Solar Eclipse 2017 and Thoughts
Hello!
What an amazing day so far, as someone young enough to have this bee their first eclipse experience in their life, I was so moved. Even though I had to be at work, Beaverton, OR is very close to totality at 99.6%. That .4% does make a world of difference, we never saw a corona of the sun, but we did experience the eerie dusk in the morning, quieting of the birds, and another strange phenomenon: Shadow Ripples.
The scientific community doesn't really know how to define these light water-ripple effects on the ground and walls that occur just before and right after the apex of a solar eclipse. The whole thing was just barely noticed by a coworker before I saw it, and I watched it very closely. It was like the sun dancing filtered through water, but smaller, and faster. To me it almost seemed if we were able to see the wind streaming through the air and tiny particulates were casting their shadows all around us.
This is just my theory, of course, but if the daytime is bright enough, but the surrounding areas aren't dark enough, I can understand why this only happens during an eclipse. Maybe one day we will find out. If it turns out I am correct, I will be happily surprised and elated.
I wish I could have accurately captured how dark it was during the eclipse, and how eerie it felt knowing it was still the morning, but dusk outside. My partner commented that it became dark enough for the streetlights in the area he was in to turn on for a moment. The atmosphere was glowing a dull orange, almost dark rose color, and the lack of birds flying or chirping made it seem so otherworldly to be outside. I truly felt like I could have been on a different planet at that moment, an despite my eerie feeling, my heart was happy and calm, more so than I have felt in a long time.
I felt empowered by this cosmic event.
I understand the amount of hype probably turned a lot of people off from the event, some even claiming that it wasn't really as awe-inspiring as it was. A very small group of flat-earthers even protested the eclipse all together, claiming that NASA was using eclipse glasses to hide a truth about the earth, and that a heliocentric model isn't supported by the way the eclipse was expected to behave. Some even went as far as claiming the event was a hoax by stating that the shadow of the moon cannot be smaller than the moon, if anything, it would be larger. This shows a fundamental lack of understand of how large the sun is, how far away it is, how large the moon is, and the scale of both objects in our sky. Amazingly, they are about the same size, with the sun still being slightly larger in our sky than the moon. This, if anything tells us how amazing our circumstances are, that we can even have solar eclipse totality at all! The curvature of the path of the moon and sun have been documented for centuries, and all of this still supports a heliocentric model of the Earth.
Despite all the amazing wonder of our cosmic placement and scale, we do have a serious problem. The earth is warming, fast. And the rate at which our climate is changing from season to season is terrifying. The planet is experiencing environmental destruction and decay, and the decision not to act is equal to condoning the devastation of biome and organism diversity. On a smaller scale (no pun intended), in Oregon, Steelhead Salmon Populations are dwindling and the number of Sea Lions swimming inland has increased. This is causing many people to assume that the Sea Lions are the bigger threat to the Steelhead, and want to start hunting, or just downright killing, any Sea Lions inland. The larger problem is habitat destruction and the natural food supply for Sea Lions, Ocean Mackerel and Sturgeon, dwindling due to over-fishing and lack-luster river dam innovation. Sturgeon, for example, breed in rivers that are dotted with different dams, some have fish ladders, or safety runs for the fish, but most do not. And hatchery support for steelhead, mackerel, and sturgeon is too low to sustain them on their own. The current administration has made it clear that animal support and habitat restoration isn't a priority for them, and that just isn't something we can live with in the long run.
If you can, consider making a donation to a local hatchery or environmental restoration group. It's not too late to save some of what we have, and reverse the damage we have done. Let people know this is important to you, our little blue marble is the only planet we have currently, and I'd hate to see the future marred due to our current level of uncaring.
Love,
Karingan
P.S. In other news, my tail is coming along swimmingly!
I haven't sewn it together yet as I did a test fitting and I'm glad I did because some parts aren't quite tight enough. I also have to spray paint the fins and stitch on the body fabric spines for the fins that get them. The side fins are staying as-is. I'm so happy with how the colors are looking so far, and when there is more body fabric on the fluke, I know it will look way more cohesive!
