APOD: Dark Sun over Ternate (2016 Mar 10)

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APOD: Dark Sun over Ternate (2016 Mar 10)

Post by APOD Robot » Thu Mar 10, 2016 5:11 am

Image Dark Sun over Ternate

Explanation: A dark Sun hangs in the clearing sky over a volcanic planet in this morning sea and skycape. It was taken during this week's total solar eclipse, a dramatic snapshot from along the narrow path of totality in the dark shadow of a New Moon. Earth's Indonesian isle of Ternate, North Maluku lies in the foreground. The sky is still bright near the eastern horizon though, beyond the region's flattened volcanic peaks and outside the Moon's umbral shadow. In fact, near the equator the dark lunar umbra is rushing eastward across Earth's surface at about 1,700 kilometers (1,100 miles) per hour. Shining through the thin clouds, around the Sun's silhouette is the alluring glow of the solar corona, only easily seen during totality. An inspiring sight for eclipse watchers, this solar corona is the tenuous, hot outer atmosphere of the Sun.

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Re: APOD: Dark Sun over Ternate (2016 Mar 10)

Post by rochelimit » Thu Mar 10, 2016 1:23 pm

I was there in Borneo (Balikpapan) during the event. It was my first solar eclipse, and although it was only about 1 minute plus there, it was a sight to behold, incredible!

One thing I learn is that you can actually see the solar corona exactly like those 19th-century lithograph drawing of corona. You can see each loop and rays and all. It's much better than depiction in most photos, more or less like this one http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap150331.html

Incredible

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Re: APOD: Dark Sun over Ternate (2016 Mar 10)

Post by neufer » Thu Mar 10, 2016 2:39 pm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1170s_BC wrote:

1178 BC, April 16—A solar eclipse occurs. This may have marked the return of Odysseus, legendary King of Ithaca, to his kingdom after the Trojan War. He discovers a number of suitors competing to marry his wife Penelope, whom they believe to be a widow, in order to succeed him on the throne. He organizes their slaying and re-establishes himself on the throne. The date is surmised from a passage in Homer's Odyssey, which reads,

"Poor men, what terror is this that overwhelms you so? Night shrouds your heads, your faces, down to your knees -- cries of mourning are bursting into fire -- cheeks rivering tears -- the walls and the handsome crossbeams dripping dank with blood! Ghosts, look, thronging the entrance, thronging the court, go trooping down to the realm of death and darkness! The sun is blotted out of the sky -- look there -- a lethal mist spreads all across the earth!" -- Homer (translation by Robert Fagles)

This happens in the context of a new moon and at noon, both necessary preconditions for a full solar eclipse. In 2008, to investigate, Dr Marcelo O. Magnasco, an astronomer at Rockefeller University, and Constantino Baikouzis, of the Observatorio Astrónomico de La Plata in Argentina, looked for more clues. Within the text, they interpreted three definitive astronomical events: there was a new moon on the day of the slaughter (as required for a solar eclipse); Venus was visible and high in the sky six days before; and the constellations Pleiades and Boötes were both visible at sunset 29 days before. Since these events recur at different intervals, this particular sequence should be unique: the doctors found only one occurrence of this sequence while searching between 1250 and 1115 BC, the 135-year spread around the putative date for the fall of Troy. It coincided with the eclipse of April 16, 1178 BC.
http://www.science20.com/news_releases/april_16_1178_bc_homers_odyssey_eclipse_mystery_solution_may_pinpoint_the_fall_of_troy wrote:
April 16, 1178 BC - Homer's Odyssey Eclipse Mystery Solution May Pinpoint The Fall Of Troy
By News Staff | June 23rd 2008 12:00 PM

<<Homer's Odyssey, be it history or fiction, had one potentially true part that has fascinated readers throughout the ages - namely whether Odysseus returned home to experience a total solar eclipse.

Total eclipses, when the moon briefly but completely blocks the sun, happen pretty rarely. In fact, they're so rare that if what Homer describes is truly an eclipse, it could potentially help historians date the fall of Troy, which was purported to occur around the time of the events described in the Iliad and the Odyssey.

