In Pure Spirit

For open minds

This is what a solar eclipse looks like from 35,000 feet in the air

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It starts out looking like some shadowy tornado was crawling towards the plane. What’s really going on? This is actually a solar eclipse filmed far above the clouds.

As you can hear some of the passengers got very excited.

This is Alaska Airlines flight #870 on route from Anchorage to Honolulu. The airline kindly made some small adjustments so passengers could see the eclipse from out of their windows. This wasn’t a spur of the moment decision as Joe Rao, a year ago, worked out that the flight would intersect the “path of totality”.

As a result the associate astronomer at the American Museum of Natural History and a dozen other “eclipse chasers” were on board the flight.

What changes did Alaska Airlines make? They flew the flight 20 minutes early; otherwise they would have missed the sight.

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Planet of the Goats: Stunning photograph taken during lunar eclipse

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NASA has published this stunning photograph taken from the Planet of the Goats. The Planet of the Goats isn’t some sci-fi b-movie but an area in the Greek island of Ikaria that has rough terrain and covered in strange looking boulders.

As the storm approached photographers worried that the clouds would cover and ruin the total lunar eclipse that was expected to produce a rare blood moon. Instead they got this fantastic shot.

In Pure Spirit

Have you ever seen anything like this yourself? What are your thoughts?

Where can you see tonight’s blood moon?

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There will be a total lunar eclipse tonight. The eclipse – which is expected to produce a blood moon – starts at about 6.24pm BST or 11:20am PDT – will be one of the longest since 2000. It’s expected to last for 100 minutes.

There’s more than one catch. There might be clouds. The event starts before moonrise for most of Europe. In other parts of the world it will not be visible at all.

However, an unlikely partnership has stepped forward that will let you witness the total lunar eclipse, blood moon and all, from anywhere in the world. Google has partnered with the brains behind the Slooh Space camera. This means you can watch the Google’s blood moon from a live stream on YouTube, from Google Earth (if you’re happy to download and apply this kml file) and even from your Android phone if you install the Sloosh Space Camera app.

This video shows what a blood moon looks like and how it’s formed. It’s a real incentive to try and watch one form in real time.

In Pure Spirit

Are you doing anything to mark the blood moon and total lunar eclipse? What does a total lunar eclipse mean to you?

Longest solar eclipse of the century due this week

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Corona of the Sun during a Solar Eclipse
Image by Smithsonian Institution via Flickr

The longest solar eclipse of the 21st century is due July 22nd.

The event will last 6 minutes and 26 seconds and it’ll be 2132 until a solar eclipse of a similar length is visible from Earth. The eclipse’s shadow will stretch up to 258km.

The eclipse will be visible from the world’s most densely populated countries; China and India.

Stargazers in the Indian state of Gujarat will be able to see the solar event first at (at about 4.30pm GMT). The path of the eclipse will mean that the shadow will race across India next; effecting the holy city of Varansai, touching Bangladesh, Nepal, most of Bhutan and then along China before it reaches the sea off Shanghai.

The event, however, lasts long enough it for the shadow to “make landfall” for a second time as it reaches the Ryukyu Islands. It’s after this when the shadow is spread across the Pacific Ocean that the maximum duration of totality will occur.

In total more than two billion people may be able to see the longest solar eclipse of the century.

There is, however, concern. In ancient China it was common to associate eclipses with warnings of forthcoming natural disasters or even the death of the emperor.

The Indian astrologer Raj Kumar Sharma has already described this month’s solar eclipse as a “very dangerous moment in the universe”. He told press; “If the sun, the leader of the stars, is sick, then definitely there’s going to be some bigger problems happening in the world”

In Pure Spirit

Are you planning to mark the solar eclipse in any way on the 22nd?

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