, you will see the sun’s outer fiery atmosphere, something impossible to see any other time because of the intensity of the sun’s light. It will look something like the picture at right.

Scientists are excited. Along with a wondrous awe (one scientist was quoted saying “It will be awe-inspiring and I mean that ‘awe’ in the original, moving you to tears since of ‘awe’”), they are gearing up to learn everything they can from this eclipse, including by popularizing experiments for “citizen scientists” (anyone who wants to get in on this) to do and send in results. Studying the sun during eclipses is not new, but there is still a great deal we don’t know. The sun is our star. It’s large enough that about one million Earths could fit in it. It’s more than 90 million miles from us. The moon is smaller than Earth, but because it’s much closer to us casts a shadow on the Earth’s surface when it passes in front of the sun. During a total eclipse, scientists can study the outer atmosphere of the sun. And through that they’ll learn even more about how our sun works, how stars work. Other scientists have experiments ready to learn how the Earth’s atmosphere and environment changes when radiation from the sun changes. Eleven satellites, high-altitude balloons, hundreds of ground-based telescopes and the International Space Station will be chasing the moon’s shadow.

These days we can also watch the moon’s shadow from space!

On Monday, humanity gets another peek at the awesomeness of the universe we are part of, how it works and our place in it. And it’s a chance to send a big “fuck you!” to those that would deny science and reality. Learning science, learning how to know what’s real, what’s true, discovering what we do not yet know, learning how to apply that to changing our world... this makes all the difference in the world.

It’s easy to find online videos and information about this eclipse, including what the science community is planning.

Science rocks!

Ardea Skybreak Science and Revolution excerpts

Order from Insight Press:

The Science of Evolution and the Myth of Creationism

Knowing What's Real and Why It Matters

by Ardea Skybreak

"This book will be of tremendous benefit to many..."
— Richard Leakey

Graphic to help visualize what happens during an eclipse. Source: NASA

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The Total Solar Eclipse of 2017 A Cool Darkness that Shines Light on How Reality Works

The Science of Evolution and the Myth of Creationism

Knowing What's Real and Why It Matters

by Ardea Skybreak

"This book will be of tremendous benefit to many..." — Richard Leakey

The Total Solar Eclipse of 2017
A Cool Darkness that Shines Light on How Reality Works

"This book will be of tremendous benefit to many..."
— Richard Leakey