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Wednesday, August 23, 2017

You can run, but you can't hide, Mal.


Total Solar Eclipse 2017 - International Space Station transits the Sun
The International Space Station transits the Sun during the Total Solar Eclipse, on 21 August 2017. The images were taken from Banner, Wyoming, by NASA’s photographer Joel Kowsky.


Space Station Transiting 2017 ECLIPSE, My Brain Stopped Working - Smarter Every Day 175
Transit starts at 3:26

Stu got me started with a photo. YouTube turned up several videos and I'm watching them, looking for one to post here and I realize that the ISS is taking two different paths, and then I realize that at least two groups had made the same observation from two different spots in Wyoming.

The ISS is traveling at about 5 miles-per-second at an altitude of about 250 miles. The moon is 250,000 miles away and has a diameter of about 1,000 miles. So the moon is about 1,000 times farther away than the space station (250,000 divided by 250). We take the diameter of the moon and divide by 1,000 and we get the distance that the ISS will travel while it is front of the sun (since the sun and the moon are the same apparent diameter), which is one mile. At five miles per second, it is only going to take one fifth of a second to complete this transit, so you better be ready.

What's really amazing is that both of these groups were able to capture this event on video.

Mal, of course, wouldn't make the mistake of flying between a local star and his enemies.

1 comment:

Ole Phat Stu said...

Just think hod may eclipses astronauts see :-)