2921: Eclipse Path Maps
| Eclipse Path Maps |
 Title text: Okay, this eclipse will only be visible from the Arctic in February 2063, when the sun is below the horizon, BUT if we get lucky and a gigantic chasm opens in the Earth in just the right spot... |
Explanation
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This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Created by a TORNADO CAPITAL OF THE WORLD - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon. If you can address this issue, please edit the page! Thanks. |
A total solar eclipse occurred on April 8, 2024 in North America, ten days before this comic. This comic comments on the fact that most solar eclipses happen on territories not easily reachable by humans, or do happen near easy to reach places, but with weather conditions that make viewing the eclipse less appealing, like cloudy skies, mentioned previously in 2915: Eclipse Clouds and 2917: Types of Eclipse Photo, fog, a short period of totality or tornadoes. Tornadoes are a recurring subject on xkcd.
This map shows only one ideal location for seeing an eclipse within a path of totality. However, having 40,000,000 visitors per 6 square miles would equal 2.57 people per square meter, which isn't very much space available per person.
The title text mentions the solar eclipse of February 2063, but this annular eclipse will traverse through the Indian Ocean rather than close to the Arctic. This eclipse would supposedly happen when the Sun would be below the horizon, making it impossible to observe from the surface of Earth. It then jokingly suggests that a giant chasm could open up, making viewing easier.
Transcript
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This transcript is incomplete. Please help editing it! Thanks. |
- Every eclipse path map
- [A grey band representing the totality path of an eclipse travels along the map across several labels. Labels along the path from top to bottom:]
- Zone where totality lasts 1-2 seconds
- Bay of shifting ice
- Shipwreck cove
- Desert so harsh they train Mars astronauts there
- Sea of rocky crags and maelstorms
- [State department travel advisory]
- Isle of perpetual fog
- Nice, scenic, accessible area (6 square miles, 40,000,000 visitors expected)
- Tornado capital of the world
- Area where the eclipse will be low in the sky, behind the tornadoes
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refresh comments!Discussion
Can anyone think of some particularly pathological solar eclipse examples? Lordpipe (talk) 06:11, 18 April 2024 (UTC)
- The 2026 eclipse will be pretty hard to see. 172.68.193.195 07:42, 18 April 2024 (UTC)
- It does travel into Europe in Spain above Portugal, so it could be viewed from there. But could be a lot of people aggregating at the coast line there, as it will be the most scenic place to see it plus the longest totality in Europe will be at that point. --Kynde (talk) 12:03, 18 April 2024 (UTC)
- For the 2027 eclipse the only real good location to watch it from (at least in main land Europe) will be Gibraltar, a very small place for the 40 mill visitors... Most of this Eclipse is over seas and most other land based locations are in Africa and middle East, some places where it might not be the best place to travel to... --Kynde (talk) 11:56, 18 April 2024 (UTC)
- It does travel into Europe in Spain above Portugal, so it could be viewed from there. But could be a lot of people aggregating at the coast line there, as it will be the most scenic place to see it plus the longest totality in Europe will be at that point. --Kynde (talk) 12:03, 18 April 2024 (UTC)
- During the 2031 eclipse, totality will not be visible from land. At all. And for the 2043 eclipse, the line of totality will be more like a small semicircle.--172.69.7.118 14:25, 18 April 2024 (UTC)Anonymous
This fictional map has a passing resemblance to the august 12, 2026 solar eclipse passing over Greenland, Iceland and the north of Spain. Calling Iceland the isle of perpetual fog is kind of fitting, but there are hardly any tornados in Africa. Condor70 (talk) 08:29, 18 April 2024 (UTC)
- This is also the next total solar eclipse. These facts about these eclipses should be mentioned in the explanation. From both comments here. --Kynde (talk) 11:56, 18 April 2024 (UTC)
Entabled the labels. Saved the need for the original 'ideal place, shame about the crowds' paragraph. Added better possibility of individual analysis for 'unfortunate' locations (do edit, as seems necessary). Was tempted to add in "| unlabeled stretch of water || Water || (Some of this stretch of water be considered risky, or at least unfortunate, due to waterspouts arising from the next zone's weather. The immediate shoreline may be crowded by numerous small tourist boats trying their luck and avoiding the (misty?) northern shoreline.)", or something far more trite, betwixt the 'nice place' and 'tornado alley', just to account for an unlabeled zone. 172.70.162.37 13:31, 18 April 2024 (UTC)
For eclipses, I like TimeAndDate.com's info. You can see a list of upcoming total eclipses here: https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/list-total-solar.html and click one to see and explore basically everything about it, in a way that's super easy to understand. Other types of eclipse are also available. --NeatNit (talk) 16:22, 18 April 2024 (UTC)
He forgot an important region on the map: That small town that gets perfect weather, prefect viewing, where only the residents saw it, and there were no visitors, because it was not convenient or special like that nice, scenic, accessible site with 40,000,000 visitors. That's where I live. Eclipse day was spectacular from my own backyard.172.70.110.161 11:03, 19 April 2024 (UTC)
I added 'for scale' equivalents of 40M visitors and 6sq-miles, in both 'US-customary'(ish) and more internationalised versions, just to disambiguate. (See the edit-comment for less 'Western-centric' non-US possibilities that I considered.) For the benefit of fellow UK readers, of course that should be an area 1/3500th the size of Wales and a population thirteen times the size of Wales (human, that is; for sheep, it'd be less than four). Or, if you find the Wales unweildy, ~2175 football pitches (area) and 1.6million football pitches (population, but only if the two line-officials are counted!)... 172.70.163.30 13:52, 19 April 2024 (UTC)
The archive says that this a normal Wednesday comic, with the date as 4/17/24, and not a Thursday comic. Compare 2300: Everyone's an Epidemiologist, which the archive dates to that Thursday. 162.158.158.20 14:42, 19 April 2024 (UTC)