After arguing about the point for hundreds of years, historians, astronomers and classicists finally agreed that there was no corroborating evidence and tabled the discussion. Now, Marcelo O. Magnasco, head of the Laboratory of Mathematical Physics at Rockefeller, and Constantino Baikouzis of the Proyecto Observatorio at the Observatorio Astronómico in La Plata, Argentina, believe they have found some overlooked passages that, taken together, may shed new light on the timing of an epic journey.

The researchers combed through the Odyssey to find specific astronomical references that could be precisely identified as occurring on specific days throughout Odysseus's journey. Then, they aligned each of those dates with the date of Odysseus's return, the same day he murders the suitors who had taken advantage of his long absence to court his wife.

Magnasco and Baikouzis identified four celestial events. The day of the slaughter is, as Homer writes more than once, also a new moon (something that's also a prerequisite for a total eclipse). Six days before the slaughter, Venus is visible and high in the sky. Twenty-nine days before, two constellations -- the Pleiades and Boötes -- are simultaneously visible at sunset.

And 33 days before, Homer may be suggesting that Mercury is high at dawn and near the western end of its trajectory. (Homer actually writes that Hermes -- known to the Romans as Mercury -- traveled far west only to deliver a message and fly all the way back east again; Magnasco and Baikouzis interpret this as a reference to the planet.)

Astronomically, these four phenomena recur at different intervals of time, so together they never recur in exactly the same pattern. Therefore Baikouzis and Magnasco looked to see whether there was any date within 100 years of the fall of Troy that would fit the pattern of the astronomical timeline.

There was only one: April 16, 1178 BCE, the same day that astronomers had calculated the occurrence of a total solar eclipse. "Not only is this corroborative evidence that this date might be something important," Magnasco says, "but if we take it as a given that the death of the suitors happened on this particular eclipse date, then everything else described in The Odyssey happens exactly as is described."

Magnasco acknowledges that their findings rely on a large assumption: Although the association of planets with gods was a Babylonian invention that dates back to around 1000 BCE, there's no evidence that those ideas had reached Greece by the time Homer was writing, several hundred years later. "This is a risky step in our analysis," he says. "One may say that our interpretation of the phenomena is stretching it, but when you go back to the text you have to wonder."

Ultimately, whether they're right or wrong, the researchers are interested in reopening the debate. "Even though there are historical arguments that say this is a ridiculous thing to think about, if we can get a few people to read The Odyssey differently, to look at it and ponder whether there was an actual date inscribed in it, we will be happy," Magnasco says.>>
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Re: APOD: Dark Sun over Ternate (2016 Mar 10)

Post by Boomer12k » Thu Mar 10, 2016 7:12 pm

And an Lunar Aura in the clouds... really nice.

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Re: APOD: Dark Sun over Ternate (2016 Mar 10)

Post by mason dixon » Thu Mar 10, 2016 7:18 pm

Beautiful, wow!

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Re: APOD: Dark Sun over Ternate (2016 Mar 10)

Post by neufer » Thu Mar 10, 2016 9:38 pm

Click to play embedded YouTube video.
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Re: APOD: Dark Sun over Ternate (2016 Mar 10)

Post by DavidLeodis » Fri Mar 11, 2016 6:44 pm

The explanation states of the image "It was taken during this week's total solar eclipse". However, according to the Exif data that I was able to obtain, the APOD image create date was "June 10, 2015 12:55:55AM (timezone not specified)". That date is repeated elsewhere in the Exif data, though the image is also stated to have been modified on March 9 2016! I am totally confused now as to when the image was acquired. :?

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Re: APOD: Dark Sun over Ternate (2016 Mar 10)

Post by MarkBour » Fri Mar 11, 2016 7:10 pm

The caption reads:
The sky is still bright near the eastern horizon though, beyond the region's flattened volcanic peaks and outside the Moon's umbral shadow.
I looked at this location on Google maps, and it seems that this view must be facing mostly south, perhaps SSE. Is that correct?
The only reason I would ask for clarification of such a thing is because of tomorrow's APOD and its relation to today's.
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Re: APOD: Dark Sun over Ternate (2016 Mar 10)

Post by neufer » Sat Mar 12, 2016 1:49 am

Click to play embedded YouTube video.
MarkBour wrote:
The caption reads:
The sky is still bright near the eastern horizon though, beyond the region's flattened volcanic peaks and outside the Moon's umbral shadow.
I looked at this location on Google maps, and it seems that this view must be facing mostly south, perhaps SSE. Is that correct?
Yes.