What an amazing day so far, as someone young enough to have this bee their first eclipse experience in their life, I was so moved. Even though I had to be at work, Beaverton, OR is very close to totality at 99.6%. That .4% does make a world of difference, we never saw a corona of the sun, but we did experience the eerie dusk in the morning, quieting of the birds, and another strange phenomenon: Shadow Ripples.
The scientific community doesn't really know how to define these light water-ripple effects on the ground and walls that occur just before and right after the apex of a solar eclipse. The whole thing was just barely noticed by a coworker before I saw it, and I watched it very closely. It was like the sun dancing filtered through water, but smaller, and faster. To me it almost seemed if we were able to see the wind streaming through the air and tiny particulates were casting their shadows all around us.
This is just my theory, of course, but if the daytime is bright enough, but the surrounding areas aren't dark enough, I can understand why this only happens during an eclipse. Maybe one day we will find out. If it turns out I am correct, I will be happily surprised and elated.
 |
| Just before apex started |
 |
| 3rd contact right after Apex |
I wish I could have accurately captured how dark it was during the eclipse, and how eerie it felt knowing it was still the morning, but dusk outside. My partner commented that it became dark enough for the streetlights in the area he was in to turn on for a moment. The atmosphere was glowing a dull orange, almost dark rose color, and the lack of birds flying or chirping made it seem so otherworldly to be outside. I truly felt like I could have been on a different planet at that moment, an despite my eerie feeling, my heart was happy and calm, more so than I have felt in a long time.
I felt empowered by this cosmic event.
I understand the amount of hype probably turned a lot of people off from the event, some even claiming that it wasn't really as awe-inspiring as it was. A very small group of flat-earthers even protested the eclipse all together, claiming that NASA was using eclipse glasses to hide a truth about the earth, and that a heliocentric model isn't supported by the way the eclipse was expected to behave. Some even went as far as claiming the event was a hoax by stating that the shadow of the moon cannot be smaller than the moon, if anything, it would be larger. This shows a fundamental lack of understand of how large the sun is, how far away it is, how large the moon is, and the scale of both objects in our sky. Amazingly, they are about the same size, with the sun still being slightly larger in our sky than the moon. This, if anything tells us how amazing our circumstances are, that we can even have solar eclipse totality at all! The curvature of the path of the moon and sun have been documented for centuries, and all of this still supports a heliocentric model of the Earth.
Despite all the amazing wonder of our cosmic placement and scale, we do have a serious problem. The earth is warming, fast. And the rate at which our climate is changing from season to season is terrifying. The planet is experiencing environmental destruction and decay, and the decision not to act is equal to condoning the devastation of biome and organism diversity. On a smaller scale (no pun intended), in Oregon, Steelhead Salmon Populations are dwindling and the number of Sea Lions swimming inland has increased. This is causing many people to assume that the Sea Lions are the bigger threat to the Steelhead, and want to start hunting, or just downright killing, any Sea Lions inland. The larger problem is habitat destruction and the natural food supply for Sea Lions, Ocean Mackerel and Sturgeon, dwindling due to over-fishing and lack-luster river dam innovation. Sturgeon, for example, breed in rivers that are dotted with different dams, some have fish ladders, or safety runs for the fish, but most do not. And hatchery support for steelhead, mackerel, and sturgeon is too low to sustain them on their own. The current administration has made it clear that animal support and habitat restoration isn't a priority for them, and that just isn't something we can live with in the long run.
If you can, consider making a donation to a local hatchery or environmental restoration group. It's not too late to save some of what we have, and reverse the damage we have done. Let people know this is important to you, our little blue marble is the only planet we have currently, and I'd hate to see the future marred due to our current level of uncaring.
Love,
Karingan
P.S. In other news, my tail is coming along swimmingly!
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