Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff
Speaker 1: Works dot com. Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow
Speaker 1: your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick.
Speaker 1: And in case you haven't heard, there is a big
Speaker 1: thing coming up for our US listeners. That's right on
Speaker 1: August one, a giant crab monster from another galaxy is
Speaker 1: going to swim into the sky and devour our son
Speaker 1: and we were all going to die. No, not our son.
Speaker 1: That's where we get our light and stuff. Uh, not quite.
Speaker 1: There is going to be a total solar eclipse sweeping
Speaker 1: across the center of the United States on Monday, August.
Speaker 1: Some people have asked us about it. I have asked
Speaker 1: us on social media and said, hey, are you gonna
Speaker 1: do anything about the eclipse? So we thought as a
Speaker 1: special treat we would discuss the solar eclipse. Now, we've
Speaker 1: talked about eclipses before in episodes like Gazing into the
Speaker 1: Eclipse from May. I think that was one of the
Speaker 1: first episodes of the show I ever did um, but
Speaker 1: today we wanted to go deep on the total solar eclipse. Now,
Speaker 1: this episode will have some practical tips for viewing a
Speaker 1: solar eclipse if you're planning on trying to make it
Speaker 1: to the line of totality for for this upcoming one.
Speaker 1: But we'll also try to do our best to keep
Speaker 1: it interesting for those of you who aren't going to
Speaker 1: be able to view this one. Maybe you'll get to
Speaker 1: view a solar eclipse wherever you are sometime in the future. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So our hope is that this is an episode. Maybe
Speaker 1: you'll play it in the car while driving up or
Speaker 1: or while you're stuck in traffic driving up to UH
Speaker 1: to the line of totality, or perhaps you'll play it
Speaker 1: on the way back to make you better sense of
Speaker 1: what you saw. You just saw a total solar eclipse.
Speaker 1: Now let's talk about the you know, the celestial mechanics
Speaker 1: of what was happening there. Alright, So a solar eclipse
Speaker 1: or any eclipse really is an example of what's known
Speaker 1: as a scissor gy. I think I used to pronounce
Speaker 1: that word wrong. I think I was calling it like
Speaker 1: sizzygi or well it's a word that's spelled s y
Speaker 1: z y g y. So it really the dictionary factory. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: sissy gy is a word that comes from the Greek
Speaker 1: susa Joss or susy goos and scissor giant meaning yoked together,
Speaker 1: and of course a yoke. You've probably seen one of these,
Speaker 1: especially if you've ever played organ trail. It's a solid
Speaker 1: cross beam that attaches two animals by the neck. So
Speaker 1: if you need two oxen to pull your plow to
Speaker 1: turn the soil in the field where you're growing your
Speaker 1: first crop of alien pod people, you yoke the oxen
Speaker 1: together and they'll pull you together. But in astronomy, yoking
Speaker 1: implies gravitational binding. Of course, we all know the Moon
Speaker 1: is gravitationally bound to the Earth and the Earth is
Speaker 1: gravitationally bound to the Sun. And since the orbits of
Speaker 1: the Earth and the Moon are on pretty close to
Speaker 1: the same plane, but not exactly the same plane, we
Speaker 1: get infrequent solar eclipses across different sections of the Earth's surface.
Speaker 1: And what happens there is pretty straightforward. A total solar
Speaker 1: eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Earth and
Speaker 1: the Sun, blocking the Sun's light. Yeah, it just kind
Speaker 1: of it works out just kind of perfectly there, right,
Speaker 1: because the Moon is just the right size to to
Speaker 1: completely block out the Sun as visible from Earth. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you might wonder why is it such a perfect fit.
Speaker 1: Is there some feature of orbital mechanics that makes it
Speaker 1: that way. No, it's actually a complete coincidence. We just
Speaker 1: got really lucky that our moon is almost exactly the
Speaker 1: same size as our apparent Sun. If Earth's moon were
Speaker 1: smaller in diameter, or if it were farther away from
Speaker 1: the Earth, which it will be further along in Earth's
Speaker 1: history and millions of years, the Moon's going to be
Speaker 1: further out in its orbit, and thus it will it
Speaker 1: will alter the way we have eclipses on Earth's surface.
Speaker 1: But but if the Moon were smaller, if it were
Speaker 1: farther away, it would be apparently smaller than the Sun.
Speaker 1: So instead of covering the Sun completely, it would pass
Speaker 1: across the face of the Sun as a large black dot.
Speaker 1: And you can observe other planets like Venus and Mercury
Speaker 1: already doing this if you have the right kind of telescope.
Speaker 1: For example, if you've never looked up images of the
Speaker 1: transit of Venus, you should check it out. It's really cool.
Speaker 1: You can see that this black dot is the planet
Speaker 1: passes in front of the sun disk. Another way you
Speaker 1: can observe this difference is if you observe moons doing
Speaker 1: this as they line up in sissy g e on
Speaker 1: the surface of other planets. For example, you get the
Speaker 1: Curiosity rover and you turn its camera up so it
Speaker 1: looks towards the Sun. You can observe solar eclipses on
Speaker 1: Mars as the Martian moon Phobos passes in front of
Speaker 1: the Sun. Except it's not really a total eclipse, and
Speaker 1: it never could be because even when Phobos passes dead
Speaker 1: center across the Sun, it's too small to cover up
Speaker 1: the Sun. So in said, it's like a big black
Speaker 1: pupil in the middle of the Sun. As an eye,
Speaker 1: it looks like a big Google eye. I've seen it
Speaker 1: does look like a big Google eye. It's like one
Speaker 1: of those things that did you ever like make those
Speaker 1: little Google eyed toys when you were a kid. You
Speaker 1: can buy old Google eyes at the When I was
Speaker 1: a kid, I've I've never stopped making. For a while,
Speaker 1: I was daring enough to carry around a pack of
Speaker 1: Google eyes and stick them to various signs on our
Speaker 1: local transportation uh, this public transportation system here in Atlanta.
Speaker 1: But but then I got a little scared and stop
Speaker 1: doing it. Why do you get scared and I was
Speaker 1: just a friend like this, I just decided this is
Speaker 1: a silly thing to get in legal trouble for like
Speaker 1: I would hate to be the guy who's arrested for
Speaker 1: putting Google eyes on a on an advertisement, Like is
Speaker 1: this worth the hilarity? And it it was. It was
Speaker 1: a tough decision, but I ultimately decided it was not.
Speaker 1: You know the name of Phobos, the Martian moon, Phobos
Speaker 1: means fear, but it apparently is not afraid of the
Speaker 1: same thing you were becauause up Google eyes the periodically
Speaker 1: make a Google I right on its parent star. Now,
Speaker 1: if you know the right equations to calculate angular diameter
Speaker 1: by distance, that's by saying, okay, if I know how
Speaker 1: big something is and how far away it is, I
Speaker 1: can calculate how many degrees of my view it's going
Speaker 1: to take up. Or if you just have a handy
Speaker 1: online calculator that does this and I came across a
Speaker 1: few you can actually go back and resolve this to
Speaker 1: find out how much of your field of view. Various
Speaker 1: planetary objects will take up at different distances. For example,
Speaker 1: the average distance from the Earth to the Sun is
Speaker 1: about a hundred and fifty million kilometers, and the diameter
Speaker 1: of the Sun is about one point four million kilometers.
Speaker 1: It works out too that the Sun takes up about
Speaker 1: zero point five three degrees of view. Meanwhile, the average
Speaker 1: distance from the Earth to the Moon is about three
Speaker 1: d and eight four thousand, four hundred kilometers, and the
Speaker 1: average diameter and not the average, the equatorial diameter of
Speaker 1: the Moon is three thousand, four hundred and seventy six kilometers.
Speaker 1: If you calculate that, it also takes up just a
Speaker 1: little over half of a degree of view, about zero
Speaker 1: point five one eight and so on. Average both are
Speaker 1: about half a degree, and since degrees are usually broken
Speaker 1: down into units of sixty, argument, it's both are just
Speaker 1: over thirty arc minutes in the sky, so they can
Speaker 1: line up so that the Moon just perfectly blocks out
Speaker 1: the Sun. It's a beautiful fact about Earth that makes
Speaker 1: us special. Now here's the question, Joe, that I imagine
Speaker 1: a number of people have have pondered, is uh, like
Speaker 1: the rarity of a solar eclipse? Because like for me,
Speaker 1: I have never witnessed a total solar eclipse, and therefore
Speaker 1: I'm very excited, like this is the first time in
Speaker 1: my life it'll be the first time in my my
Speaker 1: son's young life. And you know, I'm not sure when
Speaker 1: my next opportunity will will truly come, so I'm gonna
Speaker 1: pounce on it. But but why is it so rare
Speaker 1: if it's just tied up with the very predictable movements
Speaker 1: of of our celestial bodies. Yeah, this is an interesting question.
