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Oh, that’s right – YOU DON’T GET THIS ONE

We’re getting a total eclipse on Friday — first one since 1999.

I’m not sure why that is. It seems like y’all in the States get one every year or two, but there you go. Not quite total where we are; about 80% on the South coast.

It should peak in the middle of my Friday commute, but I’m not getting too excited. The weather is due to be very overcast, and probably will be (I say that because weather forecasting here is atrocious, but this is a big predictable band of dark cloud). Although I suppose overcast will just make it eerily darker.

I like eclipses. I haven’t seen many.

Anyhoo, check out this neat tool. It’s a 3D global eclipse tracker (yes, yes…it works for you, too). Go play with the buttons and knobs!

Comments


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: March 18, 2015, 11:07 pm

Oh, and by the way:


Comment from Stark Dickflüssig
Time: March 19, 2015, 12:13 am

1. I would like my evil clone army to be:

(please choose only one)
(*) Angry
( ) Vengeful
( ) Scheming
( ) Rapacious

2. If my evil clone army could be any kind of tree it would be:

(please choose only one)
(*) Sweet gum
( ) Terebinth
( ) Gopherwood
( ) Lynchin’
( ) Screaming


Comment from Christopher Taylor
Time: March 19, 2015, 5:25 am

“I’m not sure why that is. It seems like y’all in the States get one every year or two, but there you go.”

Well, considering the entire UK is the size of like Oregon, you can guess why you don’t get as many eclipses.


Comment from Some Vegetable
Time: March 19, 2015, 1:10 pm

Christopher is right, and it’s a well-known fact that the UK gets very few eclipses; in fact almost none.

Weasel, surely you have heard the old saying:

The Sun Never Sets On The British Empire


Comment from Anonymous
Time: March 19, 2015, 2:03 pm

But then surely you also realize that has not been the situation for MANY years, Some Vegetable.

After all, when the Brown Clown returned Churchill’s bust, and gave HRH an iPod with his speeches, well…


Comment from Simon S
Time: March 19, 2015, 2:42 pm

Total eclipse of the British Empire? April 2432 for most but not all of it. We’ve got a while yet:

http://what-if.xkcd.com/48/


Comment from Anonymous
Time: March 19, 2015, 3:55 pm

Not sure why they’d let her do this:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3002178/Michelle-Obama-towers-Japanese-Emperor-Akihito-smiles-awkwardly.html

I mean, after all, who ever thought the idea of a Mad Cow – Angus Breed – in heels made sense???


Comment from Wolfus Aurelius
Time: March 19, 2015, 4:29 pm

My late cat Arizona, the red tabby Maine Coon, and I went through a partial solar eclipse one bright morning in 1984. Our windows looked out onto a suburban park. Suddenly it began to get dim outside, and then dimmer still, and the birds got quiet. Arizona ran from one window to the next, chirping in distress and looking back at me as if he were saying, “You’re in charge of weather! Fix this!”


Comment from Mojo
Time: March 19, 2015, 5:23 pm

I saw a total in North Dakota once, very impressive. It started about 9am, and really freaked out the dogs. The sun just came up and now it’s getting dark again, wtf?

Mind your eyeballs, use a good filter or a pinhole.


Comment from Mojo
Time: March 19, 2015, 5:30 pm

DNA: They’ve been doing that all over the UK, saw it on the videodrome. Trying to find the last of the Picts, I should imagine, so they can kill him.


Comment from Anonymous
Time: March 19, 2015, 6:30 pm

Heh:
http://neveryetmelted.com/2015/03/19/dna-shows-that-tribal-identities-persist-in-britain-1400-years-later/
It’s fairly clear they didn’t sample much of the population in SOME of those areas. No Muslim DNA is mentioned…


Comment from Rich Rostrom
Time: March 19, 2015, 7:12 pm

Mojo @ March 19, 2015, 5:23 pm:

Mind your eyeballs, use a good filter or a pinhole.

A welder’s mask works. Last partial around here, I came across some people in a big parking lot with a welder’s mask-helmet. They let me borrow it for a minute – way cool.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: March 19, 2015, 7:42 pm

Anonymous, they were deliberately picking natives, for the obvious reason. I think they went back four generations of people who had lived in the same general area (if that’s the study I read).


Comment from Sigivald
Time: March 19, 2015, 8:59 pm

Contra the XKCD posted above, though, a sunset + eclipse does not mean the sun set on the Empire – it means the Empire was in the dark.

The sun during an eclipse is not set, just occluded.


Comment from Stark Dickflüssig
Time: March 19, 2015, 10:21 pm

A welder’s mask works. Last partial around here, I came across some people in a big parking lot with a welder’s mask-helmet.

If you don’t have one of those, a shade 12 lens is less than $6 at about any welding supply store. Cut a hole in a sheet of cardboard & tape the lens to it.


Comment from Stark Dickflüssig
Time: March 20, 2015, 5:17 pm

So, pics?

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