[Happy Rain]

It is obvious to anyone who has seen a total solar eclipse (I did back in 1969) that the moon and sun are the same size. Which proves that because of our planet's greater mass, both bodies instead orbit the earth and all this nonsense since Copernicus has been a Leftist conspiracy designed to empower the Liberal Democrats in the government's regulation of gravity—and the enforcement arm will be called Earth Panels.

Vote Republican in November and you can kiss the ground goodbye.

[ml/nj]

It is obvious to anyone who has seen a total solar eclipse (I did back in 1969) that the moon and sun are the same size.

I don't believe there was a total solar eclipse during 1969. Where did you see this? There was an annular eclipse in 1969, but seeing that would have led you to conclude that the sun is bigger than the moon!

(I've been in the path of totality twice, but the only total eclipse I actually saw was on March 7, 1970, on Nantucket Island.)

ML/NJ

[Verginius Rufus]

It was still true in 1999 (I was lucky enough to see the total eclipse that year which was visible in parts of Europe--lucky because the clouds broke just in time to watch the total phase). I think there is a line in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" about the sun appearing no bigger than the moon.

The next total eclipse visible in the US will be on August 21, 2017...the first in the 48 states since 1979.