Well, the Eclipse has come and gone, and as far as I can make out, there’s no sign of either the Rapture or the Apocalypse. (I realize such things might take some extra time to reach us here in the Outer Cape, but even on social media things just seem to be blaring away as usual.)
We had about 93% totality here, which just meant that things got eerily dim for a few minutes (even 7% of the Sun produces an awful lot of light.) The weather was perfectly clear, so we all got a good look at it with our funny little glasses. And that was that.
What’s really amazing about this whole eclipse business — a thing so extraordinary that it almost seems to be more than one could expect from mere coincidence, and wants some more satisfying explanation — is the fact of the Sun, which is 93,000,000 miles from Earth, and the Moon, which is right in our backyard, having almost exactly the same apparent size in the sky. (The Sun’s size varies from 31.6 to 32.7 arc-minutes, while the Moon’s goes from 29.3 to 34.1.) This could so easily have been otherwise that it really seems quite astonishing that it should be so.
Anyway, a bit of a fizzle for all you millenarians out there; life goes on. Sorry.
4 Comments
“the fact of the Sun, which is 93,000,000 miles from Earth, and the Moon, which is right in our backyard, having almost exactly the same apparent size in the sky.”
Believe it or not, I read in a book that this is a sign of God choosing our place in the Solar System so we were in the best place to discover astronomy.
Historically speaking, eclipses are signs of impending social upheaval and chaos, not expectations that they will happen on the day of an eclipse itself.
So, we are very likely still in for some wild times ahead.
imnobody,
And all that sand to make make lenses with! Case closed, I think.
Dave,
I certainly wouldn’t bet against social upheaval, chaos, and wild times ahead.