Speaker 1: So if the Earth orbits the Sun onneon and the
Speaker 1: Moon makes a full orbit around the Earth roughly once
Speaker 1: a month, how come there is not a solar eclipse
Speaker 1: every single month? Think about it, right, So, if it's
Speaker 1: going around the Earth once a month, shouldn't it pass
Speaker 1: directly between the Earth and the Sun once a month. Well,
Speaker 1: it actually does this from one direction, but it doesn't
Speaker 1: from the other direction. So the reason this doesn't happen
Speaker 1: every month is that the orbit of the Moon is
Speaker 1: not exactly flat with respect to Earth's orbit around the Sun.
Speaker 1: And we can call Earth's orbit around the Sun the
Speaker 1: solar plane. Think of that is taking place on a
Speaker 1: flat table. Now, if you're looking top down on this
Speaker 1: flat table at the Earth and the Sun, the Moon
Speaker 1: goes in an oval shaped elliptical orbit around the Earth.
Speaker 1: But if you get down and look across that table
Speaker 1: across the plane. So that the Earth's orbit around the
Speaker 1: Sun is flat, the Moon's orbit around the Earth is
Speaker 1: going to be slightly tipped to the side, tilted just
Speaker 1: about five degrees off. So think of it like a
Speaker 1: wide brim hat, just slightly cocked to the side. And
Speaker 1: so what that means is most of the time, the
Speaker 1: Moon is not directly on that flat plane between the
Speaker 1: Earth and the Sun and just intersects that plane twice
Speaker 1: every month, once going up and once coming down north
Speaker 1: to south ooh, and south to north. So the only
Speaker 1: time you get a solar eclipse is when these two
Speaker 1: intersections happen at the same time, you know, by coincidence.
Speaker 1: So when the Moon passes between the Earth and the
Speaker 1: Sun on the east west axis and when it just
Speaker 1: happens to be simultaneously crossing the solar plane across the
Speaker 1: north south axis, that's when you get a solar eclipse.
Speaker 1: Now that being said, obviously every solar eclipse is not
Speaker 1: a total solar eclipse. We have a few different varieties here, right,
Speaker 1: So you've got the partial solar eclipse. This is the
Speaker 1: pac Man eclipse. Uh, the Moon partially blocks out the
Speaker 1: Sun it'll some people would say it takes a bite
Speaker 1: out of the Sun and giving it a press and
Speaker 1: appearance and a brief, sometimes undetectable dip and luminosity depending
Speaker 1: on how much of it, how much of the Moon
Speaker 1: is crossing the Sun, based on your vantage point. And
Speaker 1: in this type of eclipse, the Moon never completely blocks
Speaker 1: out the Sun. So these happen fairly often and they're
Speaker 1: not as startling or as you know, attention getting as
Speaker 1: a total solar eclipse. A total solar eclipse is when
Speaker 1: the Moon completely blocks out the Sun, causing darkness at
Speaker 1: day and the ability to look up at the sun
Speaker 1: disk blocked with the naked eye and see the corona
Speaker 1: around the Sun. Now, I want to modify naked eye
Speaker 1: in a minute, because there are some important precautions you'll
Speaker 1: need to take if you're going to be viewing the
Speaker 1: solar eclipse this year. Now, I do want to throw
Speaker 1: in real quick, we're not really talking about lunar eclipses
Speaker 1: in this episode. But what's occurring there is you're seeing
Speaker 1: um that the shadow of the Earth cast upon the Moon, right,
Speaker 1: So it's going to be the opposite side effect of
Speaker 1: the solar eclipse. It's when the Moon happens to be
Speaker 1: crossing the solar plane at the same time that it's
Speaker 1: directly behind the Earth on the east west axis. Alright,
Speaker 1: so solar eclipse that we have partial, we have total.
Speaker 1: What else do we have. We've also got the annular eclipse,
Speaker 1: and this one is kind of interesting. So this is
Speaker 1: when you would have a total eclipse. It's when the
Speaker 1: Moon does pass directly in front of the Sun from
Speaker 1: your point of view, but it never completely blocks the Sun. Instead,
Speaker 1: what happens is it leaves an always visible ring of
Speaker 1: sunlight around it. If one of these is happening, you
Speaker 1: should not look at the annular eclipse of the naked
Speaker 1: eye because a lot of the sunlight is still going
Speaker 1: to be getting through. Now you might be thinking, wait
Speaker 1: a minute, how can that happen, because didn't we just
Speaker 1: talk about how from our perspective, the Moon and the
Speaker 1: Sun are the same size. Well, they they're about the
Speaker 1: same size on average, But those averages are just averages.
Speaker 1: So the apparent size of the Sun and the Moon
Speaker 1: can both vary depending on where they are in their orbits.
Speaker 1: In both cases, I was calculating on the base of
Speaker 1: average distances. Uh, and so the Earth and the Moon
Speaker 1: both have elliptical orbits around their their gravitational parents rather
Speaker 1: than perfectly circular ones. When the Moon is closest to
Speaker 1: the Earth, this is called the parage, it looks bigger,
Speaker 1: and when the Moon is farthest from the Earth, of course,
Speaker 1: this is called the apoge it looks smaller. Likewise, there's
Speaker 1: a tiny amount of variation in how big the Sun looks,
Speaker 1: given whether the Earth is closest in its orbit or
Speaker 1: farther away in its orbit. So if the Moon is
Speaker 1: at a lower apparent diameter and the Sun's at a
Speaker 1: greater apparent diameter, the Moon could fall directly in the
Speaker 1: middle of the Sun and still not block the whole thing.
Speaker 1: So you get a ring of light in the sky,
Speaker 1: and this is what's known as the annular eclipse. There's
Speaker 1: also another rare type of eclipse called the hybrid eclipse,
Speaker 1: and this this happens when the apparent diameters of the
Speaker 1: Sun and the Moon are sort of right on the
Speaker 1: boundary of going from annular to total. So some people
Speaker 1: on the Earth will see an annular eclipse, and people
Speaker 1: in other locations we'll see a total solar eclipse. And
Speaker 1: this is when we have werewolves, right, because there, of
Speaker 1: course the hybrid of man and wolf. I mean, when
Speaker 1: else would we have werewolves. It's the prime opportunity. It's
Speaker 1: important that you point out that the solar eclipse has
Speaker 1: these kind of supernatural connotations. We we talked in our
Speaker 1: other eclipse episode about many of the myths associated with eclipses,
Speaker 1: but there are particular myths associated with the total solar eclipses, right.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I mean it makes sense right that you
Speaker 1: have this this cosmic event. You know, early early people
Speaker 1: are looking up into the uh at the stars, at
Speaker 1: the sun and the moon and trying to make sense
Speaker 1: of what's occurring there. They have myths that are that
Speaker 1: in some cases have been created to explain natural phenomena,
Speaker 1: but in other cases, you know, kind of exist on
Speaker 1: their own but then get reinterpreted in the light of
Speaker 1: natural phenomena. We've talked about this sort of interplay and
Speaker 1: varying theories of of of natural phenomena and mythology before.
Speaker 1: But the result is, yeah, you have a number of
Speaker 1: a number of monsters and monstrous creatures that are said
Speaker 1: to eat the sun or the moon, or attempt to
Speaker 1: eat the sun or the moon. Uh. For instance, in
Speaker 1: the case of the the Indian UH entity Raju Uh,
Speaker 1: he's this decapitated head and it has said that he
Speaker 1: eats the sun, but then the sun falls back out
Speaker 1: of his next jump because he has has no body.
Speaker 1: And we talk about that myth in detail in our
Speaker 1: our Past eclipse episode, which will be linked to on
Speaker 1: the landing page for this episode is stuff to blow
Speaker 1: your mind dot com. That is such a visceral and
Speaker 1: wonderful myth. It's like it's like something you'd see in
Speaker 1: an itchy and scratchy cartoon. Yes, I don't mean to denigrated.
Speaker 1: I mean it's just like so it's so gory. Oh yeah.
Speaker 1: And I didn't even get into the details of the
Speaker 1: decapitation where he's decapitated with this divine weapon that's kind
Speaker 1: of like the spinning weapon and crawl. So it's it's
Speaker 1: it's a pretty delightful episode. It's one of my favorite
Speaker 1: UH eclipse myths for sure. Well, it's not a surprise
Speaker 1: that the eclipse call as people to think of the supernatural,
Speaker 1: because it's one of the most awe inspiring sites in nature.
