this post was submitted on 09 Apr 2024
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xkcd

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The most rare, top-tier eclipse photo would be the Solar Earth Eclipse, but the Apollo 12 crew's attempt to capture it was marred by camera shake. They said it looked spectacular, though.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Thanks. I could not for the life of me understand the last panel because I kept misreading it as "frustratingly looking up at the clouds..." and the bit that followed just didn't make sense lol.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Just got back from niagra and while it was still amazing to witness and we got glimpses of the totality for about 7 seconds, still disappointed I didn't get a better view. Xkcd connected with me so much as I literally started looking up weather, room rates, etc for Sydney in 2028 last night.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

My original plans were to travel to Niagara Falls. That seemed like the coolest place there would be totality at.

I am so glad I (due to circumstances I neither thought nor hoped would happen) am typing this message from Mexico City Airport instead while waiting for boarding to start for my flight back to Europe. It was perfectly sunny where I watched it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

Glad you got a good view! Now that I've experienced it with limited view but a really cool darkness, I'm ready to prep for a trip I hope gives a much better view in a few years!

[–] [email protected] 25 points 7 months ago (6 children)

Australia for 2028? Why not Spain for 2026?

[–] [email protected] 31 points 7 months ago

Spain isn't a real place.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Spain

Someone said: not impressive enough because too close to sunset. Didn't check.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

That's why you do Iceland instead.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

The 2026 one doesn't pass over much land or near many major population centres, and a lot of Europeans are going to try and see it, so it's going to be very difficult to go see it, especially if you're an American.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Yeah. Just avoid the plains and clouds shouldn't be a problem.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

Not mostly, anyway.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Spain's is a partial eclipse. My question is why not Egypt 2027?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago (1 children)

If we're talking about 12 August 2026, this says it'll be a total eclipse, in northern Spain at least.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

You're right. I'm not sure why I thought it was a partial eclipse.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago

Requires inventing time travel. More work.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago

Apollo 12 had some pretty bad luck with cameras. They accidentally pointed the lunar surface video camera at the sun burning out the vidicon tube, and a camera mounted in a window fell and hit Al Bean in the head during splashdown.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago

The focus issues are actually over-exposure issues that then lead to focus issues.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

I went up to the Lake Champlain area where there was some high altitude cloud cover. Fortunately, it didn't affect the viewing basically at all. A cool side effect of the clouds/related atmospheric conditions though was that the sun had a 22° halo. I wish that 1) I'd had a camera that could capture it and that 2) I'd had the presence of mind to pay attention to what happened to it in the moments before and after totality.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

I was watching, hoping to see the shadow on the ground. It was too fast to see but I did notice the sky going dark before totality and then lighting up before it ended.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

He forgot the ones showing the weird light levels during totality