A Complete List of Future Solar Eclipses Visible in the United States

Today is going to feature a total solar eclipse, but not for us in the United States. So, for the convenience of my fellow Americans, I decided to sift through long lists of future eclipses, weeding out all of those not viewable from American shores in order to make for a concise, relevant eclipse list for anyone living in the United States who does not wish to travel overseas to see this most spectacular of all celestial phenomenon running through the rest of the 21^st century.

Annular eclipes are underlined and bolded and total eclipses are in bold red.

*October 23, 2014: partial eclipse visible in the Eastern North America
*August 21, 2017: total eclipse, path of totality is from Oregon to Georgia
*January 6, 2019: partial eclipse visible in Alaska
*October 14, 2023: annular eclipse in Western U.S., partial for rest of North America
*April 8, 2024: total eclipse, path of totality is from Mexico through Newfoundland
*January 14, 2029: partial eclipse for most of North America
*June 12, 2029: partial eclipse in Alaska
*November 14, 2031: partial eclipse for Southern United States
*March 30, 2033: total eclipse for Alaska, partial for rest of North America
*August 21, 2036: partial eclipse for Alaska
*January 5, 2038: partial for Eastern North America
*July 2, 2038: partial eclipse for North America
*June 21, 2039: annular eclipse for Alaska, partial for North America
*November 4, 2040: partial eclipse for North America
*August 23, 2044: total eclipse for Montana and N. Dakota, partial for rest of North America
*August 12, 2045: total eclipse for California through Florida, partial for rest of continent
*February 5, 2046: annular from Hawaii through Idaho, partial for Western U.S.
*January 26, 2047: partial eclipse for Alaska
*June 11, 2048: annular for Oklahoma through Michigan, partial for N. America
*May 31, 2049: partial eclipse for Southeastern United States
*November 14, 2050: partial eclipse for Northeastern United States
*April 11, 2051: partial eclipse for Alaska
*March 30, 2052, total for Mexico through South Carolina, partial for rest of U.S.
*September 2, 2054: partial eclipse for most of North America
*January 27, 2055: partial eclipse for most of North America
*January 16, 2056: partial eclipse for Western United States
*July 1, 2057: annular for Alaska, partial for most of North America
*May 11, 2059: partial eclipse for North America
*April 20, 2061: partial for North America
*August 12, 2064: partial for North America
*February 5, 2065: partial for North America
*June 22, 2066: partial for North America
*June 11, 2067: partial for North America
*December 6, 2067: partial for North America
*November 24, 2068: partial for North America
*April 21, 2069: partial for North America
*April 11, 2070: partial for Alaska
*September 23, 2071: partial for North America
*February 7, 2073: partial for Alaska
*July 13, 2075: partial for North America
*July 1, 2076: partial for North America
*November 15, 2077: annular from Oregon through Texas, partial for rest of North America
*May 11, 2078: total for Mexico through Virginia, partial for rest of North America
*November 4, 2078: partial for North America
*May 1, 2079: total from Pennsylvania through Newfoundland, partial for Eastern U.S.
*September 13, 2080: partial for North America
*February 27, 2082: partial for North America
*February 16, 2083: partial for North America
*July 3, 2084: annular for Washington through Utah, partial for Western United States
*December 16, 2085: partial for North America
*May 2, 2087: partial for North America
*April 21, 2088: partial for North America
*April 10, 2089: partial for North America
*September 23, 2090: partial for North America
*February 7, 2092: partial for North America
*July 23, 2093: annular from Illinois through Newfoundland, partial for Eastern North America
*July 12, 2094: partial for North America
*December 7, 2094: partial for North America
*May 11, 2097: total for Alaska, partial for North America
*September 24, 2098: partial for North America
*March 21, 2099: partial for North America
*September 14, 2099: total from Montana through Virginia, partial for North America
*March 10, 2100: annular from California to North Dakota, partial for Western North America


 

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Nikon's New D5200 is no D7000 Killer, Just Another Box of Gimmicks

Nikon has just announced its new D5200, which employs a 24Mp APS-C chip and inheerits a lot of features from the Nikon D7000 rather than the comparatively amateurish D5100 that it replaces. Unfortunately, as of this writing, pricing is TBA on the D5200. However, with the new D3200 selling for $600 and the old D7000 going for around $1100, I'd bewilling to bet that the D5200 will go fotr about $900, which begs a question: should I get a D5200 and skip the D7000?