Speaker 1: It's hard to think of something that without the aid
Speaker 1: of technology, humans can see that is so unbelievable and
Speaker 1: so alien to our day to day experience. And we're
Speaker 1: talking about the sun going dark. Uh it this is
Speaker 1: the kind of thing that ties into at least two
Speaker 1: different apocalypse smiths, both the Christian Apocalypse as well as
Speaker 1: North Ragnarok. Yeah, it seems like a literal challenge to
Speaker 1: the established order of the cosmos night and day light
Speaker 1: and dark sun in the moon. It's completely destabilizing. So
Speaker 1: it's just no wonder that many people throughout history have
Speaker 1: reacted to it with sheer terror. Now, apart from the
Speaker 1: traffic that you may expect, we hope you will not
Speaker 1: react to this eclipse with sheer terror, but with all
Speaker 1: the wonder that's due to this fantastic demonstration of physics
Speaker 1: and nature at work. So maybe when we come back
Speaker 1: from a quick break, we will talk about this upcoming
Speaker 1: eclipse in August of only seventeen. All right, we're back. So, Joe,
Speaker 1: I don't know do you have plans yet for the eclipse.
Speaker 1: I'm still trying to make up my mind about what
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do. I've got several options, and I'm I'm
Speaker 1: so disclosure here. Robert and I we live in Atlanta here,
Speaker 1: so we're pretty close to the line of totality, and
Speaker 1: so Robert, I know you have some plans. Yeah, the
Speaker 1: family and I are going to drive up to the
Speaker 1: mountains and uh and seek the total eclipse. Nice. So
Speaker 1: if you live almost anywhere in the United States, you
Speaker 1: will be able to see a partial solar eclipse, which
Speaker 1: is the Moon's shadow passing over part of the Sun.
Speaker 1: But there are other chances that people are going to
Speaker 1: have to see that. Impartial solar eclipses are much easier
Speaker 1: to see because they just affect a much larger portion
Speaker 1: of the Earth's surface. If you were within what's called
Speaker 1: the line of totality, you will get to see a
Speaker 1: total soul eclipse on Monday, August one, and that's the
Speaker 1: Moon passing straight in front of the Sun and completely
Speaker 1: blocking it out. So the line of totality is about
Speaker 1: seventy miles or about a hundred and ten kilometers wide.
Speaker 1: If you're within that line, that's where the total solar
Speaker 1: eclipse will happen. And the total eclipse will start in
Speaker 1: northern central Oregon um at about ten fifteen am. I
Speaker 1: think they say first contact, which is when the sun
Speaker 1: very first touches the Moon. That's going to happen sometime
Speaker 1: closer to nine am Pacific time over there, but first
Speaker 1: will happen about ten fifteen am Pacific time, and it's
Speaker 1: slowly going to pass over the United States, and a
Speaker 1: line running southeast from Oregon through Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia,
Speaker 1: and South Carolina, also touching small parts of a few
Speaker 1: other states. You can look up a map online. There
Speaker 1: are a bunch of them. NASA has done one all right. Now,
Speaker 1: we've already talked about the rarity of solar eclipse, but
Speaker 1: just just how rare are they really? Well, there's sort
Speaker 1: of a misconception actually that solar eclipses are extremely rare
Speaker 1: on principle, and actually solar eclipses and lunar eclipses happen
Speaker 1: it pretty close to the same rate, if I think,
Speaker 1: if you count pennumber lunar eclipses, lunar eclipses are a
Speaker 1: little bit more common. According to the Belgian astronomers gen Mayas,
Speaker 1: in the twentieth century, there were two hundred and twenty
Speaker 1: eight solar eclipses and two d and twenty nine lunar eclipses,
Speaker 1: So they're not actually a rare phenomenon in themselves. But
Speaker 1: what's rare is for a total solar eclipse to pass
Speaker 1: over wherever you happen to be. So, as as we
Speaker 1: discussed a minute ago, not all solar eclipses are total eclipses.
Speaker 1: Some are partial or annular. And solar eclipses happen all
Speaker 1: the time, but you probably won't get many chances in
Speaker 1: your life to see one unless you have the resources
Speaker 1: to travel around the globe and chase these lines of
Speaker 1: totality wherever they happen to be falling. All right, so
Speaker 1: let's get let's get down to brass tacks here. Okay,
Speaker 1: driving up to uh, you know, the line of totality
Speaker 1: is one thing, right, you know, maybe you're close to it,
Speaker 1: maybe you're far away, but with enough planning you can
Speaker 1: get there staring at the sun the whole way. Because
Speaker 1: that's the thing that what does one need to protect
Speaker 1: themselves while staring at the sign, while staring up even
Speaker 1: at a sun that is about to be obscured, uh
Speaker 1: by the moon. Uh? You know what, we have all
Speaker 1: these special glasses that are suddenly on the market. I mean,
Speaker 1: you can even buy them. I saw them at lows. Uh,
Speaker 1: why are these necessary? I was talking to a good
Speaker 1: friend of ours and and he was like, I mean
Speaker 1: he's he's a cautious dude. But he was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think you think you can probably look at the
Speaker 1: eclipse and you'll be all right. Just the same as
Speaker 1: you should never look directly at the sun without proper
Speaker 1: eye protection. You should never look directly at part of
Speaker 1: the sun without proper eye protection. And if you're thinking,
Speaker 1: says you, you know you big buzz kill. Uh maybe
Speaker 1: you think people have been looking at eclipses for thousands
Speaker 1: of years it is, without special goggles. And they were fine, No, really,
Speaker 1: I've been reading about this. Don't look at the sun
Speaker 1: or even part of the sun. Here's what could happen. Uh.
Speaker 1: First of all, there if you want to hear it
Speaker 1: directly from an expert, there's a very quick interview that
Speaker 1: news Week did with Dr Christopher Quinn, who's the president
Speaker 1: of the American Optimetric Association, about what kinds of injuries
Speaker 1: result from looking at the sun without protection. You can
Speaker 1: go check that out if you want, but I'll give
Speaker 1: you the basic rundown. One possibility is photocarrotitis. So photocarrotitis
Speaker 1: is usually described as a sunburn of the eye. It's
Speaker 1: not pleasant sounding at all. Yeah yeah, and you can't
Speaker 1: really rub alo on your eye volcan now. So it's
Speaker 1: when UV radiation ultra violet radiation causes damage to the
Speaker 1: cornea and the conjunctiva, which are the outer surfaces of
Speaker 1: the eyeball, and symptoms include pain, a feeling of having
Speaker 1: grit or another foreign body in the eye. Red eye
Speaker 1: is swelling, sensitivity to light, excessive tearing, and sometimes temporary
Speaker 1: loss of vision. So welding arcs produce UV radiation, and
Speaker 1: this is what can happen to a lot of welders
Speaker 1: if they don't use safety goggles or welding glass when
Speaker 1: they're doing their work. Uh. The photocarrotitis is also sometimes
Speaker 1: referred to as snow blindness. I know you've heard of
Speaker 1: snowboy in this. The reason it's linked to snow is
Speaker 1: that snow covered ground tends to reflect a much greater
Speaker 1: percent of UV radiation than most other natural surfaces like
Speaker 1: grass or soil usually reflect only about ten percent of
Speaker 1: the UV rays coming from above. Snow can reflect almost
Speaker 1: all of it, nearly doubling your UV exposure, So in
Speaker 1: snowy environments it's important to wear eye protection. But hey,
Speaker 1: here we're only talking about the reflected or ambient rays.
Speaker 1: If you're looking at an eclipse, you're looking directly at
Speaker 1: the sun, and if you do that, even for a
Speaker 1: very short time, you are inviting sunburn of the eye.
Speaker 1: So if you think you've got photocarreti is you should
Speaker 1: probably see a doctor. But the good news is this
Speaker 1: will usually heal on its own in a few days
Speaker 1: if you remove the source of injury and give your
Speaker 1: eyes some rest. However, there are other possible injuries that
Speaker 1: are more serious. How about photic retina pathy. I'm not
Speaker 1: sure I've heard of this one. This sounds painful as
Speaker 1: well well. This occurs when exposure to direct intense light,
Speaker 1: such as sunlight, lasers, or welding arc light causes phototoxic
Speaker 1: damage to the retina itself. And this is not going
Speaker 1: to be on the outer layer of the eye. Like
Speaker 1: we mentioned with photocaratitis. The retina is the projector screen
Speaker 1: of the eye. It's the It's the layer of the
Speaker 1: rods and cones, the light sensitive cells that detect incoming
Speaker 1: information and transmit it to the brain, and exposure to
Speaker 1: intense light in these cells can cause injury through two
Speaker 1: main mechanisms. A minor mechanism is going to be thermal burn,
Speaker 1: like heat burn burn through the heating of tissue. And
Speaker 1: this generally only happens when you're looking at the sun
Speaker 1: through a telescope or a magnifying lens of some kind
Speaker 1: that concentrates the radiation, sort of like you know, you
Speaker 1: knew the kid who burned dance with a magnifying glass,
Speaker 1: except the answer your own eyes. So we're talking about it, uh,
Speaker 1: in our first case, we're talking about outer eye damage.
