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Solar Eclipse Sunday Promises Spectacular Views from China to Texas
Image: As the solar eclipse on May 20, 2012, progresses, its partial and annular phases will look very similar to this eclipse on May 10, 1994 / Credit: Fred Espenak/SkyandTelescope.com
Almost all of North America will undergo a weird and dramatic event late Sunday afternoon (May 20). A partial eclipse of the sun will be visible, and for most, it will coincide with sunset.
Only for places northwest of a line running roughly from San Diego to Winnipeg will the eclipse be visible from start to finish before the sun sets. Elsewhere, depending on where you are, if your sky is clear toward the west-northwest, the setting sun will appear slightly dented, deeply crescent-shaped, or even ring-shaped.
The eclipse will begin in China, but in parts of eight western states — Oregon, California, Nevada, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas — viewers living within a path averaging about 190 miles (306 kilometers) wide, will have a front-row seat to witness the rare and exciting spectacle of an annular solar eclipse, or ring eclipse. The path of annularity extends from the coastline at the California-Oregon border to northwestern Texas, where it will end at local sunset.
Places within the path include Medford, Ore.; Eureka, Calif.; Reno, Nev.; Albuquerque, N.M.; and Lubbock, Texas. Also within the path are two beloved national parks, Utah’s Bryce Canyon and Arizona’s Grand Canyon. The U.S. National Park Service has invited the public to view the eclipse from a national partk this weekend. [May 20 Solar Eclipse: Complete Coverage]
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Solar Eclipse Sunday Promises Spectacular Views from China to Texas
Image: As the solar eclipse on May 20, 2012, progresses, its partial and annular phases will look very similar to this eclipse on May 10, 1994 / Credit: Fred Espenak/SkyandTelescope.com
Almost all of North America will undergo a weird and dramatic event late Sunday afternoon (May 20). A partial eclipse of the sun will be visible, and for most, it will coincide with sunset.
Only for places northwest of a line running roughly from San Diego to Winnipeg will the eclipse be visible from start to finish before the sun sets. Elsewhere, depending on where you are, if your sky is clear toward the west-northwest, the setting sun will appear slightly dented, deeply crescent-shaped, or even ring-shaped.
The eclipse will begin in China, but in parts of eight western states — Oregon, California, Nevada, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas — viewers living within a path averaging about 190 miles (306 kilometers) wide, will have a front-row seat to witness the rare and exciting spectacle of an annular solar eclipse, or ring eclipse. The path of annularity extends from the coastline at the California-Oregon border to northwestern Texas, where it will end at local sunset.
Places within the path include Medford, Ore.; Eureka, Calif.; Reno, Nev.; Albuquerque, N.M.; and Lubbock, Texas. Also within the path are two beloved national parks, Utah’s Bryce Canyon and Arizona’s Grand Canyon. The U.S. National Park Service has invited the public to view the eclipse from a national partk this weekend. [May 20 Solar Eclipse: Complete Coverage]
Another absolutely gorgeous film by NASA: The Pursuit of Light.
Oldest Mayan Astronomical Calendar Discovered
The oldest-known version of the ancient Maya calendar has been discovered adorning a lavishly painted wall in the ruins of a city deep in the Guatemalan rainforest.
The hieroglyphs, painted in black and red, along with a colorful mural of a king and his mysterious attendants, seem to have been a sort of handy reference chart for court scribes in A.D. 800 — the astronomers and mathematicians of their day. Contrary to popular myth, this calendar isn’t a countdown to the end of the world in December 2012, the study researchers said.
“The Mayan calendar is going to keep going for billions, trillions, octillions of years into the future,” said archaeologist David Stuart of the University of Texas, who worked to decipher the glyphs. “Numbers we can’t even wrap our heads around.”
Has mankind outgrown Earth?
A new report from the World Wildlife Fund says we’re gobbling up the planet’s resources at such an alarming rate that by 2030, even a second Earth wouldn’t be enough to sustain us
Which resources are we depleting?
Renewables like fish, water, timber, and food are being used up much faster than previously thought. According to experts, mankind’s “ecological footprint” is now over 50 percent higher than it was in 2008, meaning it takes 1.5 years for Earth to regenerate the natural resources we use up annually.Why is our ecological footprint growing?
The world’s population, which according to the U.N. surpassed 7 billion last October, is getting too big, and the average individual is using more than he or she needs. “The excessive demands that we are putting on the planet will inevitably lead to acute water shortages, a chronic food crisis, and rising prices for energy, metals, and minerals,” says Robert Walker at the Huffington Post.
