1868: Eclipse Flights

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
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Eclipse Flights
The captain has turned on the 'fasten seat belt' sign.
Title text: The captain has turned on the 'fasten seat belt' sign.

Explanation

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Transcript

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Discussion

This could use an image. Could someone more versed in this website's inner workings add one please? E.g. http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/blogs/bad_astronomy/2015/03/23/sims_schneider_eclipse_mar202015.jpg.CROP.original-original.jpg --141.101.105.12 21:54, 26 July 2017 (UTC)

I strongly suggest this image of a total eclipse shadow taken from the Mir space station. I found it on this introductory astronomy lecture notes page linked from this excerpt:
While we often sketch the penumbra as uniform, in reality the penumbra shades gradually from the completely dark umbra out towards the edges. The reason is simple: as you move outwards away from the edge of the umbra, you will see an increasing fraction of the Sun peeking out from behind the Moon. There is a very nice Mir image of the 1999 Aug 11 eclipse shadow showing what I mean.
I also suggest that fact be included into the explanation, because the comic showing a sharp shadow transition is factually completely incorrect. 162.158.166.53 04:45, 27 July 2017 (UTC)
It's not wrong, it's just a schematic map of the path of totality. There is in fact a sharp distinction between regions that see a total eclipse and the neighbouring regions where it's only a partial eclipse. This graph clearly shows this, instead of the darkness of the shadow created by the eclipse (in which case the central path would've been pitch black). 141.101.88.88 20:33, 27 July 2017 (UTC)
On the contrary, that "sharp" transition in the Sims/Schneider image spans over a hundred miles because it was taken from an oblique tangental perspective in space. The Mir photo is pointing more directly straight down at the Earth and shows a more accurate representation. 162.158.178.147 05:19, 28 July 2017 (UTC)

I've been looking around, and couldn't find a site to give me flight information for that specific day, and overlaid on a flight path of the eclipse. Anyone have any luck? 162.158.255.118 22:03, 26 July 2017 (UTC)

Does anyone feel as though the explanation is finished? Dontknow (talk) 23:56, 11 September 2017 (UTC)

The airplane depicted is probably a Boeing 737-700. A 737 is recognisable by the "kinked" leading edge to its tail, the presence of blended winglets and a dorsal wifi antenna suggest it is the "Next Generation" series, and the length is most consistent with the -700 variant. D5xtgr (talk) 02:49, 7 June 2020 (UTC)

The xkcd also referenced the April 20 eclipse this year in a recent comic. 172.71.158.231 06:14, 8 May 2023 (UTC)