Hardly.

First of all, 24Mp is a lot of resolution, far more than most people will ever need. Personally, I get great 8x11" prints with 3Mp. Want to hear something even funnier? Back in high school, we were using 1Mp cameras and printing full page pictures with them for the yearbook. Oh, guess what? They looked great. Simply put, megapixels are one of many gimmicks
designed to trick people into buying a camera based on a feature that they will never use.

Another problem here, small pixels, which smart people are not all that crazy about to begin with. It doesn't take a college degree to figure out that, if two camera sensors are the same size but with different pixel counts, the one with more pixels must also have smaller pixels, too. Technically speaking, this is known as pixel density. The problem: all sensors have background noise and small pixels capture less signal than big ones and are thus less capable of drowning out the noise. Result: cameras with small pixels produce noisier images than cameras with large pixels. Go here for a detailed explanation of pixel density and here for photographic tests that prove the same point. Simply put: if it is 24Mp, the D5200 probably won't be able to touch (let alone better) the high ISO performance of Nikon's current, 16Mp D7000. Bottom line: all's equal here.

Another headline feature of the D5200: a 39-point AF system. While this is a huge upgrade from the D5100, this is exactly the same AF system that is on the D7000. Once again: both are equal.

As for what the D7000 offers that the D5200 doesn't, here's a list:

Weather sealed magnesium alloy body
100% viewfinder coverage
Dual memory card slots (SD)
Built-in intervalometer (fancy word for programmable remote)
Full compatibility with mechanical drive Nikkor lenses
Lots of direct-access control buttons

As for what the D5200 can do that the D7000 can't, here we go. First of all, the D5200 has wi-fi capability. So what? Wi-fi has absolutely nothing to to with making pictures. Instead, it serves as a great conversation piece for technophiles who now have the ability to say "look what my camera can do" to their Facebook "friends" (who they can now share pictures with in high-resolution an instant after snapping them thanks to this wonderful technological innovation) because they are too absorbed in virtual reality to develop meaningful friendships with people in real life. Great, another reason for Nikon to charge us more money for a camera. Another feature Nikon is raving about: GPS, how stupid, why on Earth does a real photographer need to have their exact global positioning in their EXIF data? Another great innovation: an articulating LCD screen, woo-hoo!

Yes, the D7000 doesn't have 24Mp, wi-fi, GPS, or a flapping LCD screen, but it can do a lot of things that the D5200 almost certainly won't be able to do when, in contrast, the D5200 only clearly beats the D7000 on the non-photographic front. Personally, I'd buy the D7000 just for its ability to use the old, cheaper, virtually indestructible mechanical drive Nikkor lenses and for all of those direct access control buttons. Heck, if you want a lot of camera but can't afford anything over $1000, you'd be better off snagging a used D200 (or even D300 by now if you're lucky), provided you're a photographer and not a techno geek.

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Standard Time Returns and Time Change Trivia

Love it or hate it, we've just had to fall back and return to Standard Time. So, rather than complain, have fun with the time change and baffle your friends with these interesting DST trivia facts. Enjoy!


*Many ancient civilizations divided their days into 24 hours just like us, but adjusted the 'hours’ lengths so that there would always be 12 hours of day and 12 of night (this had to make setting up a date really suck).

*While he did not propose DST, Benjamin Franklin, while serving as envoy to France, anonymously published a letter suggesting people rise early (and thus go to bed earlier) to economize on candles and make use of natural sunlight. so no, don't blame Ben Franklin for our having to change the clocks (and you being an hour early for church this morning!)

* The catalyst for starting DST: saving energy during World War I, after which it was dropped until, you guessed it, WWII. Funny how wars spur things to get done.

*While we shift by an hour today, twenty and thirty minute shifts, and also two hour shifts, have been used in the past anda re currently used in different places over the world.

