Editing Talk:2914: Eclipse Coolness

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:I'm in my 60's, this could be the last one for me, since the next one in the continental US will be in 20 years. It's going to be 93% here in eastern Mass, and they're predicting clear skies. I could drive 7 hours to Buffalo, but they're currently forecasting 40% cloud cover. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 14:34, 2 April 2024 (UTC)
 
:I'm in my 60's, this could be the last one for me, since the next one in the continental US will be in 20 years. It's going to be 93% here in eastern Mass, and they're predicting clear skies. I could drive 7 hours to Buffalo, but they're currently forecasting 40% cloud cover. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 14:34, 2 April 2024 (UTC)
 
::I'd have to wait until 2090 for another 'local' one (and, like you, age is an issue, but also the effective footprint size of the country doesn't help). I don't know what the weather is going to be like, yet, so fingers crossed it's better in ⅔rds of a century than it was ¼ of one ago... ;) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.131|141.101.99.131]] 18:44, 2 April 2024 (UTC)
 
::I'd have to wait until 2090 for another 'local' one (and, like you, age is an issue, but also the effective footprint size of the country doesn't help). I don't know what the weather is going to be like, yet, so fingers crossed it's better in ⅔rds of a century than it was ¼ of one ago... ;) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.131|141.101.99.131]] 18:44, 2 April 2024 (UTC)
:They are a recurring phenomena, but that doesn't mean they're always accessible. Not everyone can afford to hop on a plane and go fly to another continent to see a Total Solar Eclipse. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.255.19|172.71.255.19]] 22:44, 2 April 2024 (UTC)
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I don't think "along the path" is correct, doesn't the x-axis show the distance "away from the path?" [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.131|172.70.114.131]]
 
I don't think "along the path" is correct, doesn't the x-axis show the distance "away from the path?" [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.131|172.70.114.131]]
 
:Totally agree.
 
:Totally agree.
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:Sunsets (and -rises, especially with the [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-68403553.amp right weather]) are indeed visually stunning. But I'd argue that, barring perhaps the fleetingly transient '{{w|green flash}}' or rather specific {{w|Manhattanhenge|landscape effects}}, the novelty is smeared around. Both during the event and, unless you're only rarely at the time and place (and awake/attentive) these things happen, across all possible occasions.
 
:Sunsets (and -rises, especially with the [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-68403553.amp right weather]) are indeed visually stunning. But I'd argue that, barring perhaps the fleetingly transient '{{w|green flash}}' or rather specific {{w|Manhattanhenge|landscape effects}}, the novelty is smeared around. Both during the event and, unless you're only rarely at the time and place (and awake/attentive) these things happen, across all possible occasions.
 
:Being on the Moon (once you get over "I'm on the Mooon!!") would make fortnights between sunrises/-sets, no weather getting in the way (no weather to give it any special differences!), and probably psychological effects that become mundane/depressing (for a long enough residence there). Solar eclipses (our Lunar Eclipses) will be probably be at least twice a year, won't feature a Diamond Ring, will be Moon-wide (well, just the near-face half/bits of 'rim', or significant parts of that in the case of partial LEs). What would be the relative wonder of an SE-from-Moon and a Lunar sunset? It'd be a tricky equation. But I think we'd lose a lot from the eclipse not being with two 'similarly-sized' bodies. And an 'Earth eclipse' from the Moon (looking for the tiny dot of travelling umbra, as it traces across the Earth's disc) probably wouldn't be worth it at all. (But you're "On the Mooon!", so that might be the biggest excitement, still, {{w|Moon (2009 film)|until it isn't (spoilers! ...if you haven't seen it yet)}}.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.19|172.70.162.19]] 12:43, 2 April 2024 (UTC)
 
:Being on the Moon (once you get over "I'm on the Mooon!!") would make fortnights between sunrises/-sets, no weather getting in the way (no weather to give it any special differences!), and probably psychological effects that become mundane/depressing (for a long enough residence there). Solar eclipses (our Lunar Eclipses) will be probably be at least twice a year, won't feature a Diamond Ring, will be Moon-wide (well, just the near-face half/bits of 'rim', or significant parts of that in the case of partial LEs). What would be the relative wonder of an SE-from-Moon and a Lunar sunset? It'd be a tricky equation. But I think we'd lose a lot from the eclipse not being with two 'similarly-sized' bodies. And an 'Earth eclipse' from the Moon (looking for the tiny dot of travelling umbra, as it traces across the Earth's disc) probably wouldn't be worth it at all. (But you're "On the Mooon!", so that might be the biggest excitement, still, {{w|Moon (2009 film)|until it isn't (spoilers! ...if you haven't seen it yet)}}.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.19|172.70.162.19]] 12:43, 2 April 2024 (UTC)
::Iain Banks covered this in a similar vein in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transition_(novel) Transition]. An aspiring scriptwriter, trudging from meeting to meeting trying to pitch his idea, has to be disappeared. Why? His pitch: the circumstances that gave rise to our moon were wildly unlikely, a protoplanet crashed into our young Earth and created an utterly huge moon (by galactic standards); so if you're looking for aliens, forget Roswell or SETI, just look at the people around you on the path of totality during a solar eclipse. Because if there's one thing that an intelligent alien being probably cannot experience elsewhere, it's the total coolness of a perfect solar eclipse on a habitable world.[[Special:Contributions/172.71.131.80|172.71.131.80]] 22:18, 20 April 2024 (UTC) 
 
 
:While some sunsets are incredibly cool, they happen often enough that it's not as thrilling. Partial eclipses have some unique features, like all the crescent-shaped shadows of tree leaves. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 14:34, 2 April 2024 (UTC)
 
