March 20. 2015 Solar Eclipse

[Codz]

Jealous! Can't wait for the partial eclipse that should be visible here in Los Angeles in 2017 though.

 

[Urwumpe]

Despite all solar arrays now coming back to full power again, only small fluctuations in the electricity network. So far all is nominal.

This provider does eastern Germany, you can see the prognosis for the solar eclipse and the real data (about 45 minutes lag) there

http://www.50hertz.com/Portals/3/Content/Animationen/FoyerTV/FoyerTV.html

---------- Post added at 12:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:01 AM ----------

12:00, everything fine in the electricity network. Some slight fluctuations in the frequency, but nothing even close to the 0.2 Hz tolerance... 50.05 Hz was the peak here so far.

The CEO of Tennet, is now optimistic that future growth in renewables could be handled by the power network, but recommends some fine tuning and a stronger participation of the renewables to stabilize the network in the future.

One option that was tested today was to call companies, which consume lots of electricity, to shut their production down during the eclipse to compensate for the drop in solar power and receive a compensation for the loss in production. Metal furnances in NRW powered down for a hour and will recieve a "single-digit million Euro" compensation. The option was never needed, but it was a good scenario to test its potential.

Czech republic and Austria on the other hand are terribly upset by Germany again, because we again transmit too much electricity into their network. On one line between the two countries is currently in an "emergency condition".

 

[C3PO]

As expected the weather didn't cooperate, but it wasn't all bad. Just as totality ended I caught a glimpse of the "diamond ring" as the sun peeked out from behind the clouds. I decided to enjoy the moment and not to rush around to get the perfect picture, but I did take some photos.


The heavy cloud cover scattered enough light to prevent complete darkness, and my camcorder is quite good in low light... unfortunately. :lol: I'm going to try to grab some frames of that footage tonight.

PS: I just found out that the eclipse 230 years from now will be annular. I better start buying coffee in bulk because the next total eclipse is 900!!! :blink: years away.

 

[Spacethingy]

"Doomsday cultists were reported to be gathering in various parks across the UK, some attempting to shoot down the invading Moon using what police described as 'a disturbing array of home-made surface to air missiles'."

I know what I'm going to do next time!

 

[C3PO]

I bet that the foreign camera crews are a bit miffed at the Faroese weather™ because this is the part of the sky where we had a totality less than 2 hours earlier.

:rofl:

 

[C3PO]

A few nice pictures from the Faroe Islands today:
http://portal.fo/myndir+solarmyrking+20+mars+2015.html

 

[Scav]

I bet that the foreign camera crews are a bit miffed at the Faroese weather™

 

[Ripley]

This is what I did today:

 

[C3PO]

There was quite a party atmosphere in the town center last night.

http://www.in.fo/gallery-single/yag...ubmitFilter/gallery-1/felagssangur-a-vaglinum

 

[SolarLiner]

Only image I could take from the eclipse:

Weather was bad, but it would have been worse. I had forgot my glasses home but fortunately my high school had plenty and I could watch the moon pass by the Sun.

Also, I was happy the high school didn't take the word from the French government and put everyone inside to prevent kids from looking at it. This was the stupidest action I have heard in a while, annnd that's another discussion for The Basement.

 

[Artlav]

Also, I was happy the high school didn't take the word from the French government and put everyone inside to prevent kids from looking at it. This was the stupidest action I have heard in a while, annnd that's another discussion for The Basement.

:blink:
Do tell there, that sounds like a gem for a legal absurdity collection.

 

[SolarLiner]

:blink:
That sounds like a gem for a legal absurdity collection.

You tell, they went all preventive in case some kid looks at it for a little too long and ends up blind. In this case the "fear" is that parents sue the school or the government. So while we, at our school, were able to watch, but sister's school almost "barricated" them inside, with no hope to see the eclipse, even being prepared with filter glasses.

Stupid descision making is stupid.

 

[Artlav]

Hm...
In France, the sun isn't that bright, especially this time of the year.

In Turkey, in 1999, it was much much brighter.
I was quite stupid back then.
I knew from experience that if you stare at the sun long enough, then it will get dull and resolved, thanks to the eye's adaptation.
That works in Russia in the winter, which is where i ever tried that, since the sun is low and dull.

But in the tropics with the sun in zenith that didn't work too well.
I can still see that eclipse in my right eye.
For a few days after, there were coloured after effects in that eye, which over time decayed into a small eclipse-shaped blind spot.
It can cover a punctuation mark or a letter in a small enough font, but is otherwise not noticeable.

That is the worst case scenario (unless you have a telescope or something), with a kid that wasn't warned.
It didn't permanently worsen my life, but did taught me a good lesson about caution and safety gear.

So, what the heck were they doing trying to prevent kids from seeing the eclipse, instead of warning them and getting equipped for proper viewing?
There is some fundamental misunderstanding about what safety, harm and benefit are.

Harm is information.
Information about the world, and it's dangers.
It does not take much harm to convey the information.
Like a hot stove that the kid would touch, get burned and learn for ever that hot things burn.
Prevent him from ever having being burned, and he won't know.
All he would know is words about danger, but not what they mean.
So he will go on in life, outside of the protective shells we built, and get his legs burned off by walking on freshly solidified lava (Hawaii sounds like such a nice place to see).

Getting harmed is part of the learning process.
Make sure kids survive and avoid permanent damage, but to remove all harm is murder in disguise.

 

[kamaz]

Eclipse from a cockpit http://imgur.com/gallery/XfhOT
https://flightaware.com/live/flight/AFR9/history/20150320/0435Z/KJFK/LFPG

 

[GLS]