* The Uniform Time Act of 1966 standardized DST start/stop dates for the United States even though it doesn't require states to observe DST (Ariziona and Hawaii don't).

*Even now, start/end dates aren’t standard around the world

*Switch dates are reversed in the Southern Hemisphere

*In some areas, voters have rejected use of DST altogether while in other areas, there are pushes to eliminate Standard Time and have DST all year long (thus making DST the new Standard Time).

*'Standard' Time only lasts 3 months of the year (hardly standard if you ask, me, how about calling it Daylight Losing Time?)

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Haunted History: Spirit Photography

The most famous 'spirit' photograph of them all: Abraham Lincoln with wife Mary Todd.

What happens to us after we die? Do we go on to exist in some non-physical form or is death truly the end? Well, the answer to that question will probably never be found but the uncertainty created by death and longing for lost loved ones created a booming industry for photographers in the later part of the 19th century.

Enter spirit photography.


Almost as soon as the camera had been invented, some people started thinking that the almost magical photographic medium could be just the thing to prove the existence of spirits, and thus life after death. So far as we know, the first photograph of a supposed spirit was taken in 1860. However, while ghost photos started to appear sporadically in the years after, one event alone produced an onslaught of ghost photos: the Civil War.


The Civil War, which raged from 1861 to 1865 was the bloodiest war in American history, leaving over 625,000 Americans dead, more than were killed in every other American war combined. Needless to say, with so much sudden death, America in the late 1860s was not a happy country as it would probably have been impossible for any one family not to have been touched by the war. In this nationwide grief, some enterprising photographers saw the potential for big money.


While no one knows who made the discovery, by the 1860s, the double exposure was common knowledge among photographers. In doing a double exposure, the photographer would take a picture of someone against a black background and then reuse the plate for another shot. Result: an eerie, transparent figure of a person would be superimposed on the final picture. At the time, portraits would often need to be exposed for a few seconds so, by cutting the exposure short, the photographer could further muddle the 'ghost' and make it much harder for a clear image that could be identified by grieving relatives as their lost loved one.


In the wake of the Civil War, some photographers of questionable morals seized on this opportunity and public ignorance to make big, big money.

Of all the supposed spirit photographers, William Mumler of Boston, then New York was the most famous. At the time, getting one's picture taken was a big, and expensive, event. Mumler and other photographers, being careful to guard the double exposure secret, would then advertise that they had the ability to photograph spirits. Needless to say, with all the sudden death wrought by the war, people lined up for photos in the hope that their dead relatives would join them, paying far in excess of the normal portrait price and making the spirit photographers rich in the process.

With the general public ignorance about photography, it seemed as though this fraud could go on indefinitely. Unfortunately for the fraudulent photographers, the good times did not last.

In 1869, William Mumler was put on trial for fraud, with his accusers, among them, P.T. Barnum, stating that he was using double exposures to fake spirit photographs. While Mumler himself was acquitted of the charges as there was no hard evidence against him, his trial let the big secret of spirit photographers, double exposure, out into the open. Result: once everyone knew about trick photography, people were less inclined to line up for photos when they knew that they were, more than likely, being swindled.


By the turn of the 20th century, spirit photography as well as the whole spiritualism movement was consigned to the pages of history. However, while the spirit photographs of the 1800s have been essentially proven as fakes, the interest in catching ghosts on camera has not waned in the least. Just Google something to the effect of 'ghost pictures' for proof of this fact.


Some'ghost' photos from the 1800s

And now. . . the best for last. . .

                           Ghost snot! Eeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwww!!!!!

 

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Scientific Literacy (or Illiteracy) in the United States

Are Americans good or bad at science? Are we scientifically literate (or illiterate)? Just yesterday, a new study conducted by the University of Michigan revealed that only 43% of respondents knew that we live in the Milky Way galaxy, which is a rather frightening finding considering that I remember being taught this information in early grade school.

Needless to say, this is not the first study about scientific literacy in the United States and will surely not be the last. Digging around for more examples of easy science questions that adults get wrong, I came across a study from the National Science Foundation, which has, as far as I can find, the most examples of questions and beliefs regarding science in the United States. Go here for the full report, continue here for the nuts and bolts.

