I want to be among those who deeply thoroughly understand & can accurately predict the path of future eclipses because this is amazing.
I want to be among those who deeply thoroughly understand & can accurately predict the path of future eclipses because this is amazing.
When I was a kid my parents bought me a book called "practical astronomy with your calculator" that went over all the workings and formulae for calculating eclipses, moon phases, locations of the planets and heaps more. If you want to get into it I highly recommend this book or something similar.
BTW the book was by Peter Duffett-Smith if that helps.
There are certain aspects of it that look more complicated than they are because you are seeing it as a representation on a flat map. It makes a lot more sense when you see it on a globe with all the pieces moving in 3d space.
It is complicated because there are tilts to the earths rotation and a tilt to the moon's orbit, but people thousands of years ago figured it out, so it's solvable.
So you want to be a computer algorithm?
Are you so deeply entrenched in modern technology that you cannot fathom that a human could comprehend and map future astronomical patterns?
Humans have been doing this since early records of humankind on earth. Loooooong before computers existed. Computers have only been around the last few decades.
No, it’s a mystical religious sign. Aren’t you paying attention?
Me too! Always wanted to get into, thinking it worthwhile to have a running solar system or celestial model on your own machine that you know how to operate etc. Just never really tried sadly!
I used Stellarium today to see how the eclipse would look from my location, highly recommend it if you want to start playing
Oh yea I’ve used it and from memory it’s awesome as you say. I was more talking about getting into the technical details of running a model and calculating various things of personal interest.
Thanks for the recommendation though!
Math.
Yesss. I waaaaant it in my mind and in my souuuuuul.
Fun Fact:
They discovered Neptune by math. They studied the orbit of Uranus and noticed anomalies in the mavity, so they postulated there must be another planet. Using math, calculated it's path, aimed their telescopes, and voila, Neptune.
I am terrible at math, so I can't explain how it works. But it's all about physics. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_mechanics is probably a good start.
Is London in the eclipse zone?
No—this is a good resource for finding the next one closest to you. https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/list.html
If you’re in Europe, northern Spain in 2026 is the next best opportunity.