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Good morning, C&C family, it’s Friday! This morning’s post tumbles down the Great American Eclipse rabbit hole, with at least one wild, rarely-mentioned conspiracy theory surviving scrutiny; and the next 100-year pandemic has probably not arrived 96 years early, in spite of what the media wants you to believe. This morning I gave in to the eclipse hype — everyone else is talking about it. I put it all under a skeptical microscope, but at least one conspiracy theory remained not easily explained. Let’s begin with Forbes’ spooky story yesterday, headlined “Here’s Why The Total Solar Eclipse Has Prompted States...

– Far-left Jesuit Father James Martin is hosting a Vatican Observatory webinar “to celebrate the Great American Eclipse,” a total solar eclipse expected to occur the afternoon of April 8. The webinar will take place at noon. April 8 will be significant to Catholics for at least two reasons in 2024: the feast of the Annunciation was moved to April 8 this year because March 25 fell during Holy Week, and April 8 is when the Vatican’s highly anticipated document on human dignity will be released. The document will come from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, formerly...

NASA is ready to launch three sounding rockets during the rare celestial event of a total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024. The mission aims to shed light on how the Earth’s upper atmosphere reacts to the sudden and temporary absence of sunlight. The Atmospheric Perturbations around Eclipse Path (APEP) mission will see its sounding rockets ascend from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, targeting the ionosphere, a layer of Earth’s atmosphere that becomes notably disturbed when the Moon’s shadow eclipses the Sun. This trio of rockets, which previously saw action during the annular solar eclipse in October 2023 at...

Could it be possible that history is about to repeat itself? On April 8th, the Great American Eclipse of 2024 will complete the giant “X” over America that the Great American Eclipse of 2017 started. Meanwhile, the Devil Comet will be racing through our solar system for the first time in 71 years. Most of you already know all this. But what is not widely known is that we have seen this same pattern before. In 1811, a solar eclipse finished the giant “X” over the heartland of America that a solar eclipse in 1806 had started, and meanwhile Tecumseh’s...

Six inmates at a New York prison are so eager to catch next week’s solar eclipse that they’re suing their lockup, claiming the rare spectacle is a “religious event” that they should be allowed to see. The prisoners at Woodbourne Correctional Facility argue the April 8 phenomenon — in which the Moon will pass between the Sun and the Earth, immersing part of the state in darkness in the middle of the afternoon — should “warrant gathering, celebration, worship, and prayer,” their federal lawsuit states. The men include a Baptist, a Muslim, a Seventh-Day Adventist, two practitioners of Santeria and...

There is a lot of concern about cloudiness obscuring the sun during next Monday's total eclipse.Interestingly it turns out that such eclipse-viewing problems are increasing as the earth warms up due to increasing levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.A recent study in the Journal of Climate Statistics by Professor Wade Rocston of the University of Western East New Brunswick documents a significant (23%) increasing trend in cloud-obscured solar eclipses. The origin of the increasing cloud cover is clear according the Professor Rocston. Increasing CO2 leads to global warming. Such warming results in more evaporation and the moisture content...

The world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator is set smash protons together on April 8 to search for invisible particles secretly powering our universe. Theories have suggested there are 17 different particle groups and the European Organization for Nuclear Research, better known as CERN, confirmed the existence of one using its Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in 2012. Now, the team has restarted the LHC with hopes of unraveling more mysteries of the universe - specifically dark matter. Scientists began preliminary tests by sending billions of protons around the LHC's ring of superconducting magnets to boost their energy and ensure...

NASA will launch three sounding rockets during the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024, to study how Earth’s upper atmosphere is affected when sunlight momentarily dims over a portion of the planet. The Atmospheric Perturbations around Eclipse Path (APEP) sounding rockets will launch from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia to study the disturbances in the ionosphere created when the Moon eclipses the Sun. The sounding rockets had been previously launched and successfully recovered from White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico, during the October 2023 annular solar eclipse. They have been refurbished with new instrumentation and will be...

During the most recent total solar eclipse visible in the U.S., on Aug. 21, 2017, the skies darkened as the Moon crossed in front of the Sun. It blocked out all sunlight – except for that from a golden ring visible around the Moon’s shape, called the corona. Not surprisingly, solar power generation across North America plummeted for several hours, from the first moment the Moon began to obscure the Sun to when the Sun’s disk was clear again. On April 8, 2024, another total solar eclipse will track across the U.S., causing perhaps an even greater loss of solar...