Speaker 1: Now we're talking about inner eye damage, right, But that
Speaker 1: that's the minor cause. The major cause of photic retina
Speaker 1: pathy would actually be photochemical toxicity, and this happens when
Speaker 1: exposure to excess light causes chemical reactions in the retinal
Speaker 1: receptor cells that damage the retina and reduce its ability
Speaker 1: to detect a light. This damage can be permanent or temporary,
Speaker 1: It just depends on the case. So you might be
Speaker 1: wondering how often does this kind of thing happen to
Speaker 1: eclipse viewers. A report in the British Medical Journal assess
Speaker 1: the aftermath of a recent solar eclipse that was just
Speaker 1: visible in the UK, and so the author seemed to
Speaker 1: think that the campaign of public safety warnings ahead of
Speaker 1: the eclipse mostly succeeded in preventing people from looking at
Speaker 1: it with the naked eye. About a week after the eclipse,
Speaker 1: he could find fourteen reported cases of retinal injury in
Speaker 1: British hospitals. Many more people called emergency helplines are presented
Speaker 1: at hospitals with fear of injury, but most were false alarms.
Speaker 1: And I got to read one quote quote one overseas
Speaker 1: tourists who sought help in Glasgow said that she was
Speaker 1: worried because she had not been exposed to the Scottish before.
Speaker 1: Another Glasgow patient was concerned that her face had been
Speaker 1: turned yellow by the eclipse, but was told that her
Speaker 1: longstanding liver problem was the culprit. Oh man, let's get
Speaker 1: both of those cases are interesting insights into the like
Speaker 1: the self analyzing, self diagnosing a tendencies that we have. Right, So,
Speaker 1: not that many people had permanent eye damage, but he's
Speaker 1: attributing that to the fact that they had had a
Speaker 1: massive public information campaign saying don't look at this thing
Speaker 1: without eye protection. So and eye protection, by the way,
Speaker 1: does not mean sunglasses. This is crucial. Now before we
Speaker 1: get into health safety information, we do have to do
Speaker 1: the disclaimer right. We are not optimologists or any other
Speaker 1: kind of physicians or I safety experts. Will do our
Speaker 1: best to brief you on eclipse viewing safety, but you
Speaker 1: should check with other sources, including the American Astronomical Society,
Speaker 1: NASA and the American Academy of Ophthalmology and other experts
Speaker 1: of course, And if you interpret anything we say to
Speaker 1: be in conflict with what they say, obviously go with them. Also,
Speaker 1: if there's any ambiguity about when and under what circumstances
Speaker 1: you can or should look at the sun, just don't
Speaker 1: look at the sun. So here's the rundown. If you
Speaker 1: are within the line of totality where the Sun is
Speaker 1: completely blocked out by the Moon, it is safe to
Speaker 1: look at the eclipse with the naked eye, but only
Speaker 1: for the brief time when the Sun is completely blocked
Speaker 1: and this is only gonna last a couple of minutes
Speaker 1: or so, depending on where you are along the line.
Speaker 1: If you are not directly within the line of totality,
Speaker 1: if you're in one of those partial eclipse areas, or
Speaker 1: if you want to look directly at the eclipse during
Speaker 1: its partial phases, while the Moon is covering up the Sun,
Speaker 1: or while the Moon is moving away from the Sun. Uh,
Speaker 1: anytime the disc is partially covered, you need to look
Speaker 1: through a verified safety filter. Regular sunglasses are no good
Speaker 1: and not safe. NASA has actually issued guidelines on what
Speaker 1: is safe. So you've got a few options here. One
Speaker 1: is what you mentioned, Robert, eclipse glasses, right, do you
Speaker 1: already have yours? We have ordered them. Okay, you've got
Speaker 1: to get eclipse glasses from a reputable manufacturer. These look
Speaker 1: like regular three D glasses sort of there like a
Speaker 1: cardboard frame with a partially reflective surface over the lenses.
Speaker 1: If you have these, one way you can test them
Speaker 1: out and make sure they're legit is just put them
Speaker 1: on without looking at the sun or anything, and just
Speaker 1: look around. You shouldn't be able to see any thing.
Speaker 1: Should be completely opaque pretty much. But if you look
Speaker 1: up at the sun, you you'll be able to see that,
Speaker 1: but pretty much anything else is going to be blocked out.
Speaker 1: But anyway, you should make sure you get your eclipse
Speaker 1: glasses from a reputable vendor who is not trying to
Speaker 1: sell you actual three D glasses. They're going to burn
Speaker 1: your eyes out. I got mine from a company called
Speaker 1: American Paper Optics. The official safety standard is i S
Speaker 1: O one to three one two dash two and a
Speaker 1: good eclipse glasses will have this code on them if
Speaker 1: you're buying from another company. Actually, the American Astronomical Society
Speaker 1: has a web page where they list known manufacturers of safe,
Speaker 1: legitimate solar viewing glasses, and we will link to that
Speaker 1: page that lists legitimate companies on the landing page for
Speaker 1: this episode. Another thing is maybe you have some eclipse
Speaker 1: glasses that you bought for like I don't know, and
Speaker 1: eclipse ten years ago or something, and you've got them
Speaker 1: lying around the house and you want to pull them
Speaker 1: out and say I'll use these again. Check them. Damaged
Speaker 1: to eclipse glass can hurt you. So you've got to
Speaker 1: make sure that there are no holes, no terrors in
Speaker 1: your glasses or anything like that before looking at the sun.
Speaker 1: You probably just want to invest in some new ones,
Speaker 1: but also a few other options. Uh. You of course
Speaker 1: can use an indirect method like a pinhole camera or
Speaker 1: something like that that's probably gonna be a little bit
Speaker 1: less spectacular. But if you want to see how the
Speaker 1: movement of the Moon across the sun disc is progressing.
Speaker 1: You can, for example, look at shadows on the ground,
Speaker 1: or you can use a pinhole camera or something like
Speaker 1: that that doesn't have you looking directly at the Sun.
Speaker 1: Another option, if you or anyone you know is a welder,
Speaker 1: a mask or goggles with industry standard welding glass will
Speaker 1: be safe, but NASA specifies that it should be a
Speaker 1: number fourteen welding glass or darker. And if you don't
Speaker 1: know whether your welding glass is dark enough, don't risk
Speaker 1: your eyes to find out by some eclipse glasses. Finally,
Speaker 1: there are also telescopes with built in solar filters like
Speaker 1: they're made specially for looking at the Sun and solar astronomy.
Speaker 1: You can look these up online. They're they're pretty interesting.
Speaker 1: One thing, though, is don't try to just wear regular
Speaker 1: eclipse classes when looking through a regular telescope, because the
Speaker 1: telescope may well concentrate what you're looking at and then
Speaker 1: project that and make it too strong for your eclipse
Speaker 1: glasses to filter properly. All right, now, if I have
Speaker 1: none of these things, and I and I wait till
Speaker 1: the last minute, and I go to the store and
Speaker 1: they're out of eclipse glasses, and everybody who has eclipse
Speaker 1: glasses you're planning to wear them. H what's what's my
Speaker 1: and I don't want to go with the with any
Speaker 1: of these other techniques. What are my options? Well, you
Speaker 1: can also check with your local library. That's a good bet.
Speaker 1: A lot of libraries I've seen have eclipse viewing glasses
Speaker 1: that they will give you. They they've had programs to
Speaker 1: distribute these around the country. So if you you're you're
Speaker 1: down to the wire and you still need some check
Speaker 1: with the library. They may have them. All right, Well,
Speaker 1: that note, we're gonna take one more break, and when
Speaker 1: we come back, we're gonna point out some things to
Speaker 1: to look for during the eclipse, and if you have
Speaker 1: already seen it and you're listening to this after the fact,
Speaker 1: these will be things you can reminisce on. And we'll
Speaker 1: also have some sort of a frequently asked questions section
Speaker 1: here with some some additional concerns you might have about
Speaker 1: the eclipse, and we'll try to answer those as well.
Speaker 1: All Right, we're back. Okay, So, assuming you have the
Speaker 1: correct eye protection, assuming you're in the correct geographical location,
Speaker 1: within the line of tortality and assuming the weather is
Speaker 1: being cooperative. Um, what is one going to see? Well,
Speaker 1: the first thing you'll probably see is what's known as
Speaker 1: first contact, and this is when the moon very first
Speaker 1: begins to cross in front of the Sun, partially casting
Speaker 1: its pennumberal shadow. And again at this stage, if you're
Speaker 1: looking at the Sun, you need to be looking through
Speaker 1: a safe filter. So everything I'm gonna say going forward,
Speaker 1: unless I indicate otherwise, you need to have your your
Speaker 1: safety filters on. Over the next hour or so, the
Speaker 1: moon is just going to very slowly continue to cover
Speaker 1: more and more of the Sun. It will go slow
Speaker 1: so you can hang out, you can look at it
Speaker 1: occasionally and see what it's doing. But this is another
Speaker 1: reason for the eye protection, because there's gonna be if
Speaker 1: you did not have eye protection, this would be a
Speaker 1: lot of looking up at the Sun. Like even in
Speaker 1: quick gazes, it's going to quick glances, it's going to
Speaker 1: add up. I mean, I'm not an eyehealth expert. Based
Speaker 1: on I've I've taken my solar eclipse glasses and looked
Speaker 1: at the sun. Um, I probably wouldn't recommend even if
Speaker 1: you have the safety glasses on just staring at the
Speaker 1: sun for hours. I don't know. Maybe they'd be okay,
Speaker 1: but it just it doesn't seem like a great idea.
