Paradelle (and New Jersey where it is hidden away) is not in the path of totality for today’s solar eclipse but the state will observe a significant partial eclipse.
For about 45 minutes, the majority of the Sun’s disk will be obscured in New Jersey by the new moon as it transits in its orbit around Earth. Cape May Lighthouse will experience 84% totality, while locations west and north will see higher totality. High Point State Park in Sussex County will experience 93% totality. Paradelle will be at 90%. For comparison, New Jersey experienced between 70-80% of totality during the Great American Eclipse of 2017.
What 90% looks like
The eclipse will be underway across the State by 2:30 p.m. and will peak between 3:22 and 3:26 p.m.
New Jersey is in the midst of a long eclipse drought. Our last total solar eclipse was in January 1925 so I’ve never seen totality in my home state.
Children born this year will be about 55 years old when New Jersey experiences its next total solar eclipse on May 1, 2079.
A total solar eclipse is coming on Monday, April 8 this year. Most of us know something about why they occur and hopefully how to safely view them. Ancient people held various beliefs and interpretations regarding solar eclipses, which often depended on the cultural and religious context of their society.
Not surprisingly, many ancient cultures interpreted solar eclipses as signs or omens from the gods or supernatural entities. They often saw them as warnings or portents of impending disaster, such as wars, natural disasters, or the death of a ruler.
Some cultures believed that solar eclipses occurred when the gods were angry or displeased with human actions. In response, rituals, sacrifices, or prayers were performed to appease the gods and restore harmony.
In some mythologies, solar eclipses were viewed as the result of celestial conflicts or battles between deities or cosmic forces. For example, ancient Chinese folklore described solar eclipses as a dragon devouring the Sun.
Another interpretation was that a solar eclipse was the temporary death or swallowing of the sun by a mythical creature or entity. Rituals or ceremonies were often performed to help the Sun’s “rebirth” or return to the sky.
Many societies developed specific rituals or customs to protect against the perceived negative effects of solar eclipses. These practices often involved making loud noises, banging drums, or creating disturbances to frighten away the malevolent forces believed to be causing the eclipse. If they did these things long enough, of course the Sun did return. Belief proven.
A solar eclipse photographed January 22, 1898
While ancient cultures often had religious or mythological interpretations of solar eclipses, some civilizations, such as the ancient Greeks, also began to develop scientific explanations. Anaxagoras, a pre-Socratic philosopher from ancient Greece, believed that solar eclipses were caused by the obstruction of the sun by the moon. He proposed this explanation around the 5th century BCE, which was a significant departure from earlier beliefs that attributed such phenomena to supernatural causes.
Anaxagoras was correct. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth, casting the Moon’s shadow on Earth. A solar eclipse can only happen during a New Moon. The Moon’s orbit is titled 5 degrees to Earth’s orbit around the Sun. Anaxagoras’s theory laid the groundwork for more rational and naturalistic explanations of celestial events, marking an important step in the development of scientific thought.
I was very surprised to find that some schools are closed on April 8 to “protect students” from the eclipse. Honestly, I think kids would be safer in the controlled environment of a school than they would be out on their own at home or outside.
NOTE As the excitement builds for the upcoming total solar eclipse, warnings about counterfeit and fake eclipse glasses are appearing because looking directly at the sun without proper protection can lead to serious problems, such as partial or complete loss of eyesight.
Aurora or Eos in The Gates of Dawn, Herbert James Draper, 1900
I woke up at about 4:30 am this morning. It seemed bright outside the window to the East but I knew it couldn’t be sunrise already. The sky was a warm, rosy, soft color and the light on the trees and the nearby mountain ridge was beautiful. It was dawn.
In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Eos is the goddess and personification of the dawn. I thought that was Helios, the god and personification of the Sun. But Eos, also known as Aurora to the Romans, rose each morning from her home at the edge of the river Oceanus to deliver light and disperse the night. She drives her two-horse chariot, announcing the new day and her brother’s arrival.
Dawn over the Mojave Desert,
Dawn is often portrayed in literature, films and in real life as a somewhat romantic or even magical time. Dawn is the time from the beginning of twilight until before sunrise.
When I saw her name listed as the goddess of the dawn, I had to look her up. She is characterized as a goddess with a great sexual appetite. She took numerous lovers. She also shares something with the goddess of love Aphrodite, since tradition is that Aphrodite cursed Eos with an insatiable lust for mortal men.
Eos is a daughter of the Titans Hyperion and Theia and the sister of Helios and the Moon goddess Selene. She was not all rosy dawn sweetness. She abduct mortal men she wanted – in the same way that male gods did mortal women. She loved the Trojan prince Tithonus and promised him immortality. But it was a deceptive promise because she didn’t give him eternal youth, so he aged without dying for an eternity.
