There is a U-Shaped solar eclipse every 50 years.
6 2017-08-07 by HideFoundHide
Maps of solar eclipses from NASA
Wasn't able to wrap my head around the physics. If Earth is spinning one direction 24 hours and the moon takes a month to orbit the Earth, it doesn't seem like this pattern should be possible.
As it gets close to the eclipse point the only factor of the pattern or direction of the eclipse should be the Earth's rotation. Since the moon is in a (relatively) set position as is the sun [it takes a full month to complete a Moon cycle relative to the sun - and the Earth takes a year to orbit the Sun].
The moon and the sun relative to each other are hardly moving [since its said the Earths rotation is where they derive their apparent motion] ergo - the only thing really effecting the path would be that apparent motion - the rotation of the Earth
Eclipses do not last long enough in the mental image created for there to be a change in the eclipse path.
Here's another one showing a giant half moon in Greenland region - at the distances the Moon and Sun are said to be it is very perplexing how the shapes of the eclipses could even change to this degree. Test this with any object next to a light - to produce such a drastic change seems to require the a shift in distance between the light source and blocking object.
25 comments
1 EricCarver 2017-08-07
I didn't know either, so I googled "why are eclipses irregular" and this question was answered. It is more technical than I am, but my takeaway is there are a lot of moving variables happening simultaneously.
https://www.quora.com/Why-are-eclipses-irregular
1 HideFoundHide 2017-08-07
They've named and catalogued the event and gave a unfalsifiable explanation as to why it happens. It's not really "answered".
Can it be reproduced in any way shape or form? If they reproduced it with models they'd at least be trying.
1 Awesomo3082 2017-08-07
You may have noticed, these eclipses are predicted decades in advance. If you see the eclipse arrive this year, and it goes according to their prediction, then they've "modelled" it pretty damn well, no? Just because you insist on denying it, doesn't make it not so.
Your post and comments are full of very wrong assumptions, which make you unable to grasp what's happening. But it's happening. The earth spins. It orbits the sun. The moon orbits the earth. These orbits have cycles, which makes their paths vary over the seasons and years. All of these moving parts moving in non uniform rates and directions will make different patterns.
(And nope. It's not flat)
1 HideFoundHide 2017-08-07
NASA also models the Earth Flat and Geocentric for varying missions. The model is irrelevant only in that you continuously attempt to falsify it testing how accurate it is.
1 EricCarver 2017-08-07
When you above say this seems to be incredibly falsifying, please understand that just because you don't understand it all, it is possible you don't understand all the variables.
Instead of saying 'this appears false', maybe learn to instead say 'this doesn't work as my gut thinks it should, please explain ...'
1 Rockran 2017-08-07
Under your Example 2, the U-shaped eclipse was 1979 Feb 26
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_February_26,_1979
Scroll down a touch, and you'll see the gallery: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Solar_eclipse_animate_(1979-Feb-26).gif
So it's all about the high angle at the time.
1 HideFoundHide 2017-08-07
The animation doesn't match.
1 Rockran 2017-08-07
Look for the teeny tiny black dot that zips around - It perfectly matches the U-shape in your example 2.
1 HideFoundHide 2017-08-07
Pay close attention to the terminator line. It crosses at least 2 hours (+) of timezones in 7 minutes.
1 HideFoundHide 2017-08-07
Something is wrong there still. Wherever the dot is, there needs to be a syzygy [alignment] of the sun and moon creating it.
That puts the Moon and Sun above the equator - given the distance above the poles presumably.
1 OffMyFaces 2017-08-07
It's not the alignment of the sun and moon that causes the patterns.
It's the fact that the moon's shadow is landing on and moving across a sphere, coupled with that sphere being tilted on its axis.
You mentioned in another comment projecting a light or shadow onto a wall. Because the wall is flat, the shadow will track in a straight line. But if you projected onto a sphere, although the shadow will still move in a straight line, when it lands on the sphere it's path will be curved.
Plus, due to earth's axis being tilted, in northern summer the pole is tilted towards the sun, so a summer eclipse in the north will potentially have a more eccentric path. Similarly in southern summer.
Maps also cause distortions due to them being a 2D representation of a sphere. Different map projections preserve one thing at the expense of causing distortions in another. The Mercator projection for example (which is the one we commonly use), preserves direction but causes size and shape distortions, with those distortions becoming more pronounced the further north and south you are.
So depending on which map projection you use to plot an eclipse path, there are going to be distortions.
1 HideFoundHide 2017-08-07
You may want to rethink that.
1 OffMyFaces 2017-08-07
Why's that?
Did you read anything more than that sentence?
1 HideFoundHide 2017-08-07
Earth's viewing angle to the sun is only 0.015 degrees from pole to pole.
1 OffMyFaces 2017-08-07
I assume you are talking about angular diameter?
What's that got to do with the "U-shaped" eclipses you are talking about?
I explained why the eclipse tracks are curved. It has nothing to do with angular diameter, it's because the earth is spherical and tilted on its axis.
1 HideFoundHide 2017-08-07
The actual explanation that is cited is the 5 degree difference the moon travels on the ecliptic.
1 Snow445 2017-08-07
AHAH WE FLAT EARTHERS HAVE YOU NOW!! If you don't have perfect examples of every piece of the natural world that I understand then their is only one possible answer. Earth is flat and it's being covered up for reasons we can't agree on.
1 wile_e_chicken 2017-08-07
I don't know if this is relevant, but Sirius A and Sirius B orbit each other at 49.9 years -- and our sun orbits them both every 24,000ish years.
http://www.crystalinks.com/sirius.html
1 HideFoundHide 2017-08-07
That's incredibly interesting.
1 javi404 2017-08-07
I don't understand what the conspiracy here is other than proving the fact that there are lots of movies pieces and this actually makes complete sense as to why man made climate change is nonsense. We have 11K year cycles, ice ages, million year cycles, 50 year cycles, etc.
1 HideFoundHide 2017-08-07
The cycles are most important because they tell us something about the nature of our realm and the heavens above.
Hence the importance of these cycles to Sumerians, Hindus, Natives, Mesoamericans, etc. As the mythic context was removed from the interpretation of the universe it also seems to have removed important elements lost in singular study.
1 javi404 2017-08-07
In that case, I agree with you. Just no real conspiracy here, I don't think anyone is hiding the cycles of our cosmos. If anything we keep discovering more.
1 HideFoundHide 2017-08-07
Another way of seeing it is rediscovering what was lost from the public or cultural consciousness. Once spent 3-4 days modelling the solar system and cycles a certain way with a [what was assumed] novel approach to day cycles - only to learn it was a part of an ancient mystical system.
1 LOST1992 2017-08-07
Speaking of eclipses, our news here just said that there is a partial lunar eclipse tonight. I don't know if it's a worldwide phenomenon, or if it will just be visible from my country. It's also a full moon tonight.
1 Snow445 2017-08-07
Well that is interesting go watch it.
1 nicernow 2017-08-07
I still can't get past the fact that The Moon is one of the few space orbs that doesn't spin.
The one face forever hung unmoving. "And with each beam the same old dream"
1 AlphaMW3 2017-08-07
The moon rotates, it just doesn't rotate like the earth.