Speaker 1: I mean, it probably probably confine it to uh to
Speaker 1: as much as you need to look at the sun
Speaker 1: for the eclipse purposes. Okay, when is it going to
Speaker 1: actually start, like changing the way that our world is illuminated? Yeah,
Speaker 1: about maybe three quarters into the covering of the sun.
Speaker 1: Once about three quarters of the way there, you're probably
Speaker 1: gonna notice lights start to change colors, and you will
Speaker 1: notice differences in shadow depth. So you should not just
Speaker 1: look up, but look down and look around the world.
Speaker 1: Notice that you may be casting a different kind of shadow.
Speaker 1: Some contrast may be heightened in the shadow you cast
Speaker 1: versus the general atmosphere. Um, you you may notice some
Speaker 1: strange colors along the horizon and in the sky. So
Speaker 1: this is a time to check out what's going on
Speaker 1: all around you, not just up in the sun. Now.
Speaker 1: Also you can pay attention to how the world feels.
Speaker 1: So as the moon moves in for its final approach
Speaker 1: to totality, you're probably gonna start to notice changes in temperature. Right,
Speaker 1: the temperature can drop, so winds may be affected as
Speaker 1: a rapidly cooling strip of land will cause sudden pressure
Speaker 1: differentials that could draw winds here and there. Yeah, because
Speaker 1: the cycle of night and day has a tremendous effect
Speaker 1: on the movement of air in our atmosphere. Absolutely, and
Speaker 1: then the shadow comes. So here's what they say is
Speaker 1: one of the coolest parts. As the totality approaches, look
Speaker 1: to the west. Figure out this is a good thing
Speaker 1: to do. As soon as you get to wherever you're
Speaker 1: going to be to view the eclipse. Get your bearings.
Speaker 1: So nowhere north, south, east, and west are and as
Speaker 1: the eclipse is approaching, pay attention to the westerly direction,
Speaker 1: so look to the west, especially if you have a
Speaker 1: good vantage point, you may be able to see the
Speaker 1: moon's shadow slowly sweeping across the land like this tide
Speaker 1: of evil magic. Also, look at any clouds in the
Speaker 1: sky to the west of you. You should be able
Speaker 1: to watch the Umbrell shadow of the moon pouring over
Speaker 1: the clouds as it travels west to east. Now, the
Speaker 1: Umbrell shadow, I should have mentioned earlier, but you generally have.
Speaker 1: You've got the Pinnumbrell shadow and the Umbrell shadow. The
Speaker 1: Pinnumbrell shadow is is very wide but not nearly as dark,
Speaker 1: and the Umbrell shadow is the center shadow line. It
Speaker 1: is the very much smaller but much darker center show
Speaker 1: at oh now, the Sun is going to continue to
Speaker 1: shrink more and more behind the Moon's shadow, until almost
Speaker 1: all that's left is this tiny crescent on one side
Speaker 1: and the visible corona, which is going to be the whispy,
Speaker 1: dancing outer atmosphere of the Sun, and that will be
Speaker 1: on the other side from the crescent. In the last
Speaker 1: few seconds before totality, you still got your filters on,
Speaker 1: but you'll get to see something really cool called Bailey's beads. Now.
Speaker 1: This is named after the English astronomer Francis Bailey, who
Speaker 1: described the cause of this in a letter to the
Speaker 1: Royal Astronomical Society in eighty six. And what it will
Speaker 1: be is you'll see the Sun, the bright sun disk
Speaker 1: behind the Moon, and these beads will appear as sort
Speaker 1: of bright jewels of light dotting the edges of the
Speaker 1: black moon disc. What are they? Their topography In places
Speaker 1: where the Moon's surface right along the visible edge of
Speaker 1: the Moon dips into valleys um, the last rays of
Speaker 1: light are going to shine through those valleys and low
Speaker 1: topographical areas before the sun is completely covered. Uh. And
Speaker 1: according to so, a lot of what I've been describing
Speaker 1: here came from some really helpful materials prepared by the
Speaker 1: American Astronomical Society. They recommend that when you see the
Speaker 1: very last Bailey bead, the very only one remains. Uh,
Speaker 1: this is the diamond ring, which is when it's it's
Speaker 1: about time to get ready to take your filters off.
Speaker 1: So the last diamond ring is there, the Bailey's beads
Speaker 1: are down to one, and then you can take your
Speaker 1: filters off and it's totality. The sun will be completely
Speaker 1: hidden and only the corona is there. Uh. So you
Speaker 1: can watch this part with the naked eye, but always
Speaker 1: be conscious while this is going on that you will
Speaker 1: need to replace your filters as soon as the moon
Speaker 1: moves back out on the other side and the totality
Speaker 1: is over. Depending on where you are, it's probably only
Speaker 1: going to be between one in three minutes. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: now they daunting. Part of the for me as a
Speaker 1: parent is that I've I've got to take care of
Speaker 1: my own glasses hearing all this, but I also have
Speaker 1: to make sure my son is putting his back on
Speaker 1: or and or taking them off at the right moment. So, um,
Speaker 1: I feel for anyone who's you know, handling a number
Speaker 1: of children, particularly small children, during this encounter. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: not sure what the best way to do that is.
Speaker 1: Maybe one thing would be to research ahead of time,
Speaker 1: because their NASA has maps that can help you figure
Speaker 1: this out. Uh, there are maps that will show you
Speaker 1: about how long totality will last given where you are
Speaker 1: viewing from, and you can use that to maybe set
Speaker 1: a timer ahead of time, if you bring a little
Speaker 1: kitchen timer with you or something like that to set it,
Speaker 1: I don't know, fifteen seconds short of when totality is
Speaker 1: over so you can start getting the filters back on,
Speaker 1: or just I'm thinking I'll just throw a heavy blanket
Speaker 1: over its head at that point, like it's done, it's over,
Speaker 1: go under here. Well, I mean, if you've seen, if
Speaker 1: you've seen the approach with your filters on, and then
Speaker 1: you've seen the the toe total eclipse with the naked eye,
Speaker 1: maybe I don't know, maybe it's less important to see
Speaker 1: the recession of the moon. I don't know. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: sometimes there's an after credit sequence, right, but you know,
Speaker 1: I think a lot of these details are are key,
Speaker 1: especially you know about how the topography of the moon
Speaker 1: coming into play, because it's easy to think of this
Speaker 1: as it's a solar eclipse, it's a solar affair, but
Speaker 1: it's really just as much about the moon, if not
Speaker 1: more about you know, so, uh so, don't forget the
Speaker 1: Moon while you're observing this. Well, it's it's fascinating about
Speaker 1: the Moon in the same way that the lunar eclipse
Speaker 1: is really about the Earth. Yeah, and the Earth gets
Speaker 1: virtually no credit. Right. Well, I mean, here's a cool
Speaker 1: fact about lunar eclipse. I know this is a solar
Speaker 1: solar eclipse episode. When you think about a lunar eclipse,
Speaker 1: what happens generally is that you go in for a
Speaker 1: total lunar eclipse and the moon turns red. Why does
Speaker 1: the moon turn red? How come it doesn't just get
Speaker 1: completely blackened? Because what's happening when you go in for
Speaker 1: a lunar eclipse and the Earth blocks the sunlight from
Speaker 1: hitting the Moon is that you still have some sunlight
Speaker 1: hitting the moon, and it's the sunlight that filters diagonally
Speaker 1: through the Earth's atmosphere. And what happens is that when
Speaker 1: you you know, you notice when you see a sunset,
Speaker 1: the sun is going down, that's when you start to
Speaker 1: see red colors in the sky. And that's generally the
Speaker 1: one of the rare moments when you can look towards
Speaker 1: the sun and view it without because you're you're ultimately
Speaker 1: viewing it through multiple atmospheres where the sun is directly
Speaker 1: above you in the new sky. That's there's like one
Speaker 1: atmosphere is worth of filtration taking place. Even when the
Speaker 1: sun is setting. You should not look to me, don't
Speaker 1: don't look at it, but it's more visible, it's more bearable,
Speaker 1: right kind of you know, glancing way, it's easier to
Speaker 1: do what you shouldn't do at sunset. But you see
Speaker 1: all those red colors because yeah, it's the red wavelengths,
Speaker 1: the longer wavelengths of red light that can travel farther
Speaker 1: through that greater distance in the atmosphere that gets scattered
Speaker 1: less um, and so they travel farther. You see those
Speaker 1: red colors at sunset, and it's for the same reason
Speaker 1: that sun traveling. I think earlier I said diagonally, I
Speaker 1: guess I should have said laterally. Maybe sun traveling laterally
Speaker 1: through the Earth's atmosphere and still splashing on the Moon.