The caption should probably read "the sky is still bright near the [cloud free] southern horizon."
Last edited by neufer on Sat Mar 12, 2016 2:12 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Al-Ternate

Post by neufer » Sat Mar 12, 2016 1:56 am

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ternate#The_.22Ternate_Essay.22 wrote:

The "Ternate Essay"

<<In 1858 Alfred Russel Wallace wrote his paper on Evolution here, which he sent to Charles Darwin for his attention. Contrary to popular belief, Wallace had not published a paper on evolution before 1858, nor had he intended the "Ternate Essay" to be published in the form in which he sent it to Darwin. The essay was titled "On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely From the Original Type", and in its nine pages it concisely describes the theory of evolution by natural selection. Wallace concludes the essay with the words
  • This progression, by minute steps, in various directions, but always checked and balanced by the necessary conditions, subject to which alone existence can be preserved, may, it is believed, be followed out so as to agree with all the phenomena presented by organized beings, their extinction and succession in past ages, and all the extraordinary modifications of form, instinct, and habits which they exhibit. — Wallace, 1858
Darwin at once decided to publish his own work, and arranged for Wallace's "Ternate Essay" and extracts of two of his own accounts of evolution, to be read at the Linnean Society of London on 1 July 1858.>>
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Re: APOD: Dark Sun over Ternate (2016 Mar 10)

Post by Nitpicker » Sat Mar 12, 2016 9:35 am

neufer wrote:
MarkBour wrote:
The caption reads:
The sky is still bright near the eastern horizon though, beyond the region's flattened volcanic peaks and outside the Moon's umbral shadow.
I looked at this location on Google maps, and it seems that this view must be facing mostly south, perhaps SSE. Is that correct?
Yes.

The caption should probably read "the sky is still bright near the [cloud free] southern horizon."
The Moon and Sun are just a bit southward of dead East. The right edge of the APOD is just a bit westward of dead South. At least the cloud free horizon is more easterly than westerly. And the sky is still bright near the entire visible portion of the horizon.

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Don't rain on my parade!

Post by neufer » Sat Mar 12, 2016 3:42 pm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walker_circulation wrote:
Walker.gif
2016 Feb. 11 - March 12 rainfall anomalies.
El Niño breakdown of Walker circulation left
Darwin & Ternate high & dry for solar eclipse.
<<Gilbert Walker (14 June 1868 – 4 November 1958) was a Cambridge mathematician when he became director-general of observatories in India in 1904. While there, he studied the characteristics of the Indian Ocean monsoon, the failure of whose rains had brought severe famine to the country in 1899. Analyzing vast amounts of weather data from India and lands beyond, over the next fifteen years he published the first descriptions of the great seesaw [Southern] oscillation of atmospheric pressure between the Indian and Pacific Ocean, and its correlation to temperature and rainfall patterns across much of the Earth's tropical regions.

Walker broke his temporal analysis into December–February, March–May, June–August, and September–November. He then selected a number of "centers of action", which included areas such as the Indian Peninsula. The centers were in the hearts of regions with either permanent or seasonal high and low pressures. He also added points for regions where rainfall, wind or temperature was an important control.

Walker concludes that variations in temperature are generally governed by variations in pressure and rainfall. It had previously been suggested that sunspots could be the cause of the temperature variations, but Walker argued against this conclusion by showing monthly correlations of sunspots with temperature, winds, cloud cover, and rain that were inconsistent.

Walker made it a point to publish all of his correlation findings, both of relationships found to be important as well as relationships that were found to be unimportant. He did this for the purpose of dissuading researchers from focusing on correlations that did not exist.>>
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Re: APOD: Dark Sun over Ternate (2016 Mar 10)

Post by longtry » Fri Sep 27, 2019 3:02 am

There's 1 thing I've been wondering for a long time, whenever looking at these pictures or those with the belt of Venus. Why are the Earth limb and horizon pink/orange/yellow? From our perspective, that part makes an almost 90 degrees angle with the incoming light. As red light bends the least, it doesn't make sense.

The same goes for the Venus belt images. It's easily understandable if we see the belt near the setting sun. But even in the east, near the antisolar point, we can still see that warm colored belt! Why?

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