Half the sun goes dark...

[Teakai]

This is interesting. Half the sun is dark this time.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VUrejCfPWs

[Eric J (Viking)]

That is reeeeealy weird!!!

Anyone???

viking

[watchZEITGEISTnow]

could be this ?
oHjw02CX60s

[westhill]

Morning...
Last night I had a dream (or something) where there where two crescent moons in the night sky only to see one was the sun (not the moon). OK, so what was eclipsing the sun, a huge deep blue disc which was covered in circuitry which looked more organic in structure than our maze like chips. I also was given the name "Ingrid." Which I found can be read as "In-Grid." I NEVER get information like this in such a concise manner, ever! I felt I needed to pass this on.
Bye for now...westhill

[Teakai]

There seems to be lots of action around the sun today - maybe this has something to do with it?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4Zz1Ek0F94

[alemao]

That is reeeeealy weird!!!

Anyone???

viking

I've read about it not long ago at www.universetoday.com

Can't find the article now, but it has to do with the spacecraft's orbit. From time to time the earth passes in front of it, blocking its view of the sun

[Teakai]

I've read about it not long ago at www.universetoday.com

Can't find the article now, but it has to do with the spacecraft's orbit. From time to time the earth passes in front of it, blocking its view of the sun

Hi Alemo - the proportions don't seem quite right for it to be that - considering the size of the earth compared to the sun. You'd think if it were the earth there would be some kind of curvature to the darkness, and as there's not it seems that the earth would be far too big for the spacecraft to be as close to it as it is.

And if it is in a position above the earth, then we ought to see a light on the outer curve (line) of the earth where the sun is hitting it.

That's the way I'm figuring it.

[alemao]

I'm not an expert in the area so I can't say anything about the shape of the shade, but for me it seems just like the image I saw in the article I've mentioned. I've found another article about it, although in a website unknown to me:
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/04/picture-of-the-day-solar-eclipse-as-seen-by-nasas-sdo/73216/

Please have a look and tell me if you still think it's something else.

Cheers

[Spartacus]

1st April....yeah right. :mod:

[truthseekerdan]

Teakai, have a look at this video (2 weeks old) -- brings an interesting point...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vP8LnU4vUIo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vP8LnU4vUIo

[DeDukshyn]

That is reeeeealy weird!!!

Anyone???

viking

I've read about it not long ago at www.universetoday.com

Can't find the article now, but it has to do with the spacecraft's orbit. From time to time the earth passes in front of it, blocking its view of the sun

I can see your point, the satelite taking the images is likely orbiting earth, not the sun, so the sun wouldn't be in view 24/7 and the earth's sillohette would eclipse it. There would be no curvature because the optics are zoomed in and the relative closeness of the earth would make it seem exponentially large in comparison to the sun. I don't know if this is all true or not, but it makes sense.

[Hervé]

Well, whateaver that was, here is their explanation from SDO site.




what's up with the sun on march 29, 2011?

fri, 01 apr 2011

6612

two topics need to be covered this week. We’ll do one today. What happened while sdo exited the eclipse on march 29? The pictures at the left show images in four aia wavelengths (304, 171, 193, and 335) at about 07:14:50 ut tuesday. The edge of the earth is the ragged line across the southern hemisphere of the sun. Where is the sharp line seen in the hmi movie from the firstlight gallery or the edge of the moon in a lunar transit?


The answer is a combination of atmospheric absorption and color tables. The sharp line in hmi is in the visible spectrum and emphasizes the thinness of the troposphere that we live in. Light at the euv wavelengths of aia is completely absorbed much higher in the earth’s atmosphere (at an altitude of about 300 km at the limb). Even small amounts of atmosphere remove the light from the picture. Then the image is processed into an image we can see by changing to a log intensity and scaling to a color table. The log intensity makes the bright bits and dim bits visible in the same image but over-emphasizes the dim background. Even a little absorption is enough to cause a dim region to drop to below the minimum intensity allowed in the color table, hence the irregular border that traces out the dimmer regions seen in the following uneclipsed image.


Eclipse season ends saturday, so back to images 24/7 on sunday.


next topic: protons, hot pixels, and interstellar spaceships.



orbit

§ the rapid cadence and continuous coverage required for sdo observations led to placing the satellite into an inclined geosynchronous orbit. This allows for a nearly-continuous, high-data-rate, contact with a single, dedicated, ground station.
§ nearly continuous observations of the sun can be obtained from other orbits, such as low earth orbit (leo). If sdo were placed into an leo it would be necessary to store large volumes of scientific data onboard until a downlink opportunity. The large data rate of sdo, along with the difficulties in managing a large on-board storage system, resulted in a requirement of continuous contact.
§ the disadvantges of this orbit include higher launch and orbit acquisition costs (relative to leo) and eclipse (earth shadow) seasons twice annually, during these 2-3 week eclipse periods, sdo will experience a daily interruption of solar observations. There will also be three lunar shadow events each year from this orbit.
§ this orbit is located on the outer reaches of the earth's radiation belt where the radiation dose can be quite high. Additional shielding was added to the instruments and electronics to reduce the problems caused by exposure to radiation. Because this a a space weather effect, sdo is affected by the very processes it is designed to study!

[Sidney]

That is so weird, because the night of the 3rd I dreamed (or something) that I was looking at 2 suns. Was a very intense dream.