Speaker 1: That you see those red colors. That's the red light
Speaker 1: that survives earth atmosphere to still shine through and around
Speaker 1: onto the Moon. But hey, let's get back to the
Speaker 1: solar eclipse. So the solar eclipse is going on. You've
Speaker 1: hit totality. This is where you are. So the Sun
Speaker 1: is now completely hidden and only the corona remains, and
Speaker 1: the corona is going to be the visible outer atmosphere
Speaker 1: of the Sun. The Sun has an atmosphere like the
Speaker 1: Earth does. It's a layer of plasma, hot gas, and
Speaker 1: magnetic fields extending out into space from the surface of
Speaker 1: the Sun. If you can see it, especially through an
Speaker 1: appropriate telescope, you'll probably notice feathery wisps reaching out into space.
Speaker 1: You might also see some loop shaped structures peeling off
Speaker 1: of the solar limb. That's gonna be the edge of
Speaker 1: the solar silhouette. And these are gigantic tracts of charged
Speaker 1: particles flowing in loop shape magnetic fields projected by the Sun.
Speaker 1: The Sun's corona is actually an interesting subject that astronomers
Speaker 1: are still learning about. So the heated matter in the
Speaker 1: corona is millions of times less dense than the surface
Speaker 1: of the Sun, but it's also hundreds of times hotter.
Speaker 1: A counterintuitive mystery of solar behavior, but that we really
Speaker 1: don't fully understand. The explanation for yet another fact. As
Speaker 1: the plasma in the corona is ejected out into space,
Speaker 1: where does it go. It becomes the solar wind, which
Speaker 1: you've probably heard about in other context, maybe powering our
Speaker 1: future solar sales, or stripping away the ancient atmosphere of
Speaker 1: Mars off into space and leaving it the cold, dry
Speaker 1: rocket is today. So when you look at the eclipse,
Speaker 1: whether through an appropriate telescope or with the naked eye,
Speaker 1: look around the edges and pay attention to what you see.
Speaker 1: What's what's the shape of the corona? What are the contours?
Speaker 1: Can you see any interesting prominences or ejections? And also,
Speaker 1: don't just look at the sun. Look at the world
Speaker 1: around you, look at what's going on on Earth when
Speaker 1: the Sun is hidden. You might you might notice some
Speaker 1: other strange changes in color and temperature. I bet it
Speaker 1: would be cool. If you're a photographer. It's obviously going
Speaker 1: to be really cool to get as many pictures of
Speaker 1: the sky as you can, but you might also want
Speaker 1: to get a picture of what everybody around you is doing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well yes, uh, I mean you don't want to miss
Speaker 1: the eclipse because you were taking pictures of everybody. But
Speaker 1: maybe that's the way you should set it on a
Speaker 1: tripod and put a time or there. I guess so.
Speaker 1: But then again, uh, photographers, and I'm married to a photographer,
Speaker 1: so I can I can say that they do have
Speaker 1: a tendency to take photos during pivotal events. You know,
Speaker 1: I I am not a photographer person. And what I
Speaker 1: mean not just that I'm not a professional photographer, but
Speaker 1: I noticed there are basically two groups of people. People who,
Speaker 1: when they're experiencing something they anticipate as being memorable, immediately
Speaker 1: want to take pictures of it, and the people who
Speaker 1: don't wanted to take pictures of it. I'm in the
Speaker 1: latter camp, but I totally appreciate the people who are
Speaker 1: in the former camp. I think it's just different ways
Speaker 1: of participating with the anticipation of memory. Well, I look
Speaker 1: at it this way, Like with me, I do try
Speaker 1: to focus more on just experiencing the thing, but not
Speaker 1: being a photographer. My art form is not about capturing
Speaker 1: the moment like that. Like, if I'm going to write
Speaker 1: something about about a really cool event, well then it
Speaker 1: depends on me experiencing it. Whereas a photographer like that,
Speaker 1: their craft, their art is capturing what is happening, So
Speaker 1: of course they have to be there. They have to
Speaker 1: they have to be the one taking pictures during the
Speaker 1: wedding ceremony because because they are capturing it, it's the
Speaker 1: it's dependent upon them not experiencing it. You know, the
Speaker 1: photographer wants to wants to make a record of the truth.
Speaker 1: The writer prepares themselves to lie in the future. That's true.
Speaker 1: That's true. Though I guess you could say that the
Speaker 1: photographer is preparing to lie depending on how many filters
Speaker 1: and how much editing is going on afterwards. That's a
Speaker 1: good point. Well, anyway, I shouldn't tell you what to
Speaker 1: look at. Hey, when the when the eclipse is going on,
Speaker 1: you look at whatever you want to look at. Joe's
Speaker 1: not gonna tell you how what's a look at. He's
Speaker 1: just gonna tell you how exactly to look at it,
Speaker 1: what precautions to say? Which is responsible? Now, like I said,
Speaker 1: it might be helpful to have some kind of timer
Speaker 1: or just to be cognizant of about how long you've
Speaker 1: been looking at the eclipse. Though I've read reports from
Speaker 1: people who have viewed total solar eclipses that you can
Speaker 1: kind of have a lost time experience, like you've been
Speaker 1: looking at this thing for two and a half minutes
Speaker 1: and it felt like a few seconds. It's just gone
Speaker 1: before you realize. But anyway, if you do have some
Speaker 1: way of anticipating that it needs to be time to
Speaker 1: get get your solar filters ready again. Once you see
Speaker 1: the diamond ring quote emerge on the opposite side of
Speaker 1: the sun, once the Bailey's beads start to come back,
Speaker 1: totality is over. And if you want to keep watching,
Speaker 1: that's when you need your filters back on immediately. Uh,
Speaker 1: And you should try to get them on very fast
Speaker 1: because one of the things I was looking at in
Speaker 1: in you know, these optical injuries from sunlight is the
Speaker 1: length of exposure is not necessarily like you don't have
Speaker 1: to be staring at the sun for a long time
Speaker 1: to get injured. Now. Of course, at this point you're
Speaker 1: gonna end up watching the reverse, right, You're gonna watch
Speaker 1: the the moon reveal the Sun. And I think it's
Speaker 1: it's important to to think about this not as like
Speaker 1: the end of the eclipse so much is like the
Speaker 1: rebirth of the sun. Right that you're still watching something amazing.
Speaker 1: You're watching, You're watching the type of sunrise that that
Speaker 1: only occurs, uh, right after a solar eclipse, right after
Speaker 1: a total solar eclipse, you're watching the sun pour out
Speaker 1: of the severed neck of the god Ra who yeah,
Speaker 1: exactly for the demon Ra who well, technically an Osherra.
Speaker 1: So it's yeah, it doesn't necessarily translate one it but hey,
Speaker 1: we understand that probably lots of you out there aren't
Speaker 1: going to be able to view this total solar eclipse,
Speaker 1: and that's understandable. It's it's gonna be cutting right through
Speaker 1: the middle of the United States. But lots of you
Speaker 1: out there are not even in the United States. We
Speaker 1: know lots of you are living in in Europe or Asia,
Speaker 1: South America, Africa. We we've got friends out there all
Speaker 1: over the world. So, uh, you can actually anticipate upcoming
Speaker 1: solar eclipses that might be coming to your area by
Speaker 1: checking out NASA's website. For one thing, they've got a
Speaker 1: really great future eclipses calendar. Yeah, and actually the Wikipedia
Speaker 1: is not bad as well. If you just want to
Speaker 1: see a quick rundown of upcoming solar eclipse and total
Speaker 1: solar eclipse, I mean definitely linked that on the landing page.
Speaker 1: That's stuff to blow your mind dot com. Now, the
Speaker 1: short answer is that, luckily, luckily for you, there's a
Speaker 1: total solar eclipse every year or two. Okay, but you'll
Speaker 1: need to be willing to travel anywhere in the world
Speaker 1: to catch them, all right. I mean, as we said,
Speaker 1: it's not that solar eclipses are rare, it's just that
Speaker 1: they affect such a small portion of the surface of
Speaker 1: the Earth. It's very rare to have one happened near you. Right. So,
Speaker 1: for instance, there'll be another solar eclipse July second, two
Speaker 1: thousand nineteen, but if you want to see it, you
Speaker 1: need to start saving up for a trip to Argentina
Speaker 1: or Chile. Now, if you are in the United States
Speaker 1: but you can't see this one this year, there is
Speaker 1: gonna be another total solar eclipse passing through the United
Speaker 1: States in that's the ways off and well seven years
Speaker 1: from now. But yeah, I mean just stick around. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I can't even it's it's it's ridiculously far in the future,
Speaker 1: and yet not so far in the future. Okay. Frequently
Speaker 1: ask questions with regard to eclipses, How dark will it get, Joe,
Speaker 1: that's a good question. It's gonna be pitch black and
Speaker 1: you won't even be able to see your own hands. No,
Speaker 1: that's not I've heard it described as sort of like
Speaker 1: a sudden twilight about thirty minutes to an hour after sunset.
