Tonight you can still capture the Northern Lights here in the U.S. After an 11-year absence. The solar event will have the greatest show in the Ohio River Valley through the Midwest and into the Pacific Northwest (see CNN map below). Amazingly, the show was seen as far south as Florida yesterday evening.
The good news is that the solar burst has not been causing damage to the power grid and satellites. Sweden and South Africa were not so lucky in 2003.
The image of the week relates to the Total Solar Eclipse that captured the nation’s attention. Goofy glasses like the ones shown in The Chicago Tribune (above) and Wired magazine (below) were worn across the country to watch this rare event.
If you missed the Total Solar Eclipse or just want to see what it looked like in other parts of the country, NASA and other observatories have you covered. Check out the NASA video, “2024 Total Solar Eclipse: Through the Eyes of NASA (Telescope Feed),” showing the eclipse from Texas to Maine.
No good astronomical event happens without accompanying pain, or so it would seem given all of the news stories about tomorrow’s eclipse. We are hearing plenty of stories about overpriced hotels, traffic jams, and even the intervention of FEMA. Just wait until you hear all of the stories about people who paid a fortune to find the eclipse blocked by clouds.
Here are a few of the crazy headlines from the areas impacted by the pending eclipse:
As far as hotel rooms, The Guardian news story above states:
Amid the clamor for accommodation, one travel agency said it had been forced to rearrange lodging for more than 150 people after bookings made two years earlier at two Buffalo hotels were canceled. Rooms that had cost $129 to $159 were canceled and resold at $450 or more, according to Sugar Tours, owner, Chris Donnelly, who said it was “total price gouging”.
It is all pretty silly, but no one wants to be left out. NASA will have the better pictures and eclipse details, given its planned rocket launches, yet these folks need something for Facebook or Instagram.
I do not really care for the crowds, so I will await the press stories and NASA images. Nonetheless, for those who feel the need to be on the front lines, I wish them a safe trip with clear skies.
While Virginia will not be in the direct path of the upcoming Total Solar Eclipse, it will be playing a role related to the eclipse that day.
NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on the Virginia coast will be launch three rockets to study disturbances in the Earth’s ionosphere during the eclipse. The rockets will be launched 45 minutes before, during, and 45 minutes after the peak local eclipse.
These launches are part of NASA’s Atmospheric Perturbations around Eclipse Path (APEP) mission. Such launches during an eclipse are not unusual as NASA hopes to learn a few things from this study.
Aroh Barjatya, a professor of engineering physics at Florida’s Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University campus, stated:
Understanding the ionosphere and developing models to help us predict disturbances is crucial to making sure our increasingly communication-dependent world operates smoothly.
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