Needless to say, the results of this survey were quite interesting. Below is the summary of the findings with question, answer, and approximate percentage (my estimate by looking at the chart) of people who got it right.

How long does it take Earth to go around the Sun? (a year) 55%
Does the Earth go around the Sun? (yes) 75%
Radioactive milk can be made safe by boiling. (no) 65%
Early humans and dinosaurs lived at the same time. (no) 50%
Humans evolved from earlier species. (yes) 50%
Continental drift is is happening and will continue. (yes) 80%
Antibiotics kill viruses as well as bacteria. (no, bacteria only) 50%
Electrons are smaller than atoms. (yes) 50%
Lasers focus sound waves. (no) 45%
A father's gene determines a baby's gender. (yes) 65%
Oxygen comes from plants. (yes) 90%
Radioactivity is purely man-made. (no) 75%
Earth's center is hot. (yes) 80%


Another interesting survey conducted by the NSF dealt wit the belief in pseudoscience. The troubling finding here: except for demonic possession, belief in every area grew in every area from 1990 to 2001. So, here we go here, the various pseudosciences and approximate percentages of the population who believe in them.

Psychic healing: 55%
ESP: 50%
Hauntings: 45%
Demonic possession: 40%
Ghosts: 40%
Telepathy: 35%
Alien visitation: 35
Clairvoyance: 30%
Communicating with the dead: 30%
Astrology: 30%
Witches: 25%
Reincarnation: 25%
Channeling: 15%


By looking at the statistics, for me, anyway, one thing is clear: in America, science and pseudoscience are not really exclusive to each other with the general public. For the most part, at least 2/3 of the population (not good, but not great) got most of the science questions right (those dealing with human history and evolution being not so surprising exceptions), yet a strong belief in things that have no scientific basis whatsoever remains (at least half the population believes in psychic healing and ESP) and appears to be growing. Weird.

Anyway, these types of studies, at least for the scientifically-minded, bring up some interesting points to ponder. For some fun, why not quiz your family and friends with the science questions above and see how they do?

 

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Watch the Orionid Meteor Shower Live Online Tonight

 
Tonight, October 20/21, 2012, marks the peak of the Orionid meteor shower for 2012. While we would all have a Moonless night and clear skies in a perfect world, the world isn't perfect, which means that some of us will be clouded out for the night (though the Moon will be out of the way, though). Fortunately, thanks to modern technology, anyone with an Internet connection will be able to watch the Orionid meteor Shower thanks to live video feeds, one from NASA and the other from the Slooh Space Cam.

For anyone who's looking to have clear skies tonight, here are some viewing tips:

1. Plan to stay out a while, as it takes the human eye about 15 minutes to get optimal night vision capability. The bad news is that, even one bright flash of white light will wipe out night vision, requiring you to start the process all over again.

2. Grab a lawn chair or, even better, a lounge-type chair. Trying to lean back with a straight-back lawn chair can be a pain in the neck, literally! Eyes ready for dark and with something to sit/lay on, settle in for a night of hopeful meteor watching (or at the very least, stargazing), just try not to fall asleep and don't forget to dress warmly and bring the bug spray!

3. Don't forget to bring a coat as this is winter and, chances are, things will be pretty cool in most locations tonight.

Besides meteors, tonight can be a great time for binocular viewing, owing to your use of a chair. Under suburban (maybe) or rural skies (definitely), a pair of medium power (10x50) binoculars can yield some stunning wide-angle sights. For someone truly dedicated, why not try and keep a tally of how many meteors you see for every complete hour? For the record, the Orionids typically spawn around 20 meteors per hour on peak night.


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New Comet ISON Could be as Bright as Full Moon, No Kidding!

Comet ISON could be far brighter than Comet McNaught ever was.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has just done some calculations in regards to newly-discovered Comet ISON. Result: the Sun-grazing comet, due in November 2013, could reach magnitude -11.6, which would make it about as bright as the Full Moon! The best news: this will be a Northern Hemisphere event. Still, with it being over a year away, don't go getting too excited just yet as comets are notoriously unpredictable but, on the other hand, this is one story to keep your eye on.

For more info:The full story

 

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