Speaker 1: But do not go into this expecting pitch black, because
Speaker 1: you will be disappointed. I guess right, all right. Will
Speaker 1: the temperature drop? Yes? Generally that that usually happens during
Speaker 1: a total solar eclipse. The temperature usually drops by an
Speaker 1: average about ten degrees fahrenheit or about five degrees celsius
Speaker 1: within the line of totality. Not so for the line
Speaker 1: of partial eclipse. Maybe that's not a line the huge
Speaker 1: swath of partial eclipse, and there have been cases where
Speaker 1: it dropped much more. The change should be similar to
Speaker 1: a sudden transition between the temperature of midday in the
Speaker 1: temperature after sunset. Uh. There was one article I was
Speaker 1: reading that that told a story about how during a
Speaker 1: total solar eclipse in the in the United States in
Speaker 1: eighteen thirty four, temperature was recorded as dropping as much
Speaker 1: as twenty eight degrees fahrenheit from seventy eight degrees fahrenheit
Speaker 1: to fifty degrees fahrenheit, which is I guess that would
Speaker 1: also be dropping about fifteen degrees celsius. So who knows
Speaker 1: what's going to happen. But but yeah, maybe maybe it'll
Speaker 1: get very chilly. You might want to bring a jacket,
Speaker 1: all right now. You also might be bringing a pet
Speaker 1: with you. I know, Joe, you you have a dog,
Speaker 1: Your dog, Charlie is is if you do travel, are
Speaker 1: you taking Charlie as well? We almost always take Charlie
Speaker 1: as well. If we can get away with taking him,
Speaker 1: we'll take him. All right. Well this, you know, a
Speaker 1: lot of people have asked about this, and I see
Speaker 1: I actually see this question popping up online, and sometimes
Speaker 1: the answers are not that great or not that that factual.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be straightforward. I've seen a lot of what
Speaker 1: looks like bs about people saying that animals go berserk
Speaker 1: during an eclipse. I have not seen anything that looks
Speaker 1: like a good, reputable source claiming that it's more just
Speaker 1: kind of like dumb looking websites. Now, there are some
Speaker 1: reports here and they're going back throughout history of like
Speaker 1: individual observations of animals acting a bit unusual for daytime behavior.
Speaker 1: That might happen. They might make different sounds, they might
Speaker 1: they might become more visible or less visible. But what
Speaker 1: I do not predict is ecological pandemonium and widespread animal
Speaker 1: freak outs. Based on what I've looked at and the
Speaker 1: science I've liked that, Uh, there's nothing magic is going
Speaker 1: to happen in regard to your pet during the solar eclipse.
Speaker 1: So animals simply tend to react to the darkness as
Speaker 1: if it were occurring during the typical cycle. So scientists
Speaker 1: have that have observed this in the vertical migration of
Speaker 1: zooplankton in the ocean due to lunar eclipses, as well
Speaker 1: as the countless larger animals when it comes to solar eclipses.
Speaker 1: So you know, likelihood, it's possible you might hear some
Speaker 1: twilight animal noises uh during the eclipse, but that's gonna
Speaker 1: be the extent of it. Dogs are not going to
Speaker 1: turn into cats. Cats are not going to turn into dogs. Uh,
Speaker 1: that's gonna be the the extent. So hamsters might turn
Speaker 1: into crayfish. Well, yes, but but for reasons unrelated to
Speaker 1: the solar eclips Roughly speaking, diurnal animals react as though
Speaker 1: night we're approaching, and this is this is demonstrated and
Speaker 1: expedited roosting and betting behavior. In contrast animals that are
Speaker 1: normally active at night. Uh. Nocturnal animals like bats, they
Speaker 1: may show the reverse pattern, emerging in the into the
Speaker 1: open as the sky darkens during an eclipse. So actually
Speaker 1: I would be very interested if anyone you know, can
Speaker 1: look away from the eclipse long enough to notice what
Speaker 1: animals are doing, If you see any bats come out,
Speaker 1: I would love to hear about that. If there's any
Speaker 1: any any sightings of nocturnal animals at least stirring, does
Speaker 1: club life get going? I will will come back to that.
Speaker 1: I have I have a question too about that myself. Now,
Speaker 1: as you mentioned some websites they are talking about, oh,
Speaker 1: there's gonna be a full fledged freak out of pets
Speaker 1: in the eclipse uh. And I don't think that is
Speaker 1: going to happen. But one thing, one point that has
Speaker 1: been made is that if you were hanging out with
Speaker 1: a lot of people during the eclipse, sometimes people get
Speaker 1: high spirited, They make a lot of noise, they kind
Speaker 1: of celebrate because it is an amazing thing to see.
Speaker 1: If your pet dog, for instance, or certainly your pet cat,
Speaker 1: which you for some reason brought into the wilderness of
Speaker 1: view and eclipse, if they if they kind of freak
Speaker 1: out when people are freaking out, well then that might
Speaker 1: be a problem. Or if you just got your cat
Speaker 1: in that cardboard box, people used to take it to
Speaker 1: the vet. Yes, so you know, ultimately, you know your pet.
Speaker 1: You know how your pet reacts to issues, you know,
Speaker 1: unrelated to to the total eclipse of the sun. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, you can judge this best, but there's not
Speaker 1: gonna be any kind of magical reaction, uh, you know
Speaker 1: in your pet caused by the sun. They're not going
Speaker 1: to be wild animals. They're gonna be behaving in a
Speaker 1: way that's going to be you know, immediately noticeable to
Speaker 1: you most likely. All right now, but here's a question
Speaker 1: that arises regarding not animals, but but human technology and
Speaker 1: other kind of zoo Is this going to cause car accidents? This,
Speaker 1: of course, I guess, is assuming that they're going to
Speaker 1: be people driving around not expecting a cellar eclipse, and
Speaker 1: then it just occurs and people you know, drive off
Speaker 1: the road and run into each other. It might cause
Speaker 1: car accidents, but I think much more likely is that
Speaker 1: it will cause extreme traffic congestion. They're gonna be people
Speaker 1: from everywhere descending on a strip of the United States.
Speaker 1: It's only about seventy miles or ten kilometers wide, and
Speaker 1: mostly they're going to be getting there by roads. So seriously,
Speaker 1: if you are going to be in the line of totality,
Speaker 1: you should expect the traffic situation to go plaid. It's
Speaker 1: it's gonna be crazy. I can fully predict now, I've
Speaker 1: just seen a few examples. There is actually a good
Speaker 1: house Stuff Works article about this about how the upcoming
Speaker 1: eclipse will impact transportation. Oregon state officials are expecting an
Speaker 1: influx of more than a million people into the line
Speaker 1: of totality Idaho. Idaho is expecting half a million visitors.
Speaker 1: The population of Idaho is only about one point seven
Speaker 1: million people. The state's population is going to increase by
Speaker 1: almost one third in the in the line of totality.
Speaker 1: Missouri officials expect more than a million people. The city
Speaker 1: of Columbia, South Carolina, is expected to temporarily more than
Speaker 1: double in population. So if you're traveling for the eclipse.
Speaker 1: First of all, this might be obvious, but I feel
Speaker 1: I should say it. Don't try to look at the
Speaker 1: eclipse while you're driving or while the car is moving.
Speaker 1: Pick out a viewing spot ahead of time, and get
Speaker 1: there early, real early. Also, don't pull over on the
Speaker 1: side of a highway or a freeway to watch. This
Speaker 1: is just going to further congest traffic and it may
Speaker 1: block emergency vehicles that need to get somewhere. Don't do it. Instead,
Speaker 1: plan ahead, figure out where you're going, pick out a
Speaker 1: place or a place to park, or stay ahead of
Speaker 1: time and get their early. Uh. And also expect to
Speaker 1: have to wait a long time to get home. I
Speaker 1: imagine the highways are probably going to be clogged up.