:While some sunsets are incredibly cool, they happen often enough that it's not as thrilling. Partial eclipses have some unique features, like all the crescent-shaped shadows of tree leaves. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 14:34, 2 April 2024 (UTC)
 
::Well that would be the 'NFT Theory' of coolness, where a thing's coolness is proportional to it's rarity. I'd subscribe much more to an 'Inherence Theory' of coolness, and found that the experience of an eclipse (both partial and totality), while certainly more ''novel'' than sunsets, wasn't as ''cool''. Especially when he specified 'a cool sunset' - so not just any sunset, but the top few percent - as compared against any old eclipse, regardless of conditions.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.214|141.101.99.214]] 15:36, 2 April 2024 (UTC)
 
::Well that would be the 'NFT Theory' of coolness, where a thing's coolness is proportional to it's rarity. I'd subscribe much more to an 'Inherence Theory' of coolness, and found that the experience of an eclipse (both partial and totality), while certainly more ''novel'' than sunsets, wasn't as ''cool''. Especially when he specified 'a cool sunset' - so not just any sunset, but the top few percent - as compared against any old eclipse, regardless of conditions.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.214|141.101.99.214]] 15:36, 2 April 2024 (UTC)
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:::::What Randall is saying is "Partial eclipse : total eclipse :: Cool sunset :: broken sky". The point is the comparison between two experiences in each pair, not equivalence between experiences. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 18:57, 2 April 2024 (UTC)
 
:::::What Randall is saying is "Partial eclipse : total eclipse :: Cool sunset :: broken sky". The point is the comparison between two experiences in each pair, not equivalence between experiences. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 18:57, 2 April 2024 (UTC)
 
::::: The 1999(?) eclipse was not total at my house, and I blew it off, totally forgot, mowed my lawn. The light got very creepy, the grass looked odd, and shadows under trees showed crescents. Yes, leafy trees act as thousands of pinhole cameras. Not blatant, but once you see it you get it. This probably is my last "total", and the totality is only 3 hours away, and those folks are geared-up to take my money come clouds or shine, but I'll sit it out at 10% total (not hardly dark). --[[User:PRR|PRR]] ([[User talk:PRR|talk]]) 21:26, 2 April 2024 (UTC)
 
::::: The 1999(?) eclipse was not total at my house, and I blew it off, totally forgot, mowed my lawn. The light got very creepy, the grass looked odd, and shadows under trees showed crescents. Yes, leafy trees act as thousands of pinhole cameras. Not blatant, but once you see it you get it. This probably is my last "total", and the totality is only 3 hours away, and those folks are geared-up to take my money come clouds or shine, but I'll sit it out at 10% total (not hardly dark). --[[User:PRR|PRR]] ([[User talk:PRR|talk]]) 21:26, 2 April 2024 (UTC)
:::::: OK - I suppose you could read it that way, but in that case it's poorly written - it would have been clearer to say that a partial eclipse is to a cool sunset as a total eclipse is to a broken sky.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.76|172.70.85.76]] 08:15, 3 April 2024 (UTC)
 
  
 
If you change the labels so that X-axis is people and Y-axis is money, it becomes a global wealth distribution chart with the richest 1% at the center of the X-axis. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.90.43|172.69.90.43]] 22:39, 2 April 2024 (UTC)
 
If you change the labels so that X-axis is people and Y-axis is money, it becomes a global wealth distribution chart with the richest 1% at the center of the X-axis. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.90.43|172.69.90.43]] 22:39, 2 April 2024 (UTC)
:What kind of "people" axis measurement would have the ones that feature high on money slap bang in the middle? I don't dispute the idea of a 1% (with maybe 99% of the wealth), but that'd usually be a blip at the far end of "population, ordered by wealth", or similar, not something with a central blip. ...so a point made, but not really related. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.106|172.70.85.106]] 22:58, 2 April 2024 (UTC)
 
:: idk, I thought that maybe it made sense to have the richest at the center and the poorest progressively at the edges, because they're "marginalized" but maybe it was a dumb idea. Also, yep, totally unrelated. Just a thought that occured to me when I saw the chart. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.90.43|172.69.90.43]] 23:07, 2 April 2024 (UTC)
 
:: It makes sense as a graph of vanity vs. being near to Carly Simon.  "Well, I hear you went up to Saratoga, and your horse naturally won.  Then you flew your Learjet up to Nova Scotia, to see the total eclipse of the sun."  Obviously not everyone can afford to do that.  Only the richest people.  A less rich person would have to go to Nova Scotia on the horse.  Robert Carnegie [email protected] [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.31|172.70.163.31]] 08:31, 4 April 2024 (UTC)
 
 
That graph is infinitely different from a Dirac delta.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.191|162.158.155.191]] 14:23, 5 April 2024 (UTC)
 
 
Ya know, there '''''was''''' an eclipse the other day, wonder why so many comics were made about that, even this one, which is not an April Fool's Comic. Come on Randall, show some judgement... [[User:Z1mp0st0rz|Z1mp0st0rz]] ([[User talk:Z1mp0st0rz|talk]]) 16:52, 9 April 2024 (UTC)
 
 
Hmmm, according to that Forbes map, I'm on the edge of the Totality zone... Too bad I was asleep, LOL! Maybe I should have broken my routine to make SOME effort for once. :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 03:27, 20 April 2024 (UTC)
 
 
 
He forgot the singularity (might be hard to plot) of being inside a Concorde traveling at nearly the ground speed of the shadow and spending over an hour in total in totality. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.130|172.70.211.130]] 19:46, 24 April 2024 (UTC)Anonymous Terry
 

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