Explanation: Here is what the Earth looks like during a solar eclipse. The shadow of the Moon can be seen darkening part of Earth. This shadow moved across the Earth at nearly 2000 kilometers per hour. Only observers near the center of the dark circle see a total solar eclipse - others see a partial eclipse where only part of the Sun appears blocked by the Moon. This spectacular picture of the 1999 August 11 solar eclipse was one of the last ever taken from the Mir space station. The two bright spots that appear on the upper left are...

In response to NASA’s report that a total solar eclipse will occur on April 8, 2024, New York authorities are warning New Yorkers to be prepared. In a recent press release by the New York state police, officials warned residents to be prepared for cellular disruptions, slow 9/11 response times, gridlocked traffic, and food/water demand during the upcoming total solar eclipse. Also included in the press release was a list of suggestions calling for residents to stock up on food, water, and fuel. The warning by New York state police comes as the department looks to learn from their responses...

Anyone planning anything for this event?

From Randy Nettles According to the article, 14 Things That Everyone Needs To Know About The Great American Eclipse Of 2024(themostimportantnews.com), the two solar eclipses of June 16, 1806, and Sept. 17, 1811, were a possible sign (or signs) that preceded the great earthquakes that occurred around the New Madrid fault line in the U.S. The first great earthquake occurred three months (90 days) from the Sept. 17, 1811 solar eclipse, on December 16, 1811. Other earthquakes followed in January and February of 1812. The 1806 eclipse was a total solar eclipse while the 1811 eclipse was an annular solar...

Explanation: What's happened to the Moon? Within the last day, part of the Moon moved through the Earth's shadow. This happens about once or twice a year, but not every month since the Moon's orbit around the Earth is slightly tilted. Pictured here, the face of a full Hunter's Moon is shown twice from Italy during this partial lunar eclipse. On the left, most of the Moon appears overexposed except for the eclipsed bottom right, which shows some familiar lunar surface details. In contrast, on the right, most of the (same) Moon appears normally exposed, with the exception of the...

We sure have been experiencing a lot of “coincidences” lately, haven’t we? On Friday, Israeli forces conducted their first localized raids inside Gaza. Then on Saturday, the path of a spectacular “ring of fire” solar eclipse marched across the continental United States. Is it just a coincidence that this eclipse has happened just as the Great Middle East War is commencing? Throughout human history, eclipses have often coincided with tragic events and major historical turning points. For example, earlier today I came across an article that took a look back at “the World War I eclipse”… Such was the case...

Explanation: Yes, but can your tree do this? If you look closely at the ground in the featured image, you will see many images of yesterday's solar eclipse -- created by a tree. Gaps between tree leaves act like pinhole lenses and each create a small image of the partially eclipsed Sun visible in the other direction. The image was taken in Burleson, Texas, USA. Yesterday, people across the Americas were treated to a partial eclipse of the Sun, when the Moon moves in front of part of the Sun. People in a narrow band of Earth were treated to...

The annular solar eclipse will be visible from eight states in the U.S. Southwest. On Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023, an annular solar eclipse will come to North America. We have summarized how you can watch the annular solar eclipse 2023 online and NASA has also released an interactive map where you can track the Oct. 14 annular solar eclipse down to the last second. The 'ring of fire' is not to be missed! Roughly 11 years after the same type of solar eclipse crossed the U.S. Southwest on May 20, 2012, this one will be visible from a similar region,...

Explanation: What is this person doing? In 2012, an annular eclipse of the Sun was visible over a narrow path that crossed the northern Pacific Ocean and several western US states. In an annular solar eclipse, the Moon is too far from the Earth to block out the entire Sun, leaving the Sun peeking out over the Moon's disk in a ring of fire. To capture this unusual solar event, an industrious photographer drove from Arizona to New Mexico to find just the right vista. After setting up and just as the eclipsed Sun was setting over a ridge about...

Explanation: Would you like to see a total eclipse of the Sun? If so, do any friends or relatives live near the path of next April's eclipse? If yes again, then you might want to arrange a well-timed visit. Next April 8, the path of a total solar eclipse will cross North America from western Mexico to eastern Canada, entering the USA in southern Texas and exiting in northern Maine. All of North America will experience the least a partial solar eclipse. Featured here is a map of the path of totality. Many people who have seen a total solar...

Europe's mysterious "Little Ice Age" has been traced back to a massive volcanic eruption in Indonesia - thanks to Pink Floyd. It lasted centuries and led to the Thames Frost fairs, when the river froze over for months at a time - turning it into a skating rink. A generally warm medieval period was followed by a mostly cold spell - from the 14th to the 19th Centuries. The weather phenomenon has baffled climatologists for decades. A study - inspired by the 70s rock legends' Dark Side of the Moon - now shows it was triggered by a catastrophic eruption...