One month to go until the next total solar eclipse

Joshua Foer is a guest blogger on Boing Boing. Joshua is a freelance science journalist and the co-founder of the Atlas Obscura: A Compendium of the World's Wonders, Curiosities, and Esoterica, with Dylan Thuras.

Last summer, I read Roberto Casati's wonderful, lyrical book Shadows: Unlocking their Secrets, from Plato to Our Time, and was struck by a passage in which Casati describes how his addiction to total solar eclipses (TSEs) has carried him to the middle of the Black Sea and to Zambia:

A total eclipse is by far the most impressive natural phenomenon that we terrestrials can witness. The staging doesn't lessen its brutal effects. The temperature drops. A mysterious cold wind starts blowing. The shadow comes running up like a hurricane on the sea. The light collapses, and in just a few seconds, a metallic night falls--it comes on so fast the mind is not ready for it. On the horizon, unreachably far away, are the vestiges of daytime: an orangy twilight all around, as if a set designer made a mistake in projecting a sunset. In the midst of all this is a sun that's no longer a furnace but just an unlucky rock: its shining fringe is like the silver mane of hair of some aged celestial divinity; and stars glitter again, caught out of place in this out-of-joint nighttime.

Sounds like an almost religious experience, doesn't it?

TSEs happen about once every other year, and are only visible in a narrow band of the earth's surface. When I first read Casati's book, I vowed that I would try to see one as soon as possible.

I had high hopes of being in the Siberian town of Nadym for the last TSE, on August 1, 2008, but another commitment kept me in another hemisphere. Alas, I'm also going to be glued to my desk for the next TSE, which is exactly a month away, on July 22. Since it's going to pass over major populated areas in India and China, it may end up being witnessed by more human beings than any other TSE in history. It's also going to be the longest of the 21st century, lasting 6 minutes and 39 seconds at its point of maximum eclipse.

The next four TSEs--in 2010, 2012, 2015, and 2016--will barely cross dry land. So unless you want to join a cruise expedition or do some airborne eclipse chasing, you'll have to wait for the 2017 eclipse, which is going to carve a big fat path across the American heartland. For more info, check out Totality: The Digital Magazine for Eclipse Chasers.

MORE: guestblog • Space

More at Boing Boing

Eurovision 2013: An American in London

The technology that links taxonomy and Star Trek

mackenzi

Baby carriages ought to have electric blue and hot pink flashing lights on them so that they can be seen during Total Solar Eclipses. This feature might also allow for late evening walking, or running.
Takuan

Agies: shared pain is diminished:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=840B27zYfOk
Takuan

and the cure of course:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxwDBiIpFIY
zandar

why worry about any eclipse past 2012? Our normal boring life will be turned on its head by the harmonic convergence and we’ll be able to summon TSEs all day long with our amazing new powers.
iris

Makes me think of einsturzende neubauten.
holtt

Last full eclipse I saw was in 1979 here in the US North West. It was amazing. To actually see a prominence through my telescope! I was supposed to be banned from all field trips, but the hell if I was going to miss seeing a total eclipse that I’d been reading about for 10-11 years. Thank you oh best science teacher I ever had!
Anonymous

So what time is the 2017 eclipse in Nebraska?
So I was looking at the Google map of where the 2017 eclipse would be and I saw August and I was thinking damn out west in Wyoming or Nebraska would be a good place to go to see it because of the likelyhood of no clouds. And then I thought what about afternoon thundershowers. That would be terrible if you missed the eclipse because one of those came up. Then I wondered why they didn’t tell you the time of the eclipse for various locations.

Duh! It’s at noon dummy! (1pm daylight savings time.)
neurolux

The 2017 total solar eclipse looks convenient for us Americans. It will go from Oregon to South Dakota.
neurolux

Did I type South Dakota? I meant South Carolina. But you’d know that if you followed my link. Sheesh.
entheo

I don’t know why the November 2012 TSE would be that bad for Australians, it just means going to a tropical resort in the rainforest, or into the Outback to watch it. Ok, a long drive for most Australians unless you live up north, but that sounds like a good excuse for a holiday.
Falcon_Seven

If you ever have a chance to see a total solar eclipse, definitely go. The last one I observed was the July 11th, 1991, total eclipse in Mazatlan, Mexico. Absolutely, the most wonderful experience, ever. The light during the totality phase is most eerie, almost pearl-like in color. Seeing the umbra racing across the ocean, just before totality, from Baja, was very exciting.
AirPillo

On behalf of the bizarre musicians’ appreciation society (without permission of said society), here is a tangentially related video link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2_mPkV4Ri8
iris

I should have thought of Nomi. But my schoolgirl crush on Blixa prevails. I looked for a suitable movie on youtube that showed EN performing Total Eclipse of the Sun, but even if I found something I don’t think it would compare to Klaus Nomi in Urgh A Music War. Good one, Airpillo. I nod to your general direction.
poagao

Hmmm, maybe a trip to Shanghai on the 22nd?
PJG

This one is better: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiCRZLr9oRw&feature=PlayList&p=2840F51BA76B964E&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=47
Bugs

I got down to the Lizard in Cornwall (South-West England) for the last total solar eclipse of the millennium. It was pretty danm cool. We were looking out over the sea, so we could see the shadow sweeping toward us from miles out, leaving a narrow-looking band of low cloud behind it.

Probably the weirdest thing was watching the seabirds: all the gulls, terns (?) and others landed on the cliffs to roost and went silent for a minute or two. Then, when totality had passed, they kicked back into soaring, screaming life as if nothing had happened.
Shanghai Slim

Yet another reason I’m so happy to be an American living in Shanghai!

And then next year … a World Expo, right here in town! And it looks like it’s going to be up there on the list of greatest world’s fairs! Sadly, it appears that the USA will be one of the few nations in the world not participating …
Agies

Thanks for reminding me that I’d had an opportunity to view a total eclipse in 1994 and was kept indoors instead (they even drew the blinds). I’m still bitter.

I also have Total Eclipse of the Heart stuck in my head now. This post has only brought me pain.
Marchhare

I just realized that I know Casati. He’s a really good philosopher with interesting work in ontology (surfaces, holes, and the like).

For a taste, see David and Stephanie Lewis: “Holes”