300,000 people came to southeastern Idaho on August 21, 2017, to see the total solar eclipse of the Sun. They traveled here from all over the world for a better perspective. The best view in southeastern Idaho was that of a few Idaho Air National Guard pilots, in their A-10 Warthogs, chasing the moon's shadow, which was going 17 times faster than they were. From my stationary position in my backyard, I watched as the moon slowly covered the mid-day Sun. It was only then that I realized that I had underestimated the significance of totality. A cool twilight encompassed everything. It was like a sunset in every direction. The birds stopped chirping and Jupiter, Mars, Venus and the Orion Constellation appeared in the mid-day sky. At that moment, with eyes to see, I felt very small and insignificant. Perhaps you had a similar, humbling experience with totality.
Before we saw the light and bought our cabin in Island Park, we frequently went to Hawaii. Often, we would find our way to the beach and stare at the sunset, hoping to see the rare flash of green light that occurs over the ocean just after the sun disappears. On each Hawaiian vacation, we watched faithfully as the sun slowly dropped into the Pacific Ocean west of Maui and did not see the green flash—not really knowing what we were looking for. We thought that the green flash may have been like nooners, events that are often described but never actually seen by man. After years of doubting, we were amazed to clearly see the green flash, three sunsets in a row while walking along Kannapali beach. Nowadays, we watch spectacular sunsets in Island Park, but the sun disappears behind trees and mountains without flashing. Seeing a green flash at sunset is a matter of finding the correct perspective.
The astute reader may ask, “What happens that makes the green flashes appear?” Well, there is an answer: “The Earth’s atmosphere bends, or refracts, light, like a giant prism. The effect is greater in the lower denser layers of the atmosphere, so rays of light from the Sun or Moon are curved slightly downwards. Shorter wavelengths of light are bent more than longer wavelengths, so that the green light from the Sun or Moon appears to be coming from a slightly higher position than the orange and red light, from the point of view of an observer. When the conditions are just right, with an additional mirage effect due to the temperature gradient in the atmosphere, the elusive green flash is briefly visible at the upper edge of the solar or lunar disc when it is close to the horizon.”
Green flashes from the sun at sunset are a rare phenomenon, but even rarer are green flashes from a setting moon. European Space Observatory Photo Ambassador, Gerhard Hüdepohl, took this series of images of the setting full moon crossing the horizon. These were taken on a clear early morning in Chile from the Paranal Residencia where his huge telescope is housed.
There you have it—totality, sunsets, and moonsets with rare and exceedingly rare celestial phenomena. For you sun watchers, the next eclipse will be April 8, 2024. Totality will be seen from Texas to Maine. Witnessing these events all depends on your finding the correct perspective. Only then will you have eyes to see. I think there is something scriptural about this.
Leaving Island Park, going south, I wonder how many people look up from their screens long enough to see the Tetons from their cars as they near the Osborne bridge, or after they cross the bridge over the Henry’s Fork near Ashton? These are breathtakingly beautiful, but not rare, terra firma phenomena—totally eclipsed by the screens of those who choose to focus their fields of vision elsewhere, do not even look up, and do not have eyes to see.
Ever vigilant,
RT
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