Speaker 1: If if you're gonna be trying to get back home
Speaker 1: wherever you came from that day, it might be a problem. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think it was Georgia Department of Transportation that was
Speaker 1: warning against the becoming a I think the quote was
Speaker 1: an eclipse refugee where you the idea. I guess as
Speaker 1: you set out without a real plan in mind, and
Speaker 1: either you get bogged down in traffic or you are
Speaker 1: expecting to find room and board in the line of
Speaker 1: totality and you cannot find it, and then you're reduced to,
Speaker 1: you know, sleeping in your car or something. So yeah,
Speaker 1: plan ahead, take supplies, figure out where you're gonna go
Speaker 1: ahead of time, and a place where you can park
Speaker 1: your car if you're going by car. And bear in
Speaker 1: mind that if you're hoping to perform some you know,
Speaker 1: sacred pagan ritual uh during the eclipse. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: make sure you have space set aside. Right, don't do
Speaker 1: that in the middle of the highway. Don't have enough problems,
Speaker 1: you know. Do you know? We didn't actually prepare too
Speaker 1: much for a discussion of religious right related to eclipse.
Speaker 1: But if i'm if I'm not mistaken, I believe there
Speaker 1: are a particular Islamic prayers that or prayer rituals that
Speaker 1: take place during a solar eclipse. Hadn't heard that, but
Speaker 1: I know we have a few uh Islamic listeners out there.
Speaker 1: Maybe they can provide some more details about that, because
Speaker 1: in general, I would love to hear from anybody out
Speaker 1: there regarding their experience with this eclipse. Oh yeah, definitely,
Speaker 1: would you do how did you do it? I know,
Speaker 1: I know in recent decades, whenever there's been a good eclipse, like,
Speaker 1: the Pagans come out in full force, for they eat
Speaker 1: this stuff up. Also, are you a pagan? Yeah, so
Speaker 1: we want to hear what you're doing. Okay, what other
Speaker 1: additional questions do we have here? Show Well, uh, here's
Speaker 1: kind of a bummer one. But what if it's really cloudy? Then? Uh,
Speaker 1: then we have some bad news for you. Yeah, surely,
Speaker 1: no getting around that is. Yeah, I mean depends on
Speaker 1: how you know what kind of cloud cover we're talking,
Speaker 1: but that's generally going to be bad news. But let's
Speaker 1: not try to We're not going to think about that.
Speaker 1: We're not gonna focus on the possibility of clouds. One
Speaker 1: thing is if you are looking at the weather forecasts,
Speaker 1: say right now, the day you're the day this episode
Speaker 1: comes out, and you're like, oh no, it looks like
Speaker 1: it's going to be cloudy. Don't lose hope yet, because
Speaker 1: weather forecast that far out, you know, are not at
Speaker 1: their peak accuracy. Keep checking the weather forecast, says the
Speaker 1: day gets closer and closer each day, it's going to
Speaker 1: get more and more accurate, right, and maybe hey, if
Speaker 1: the forecast is clouding, maybe that will cut down on
Speaker 1: some of the other individuals planning to be there, be there,
Speaker 1: and you'll be able to drive there faster. All right,
Speaker 1: what else do we have question wise? I see we
Speaker 1: have a question about the purge. Oh yeah, will purge
Speaker 1: laws really apply during solar eclips No, all all laws
Speaker 1: are federal, state, local are still going to apply. However,
Speaker 1: in addition to traffic concerns, there are local concerns. In
Speaker 1: certain eclipse hotspots. You're gonna you're gonna have, you know,
Speaker 1: this huge increase in visitors, like you say, and doubling
Speaker 1: the populations, and some of these such these travelers are
Speaker 1: gonna be international travelers as well. So there's gonna be
Speaker 1: this possibility for more crime, more misunderstanding just by virtually
Speaker 1: there just being that many more people around, right, Possibly, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, just you're gonna have more fender benders. Potentially,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have more people bumping into each other, just
Speaker 1: more people being around other people. Here, here's some good
Speaker 1: eclipse advice that may be hard to abide because it's
Speaker 1: easy to say, chill out, you know, just set your
Speaker 1: day aside, if if you're if you're able to take
Speaker 1: off work and all that to to do your eclipse viewing.
Speaker 1: Just accept that there's going to be some delays, that
Speaker 1: they're going to be crowds, that there's gonna be a traffic.
Speaker 1: Just make that part of your plan, and when it happens,
Speaker 1: you'll be ready for it and you're not gonna get
Speaker 1: frustrated and upset. All right. I have one final question here,
Speaker 1: and this is one I don't really have a good
Speaker 1: answer for. Wait, let me guess what it is. Okay, So,
Speaker 1: since so many people think that the eclipse is going
Speaker 1: to be like the end of the world, have any
Speaker 1: previous eclipse has been the end of time? Um? No,
Speaker 1: unless I guess if you died during an eclipse, then
Speaker 1: it would technically be for you the end of time.
Speaker 1: But I I don't think I ran across any examples
Speaker 1: of that happening, So you're probably good, you know. I mean,
Speaker 1: the timing would have to be particularly cruel for that
Speaker 1: to or perfect for that to take place. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you've got to go whine I during an eclipse.
Speaker 1: Now that's one question. But but one question that I'm
Speaker 1: legitimately wondering about a little bit. Is it legally night
Speaker 1: during a solar clips we talked about it's not gonna
Speaker 1: be completely dark, but it's not really day. I wonder
Speaker 1: are there any actual weird legal shenanigans out there that
Speaker 1: someone could potentially exploit. What would that affect you mean, like,
Speaker 1: if there's like a law that says, like you have
Speaker 1: to drive with your headlights on at night or something
Speaker 1: like that. Yeah, or like it's it's legal to it's
Speaker 1: only legal to sell beer in a certain county after dusk,
Speaker 1: you know, things of that nature. I guess the problem
Speaker 1: is that the eclipse is not going to last long
Speaker 1: enough for anyone to explod it. To exploit it, you
Speaker 1: want to spend your your eclipse, the one moment of
Speaker 1: time you might have to look at this beautiful phenomenon.
Speaker 1: You're gonna spend the store getting a case of beer. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess, you know, or um, you know, or I
Speaker 1: guess it could be a situation where, Okay, there's a
Speaker 1: there's a state law that says during the day, you
Speaker 1: can only air episodes of Baywatch, and you can only
Speaker 1: air episodes of Baywatch after dark. After dark? Is that
Speaker 1: this would allow you to air at least, you know,
Speaker 1: a couple of minutes of a Baywatch after Dark episode. Now,
Speaker 1: I wonder if anybody out there is marketing special eclipse
Speaker 1: themed products. I was thinking, beer, are they making like
Speaker 1: a bud Eclipse that's like a new version of Bud
Speaker 1: Light that have something? I mean, it sounds like a
Speaker 1: perfect tie in, right, Like here's the beer you drink
Speaker 1: during the solar eclipse. Get it now? Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: and and love it for you know three minut We
Speaker 1: have to issue so many warnings here. Please don't take
Speaker 1: that as us encouraging irresponsible drinking during the eclipse, especially
Speaker 1: if you're going to be doing any of the drivings. Yeah, please, please,
Speaker 1: please do a responsible eclipse viewing. I want to say
Speaker 1: in there's some sort of OREO thing getting there, an
Speaker 1: eclipse oreo or it seems like there is some sort
Speaker 1: of commercial tie in now that I think about it,
Speaker 1: I know Taquda Banana has been doing these bizarre eclipse
Speaker 1: commercials where they're suggesting that the sun will briefly become
Speaker 1: a banana as the moon is moving in on its territory. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm very pro banana, but it does seem like a
Speaker 1: stretched by and the banana is the official eclipse the
Speaker 1: snack item, all right, so there you have it, that
Speaker 1: the basics for the eclipse, the upcoming eclipse, or perhaps
Speaker 1: the eclipse you just saw. Hopefully we've provided you a
Speaker 1: little more insight and maybe even a little more preparation.
Speaker 1: And hey, if you are currently stuck in an automobile
Speaker 1: traveling to or from the eclipse and you're thinking yourself,
Speaker 1: we'll have all this, all this time in front of me.
Speaker 1: What are some more podcast episodes I can listen to
Speaker 1: related to the to the subject matter here? Well, I'm
Speaker 1: glad you asked. We have the episode Gazing into the
Speaker 1: Eclipse that we already mentioned. Uh, that gets into some
Speaker 1: of the myths in greater depth. Hey, and not too
Speaker 1: long ago, I guess maybe a year ago or so.
Speaker 1: We also did an episode on ritual regicide, the human
Speaker 1: sacrifice of kings and king figures. And one of the
Speaker 1: things we talked about in that episode was the the
Speaker 1: eclipse King of ancient Babylon ancient Assyria, where you would
Speaker 1: have an eclipse that was and there was an ill
Speaker 1: omen for the king and you might have to put
Speaker 1: in another king to absorb that curse. Right. So hey,
Speaker 1: there you go to great episodes that you can pull
Speaker 1: up as well, or have whoever is not driving pulled up.
Speaker 1: You can find those on the landing page for this episode.
Speaker 1: It's Stuff to Blow Your Mind dot com. That's where
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