I also looked up sunrise, sunset, twilight and all that officially. Twilight began at 3:52 am and sunrise was 5:46 am, so I was awake at just the right time. I’m not an early morning person, so I went back to bed and back to sleep and didn’t get out of bed until Eos and Helios were long gone from the sky. I wish I could say that I went back to sleep and had a beautiful dream about Eos/Aurora, but I did not. Maybe tomorrow at dawn…
The sundial, is the earliest type of timekeeping device, which indicates the time of day by the position of the shadow of some object exposed to the sun’s rays. As the day progresses, the sun moves across the sky, causing the shadow of the object to move and indicating the passage of time. The earliest sundials were inscribed with inscriptions and aphorisms. Some were practical, some philosophical and a few are just strange.
In 1737, a book about how to build a sundial included a selection of three hundred mottos that might be used on sundials. Several books were ultimately published, among them Alfred H. Hyatt’s 1903 A Book of Sundial Mottoes. It’s a small gift-type book, geared toward gardeners as sundials had by then become part of English country garden design. Since a sundial is about Time many of the mottoes were about our use of time.
“This Dial Says Die” “Either Learn or Go” “Do Today’s Work Today” “Learn to Value Your Time” “The Time Thou Killest Will in Time Kill Thee” “Opportunity has Locks in Front and is Bald Behind” (This odd one has been explained as alluding to a longer proverb – “Opportunity has hair in front, behind she is bald; if you seize her by the forelock, you may hold her, but, if suffered to escape, not Jupiter himself can catch her again.”) “Remove Not the Ancient Landmark which Thy Father Hath Set Up.” “Look Upon Me. Though Silent, I Speak. For the Happy and the Sad, I Mark the House Alike. I Warn as I Move. I Steal Upon You. I Wait for None.” “Begone About Your Business.” “I mark time from morning ’til moonlight””
The March equinox marks the sun’s crossing above the Earth’s equator, moving from south to north. It is also called the vernal equinox in the Northern Hemisphere as it marks the beginning of spring and autumn in the Southern Hemisphere. The March 20, 2023 equinox officially arrives tomorrow at 21:24 UTC. That’s 5:24 p.m. in Paradelle.
Equi + nox in Latin means equal + night and you may have been taught that night and day on the equinox are exactly 12 hours long. That is not entirely accurate. The day is just a bit longer than the night on an equinox.
If we defined sunrise and sunset as the moment when the geometric center of the Sun passes the horizon, then the day and night would be exactly 12 hours long. But we don’t. Sunrise and Sunset are defined as the exact moment the upper edge of the Sun’s disk touches the eastern and the western horizon, respectively. It takes perhaps a few minutes for the Sun to fully set and that makes the day just a bit longer than the night on the equinoxes. Plus, I don’t live near the Atlantic Ocean or have a clear view of the eastern horizon so the Sun “rises” for me later by the time it goes above the First Watchung Mountain.
Do you ever take note of how the arc of the Sun moves in the sky?
I have noticed it since I was a boy based on which windows in the house it appeared in the morning or at sunset. Birds and butterflies notice the change in daylight. Like the Sun, they are moving northward along the Sun’s path. There are earlier sunrises, later sunsets, sprouting plants, and more bird and animal activity this month. The chipmunks have not started scurrying around my backyard yet, but they will soon.
Of course, the Sun isn’t moving at all. This illusion is caused by Earth’s tilt on its axis and constant motion in orbit.
Even if day and night aren’t exactly equal tomorrow, there is a day when they will be. That day is called equilux (equal+light). The date depends on your latitude and can occur several days to weeks before or after an equinox. For me, it was on March 17 – St. Patrick’s Day.
Here in Paradelle, Daylight Saving Time started on March 12 and that pushed the times for sunrise and sunset ahead an hour. Silly humans.
This year I got one of those birthday cards that has a little almanac of things that happened the year you were born. It’s a silly thing to read since I don’t recall any of those things. R.E.M. (not the band) was discovered. That totally went past me in my crib. The U.S. and North Korea signed an armistice ending the Korean War. Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain was crowned. I was much more interested in eating, sleeping, and pooping.
This card also told me that on that day “You have been on the planet for 25,185 days.” That is a bit overwhelming. That’s a lot of wake-ups and I don’t feel like I have accomplished enough.
I converted that to 3,588 weeks but it still sounds like I must have wasted a lot of weeks doing nothing much. For example, I basically did no writing at all during the first 260 weeks. That’s enough time to write a novel.
But I like that it was 828 months. That seems a more reasonable number. Of course, in years it is an even smaller number, but I have never been very concerned with the years. At times, I have even told someone my age in the wrong number of years (though it’s an error factor of + or – one).
Even better is thinking that I have made it through 276 seasons. Like the planet, I have tilted a bit every year. The Sun keeps seeming to move even though I know it is not really moving at all. As I started writing this, it was shining through the patio doors right on my lap. The Sun will be setting when this post is sent out into the universe. I’ll be outside cleaning up the last of the garden and turning the soil with some compost and leaves and thinking about next spring. That is 108 days away or only 15 more weeks – and just one season away.
A very nice engraving showing the Earth’s progression round the sun source
Weekends in Paradelle 