ryu577/eclipsedb

A database for eclipse data

EclipseDB

A database for eclipse data. The real eclipse.

Roughly once a month, we get a new moon. This means the moon is on the same side of the Earth as the Sun. And since the moon doesn’t emit any light of its own, only reflects what the Sun emits, you can’t see a new moon. All the light it reflects travels away from us.

There is one very spectacular exception to this rule. When the moon is on the same side, and also on the same line as that between the Earth and the Sun. Now, it starts actively blocking some of the light of the Sun. While this might make the Sun feel noticeably cooler, it’ll still be too bright to see the Moon with the naked eye. Unless the perfect conditions arise for the Moon to totally cover the Sun and you happen to be in a specific patch of circular land its shadow forms at the right time. Then, you’ll see with your naked eye the pitch black outline of the Moon, surrounded by a thin, shimmering ring of light (the Suns corona). This is the only kind of new Moon you’ll comfortably see without any special aid for your eye (all other times, don’t try to see it without eye protection; it could damage your eyes). But you’ll see it by the light it blocks, not the light it reflects. And this is an awe inspiring, impressive sight, an experience that simply cannot be replicated.

Every few years, a total solar eclipse touches some of our major cities and some percentage of the people who witness it for the first time develop a resolve to witness it again and again. This is how “eclipse chasers” are born. This might sound like some cult of fanatics, but its really anyone who is interested in seeing another totality in their life. This could range from “I’ll only see it if the totality shadow comes within a 7 minute drive of me” to “I’ll take a week off and travel anywhere in the world to see it”. On the one hand, total eclipses are highly predictable. We know the precise times and locations of everyone of them for the next tens of thousands of years (at least). On the other hand, variables like the weather (you won’t see the totality if clouds are covering it), economics (prices of everything tend to rise during an eclipse), different kinds of totalities (totalities near the horizon present a different experience from the more common ones high up in the sky) make planning a trip challenging and an endeavor that’ll certainly benefit from data. Now that we’ve set all the context, we can finally dig into the data I’ve been hyping.