From the Skyglow Project:
Located in the High Plains of Alliance, Nebraska, this monument to England’s Stonehenge was conceived and created by Jim Reinders in 1987, as a memorial to his father. “Carhenge consists of 39 vintage American automobiles arranged in a circle measuring about 29 meters (95 ft) in diameter. Some are held upright in pits 1.5 meters (4.9 ft) deep, trunk end down, and arches have been formed by welding automobiles atop the supporting models.” More info: carhenge.com
Because of Carhenge's fortuitous positioning on the narrow "path of totality" of the 2017 eclipse, the site has seen an incredible explosion of media attention in recent days, with thousands flocking there to witness the event, including Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts and Carhenge creator Jim Reinders himself, now 89 years old.
The STORMHENGE footage was captured during four different shoots between 2015-2017 by Harun Mehmedinovic and Gavin Heffernan as part of SKYGLOWPROJECT.COM, their ongoing quest to raise awareness about the damage and dangers of light pollution.
The video gives a glimpse into the extreme weather volatility in the High Plains region, with extreme thunderstorms giving way to crystal clear skies overhead, seemingly at a moment’s notice.
(via Daily Grail) Read the rest
Now that eclipse mania has settled down a bit, were seeing a round of work by editors and artists who needed a little time to shape their images and video into something even more transcendent. Erick Oh's Totality is among the best of these. Read the rest
If you were on the Moon during last week's solar eclipse, you would have seen the Moon's shadow moving across Earth. This image was taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) satellite. From Arizona State University's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) site:
As LRO crossed the lunar south pole heading north at 1600 meters per second (3579 mph), the shadow of the Moon was racing across the United States at 670 meters per second (1500 mph). A few minutes later, LRO began a slow 180° turn to look back at the Earth and capture an image of the eclipse very near the location of maximum length of totality. The LROC Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) began scanning the Earth at 18:25:30 UTC and completed the image 18 seconds later (UTC is 4 hours ahead of Eastern Daylight Time, or 7 hours ahead of Pacific Daylight Time).
The NAC builds up an image line-by-line rather than the more typical "instantaneous" framing camera (i.e. your cell phone camera). Each line of the image is exposed for 0.338 milliseconds, and since the camera acquires 52224 lines, the total time to acquire the image is about 18 seconds. The line exposure time was set at the lowest possible value to prevent bright clouds from saturating the CCD (charge coupled device) sensor.
Rendering of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter:
LROC Narrow Angle Camera (NAC):
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Corey Payne and his fiancée Kayla Harris bought a three-pack of eclipse glasses on Amazon. Now they say they are suffering from impaired vision and they filed a lawsuit in federal court in South Carolina on Tuesday.
From The Next Web:
On August 10, Amazon issued a recall of glasses it was unable to verify as safe. The retail giant emailed customers to return their units, although Payne and Harris say they didn’t receive an email. They aim to represent other people who suffered injuries and weren’t warned by Amazon.
There are almost two million independent sellers on Amazon’s platform, and counterfeiting has long been a problem for the service. In response, the company has launched initiatives designed to stem the flow, including a registry that makes it easier for shoppers and brands to flag counterfeit goods, and a program called “Transparency,” that lets companies label products with a code, which can later be used to check authenticity.
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There should be a giant eclipse photo contest for all the wonderful images, with a $700 million prize and everyone gets to vote. Until then, here's a terrific NASA compilation of some of the coolest shots from professional and amateur alike. Read the rest
Yup. He really did. Read the rest
Here in Los Angeles we only saw a partial eclipse, but it was still interesting. My daughter and I were surprised to see circular bumps between our fingers in our hand shadows. Read the rest
In the NASA image above, today's total solar eclipse is seen above Madras, Oregon. Photo by Aubrey Gemignani for NASA. Below, our moon blocks out the sun during the solar eclipse in Depoe Bay, Oregon. Read the rest
As eclipse mania grips the nation, Vox has created a nifty interactive eclipse map of what to expect in every American ZIP Code. Read the rest
Singer Bonnie Tyler will perform her 1983 hit "Total Eclipse of the Heart" on Royal Caribbean's Total Eclipse Cruise, a cruise ship that will be in the path of the total solar eclipse come Monday. Tyler will take time off her world tour to belt out the power ballad -- just as the moon crosses the sun -- on the ship, Oasis of the Seas.
Tyler told TIME, ""The eclipse of the sun lasts 2 minutes and 40 minutes, I’m told. Unlike my song. It had to be chopped about, because it was so long."
Bonnie Tyler Will Sing ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ During the Actual Eclipse [TIME] Read the rest
Enter a zipcode into Time's animated doohickey to find out how much of the sun will be blocked by the moon on August 21. Read the rest
In this TEDx Talk, science writer and umbraphile (an "eclipse chaser") David Baron emphasizes the importance of witnessing a total solar eclipse firsthand (eye?) at least once in your lifetime.
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Fascinating and detailed map of the eclipse path. Read the rest
On July 28, 1851, Johann Julius Friedrich Berkowski took what's thought to be the first photograph of a solar eclipse. The Royal Prussian Observatory in what's now Kaliningrad, Russia, had mounted a six-centimer refracting telescope to a 15.8 centimeter Fraunhofer heliometer used to measure the sun's diameter. Berkowski made an 84 second exposure to create the daguerreotype seen above and below.
(PetaPixel)
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Blood moon during the total lunar eclipse in April 2014. Dominic Milan / NASA.
When our planet passes between the sun and moon in the early morning on Wednesday, October 8, 2014, the moon—-which will be in Earth’s shadow--will appear to glow blood-red. Read the rest
