News Desk

The ancient Egyptian civilization was wedded to the Sun, and yet extant records only ever mention the solar aspect as the giver and sustainer of life that shines brightly for all eternity. Sterling astronomers, the Egyptians, unlike the Mayans, never left us details of the times when the sun-god Ra briefly vanished from the sky at daytime. The lack of chronicles of eclipses by the inveterate and meticulous “sky watchers” is utterly baffling. But why would a rare occurrence such as a solar eclipse fail to find mention in their religious and cosmological texts?

The Los Angeles Times newspaper is asking folks to share their solar eclipse-related tales of woe… because, they say, misery loves company.

Numerous fashion designers are currently trending futuristic designs to emulate NASA and space-related themed fabrics.  Bill Nye the Science Guy has a less bleak read on why fashion is suddenly looking to space again:  “Space brings out the best in people, because it’s inherently optimistic,” he said. “You’re dipping your toes in the cosmic ocean. We’re exploring, and when you explore, you’re going to have an adventure. That’s what fashion is all about.”

Thought-provoking article in which the curator of the British Museum explores what the ancient people in Babylon and Mesopotamia thought of this celestial choreography phenomenon.  Although people remain separated by beliefs today as much as ever before, we share the basic human curiosity about our place in the universe and a thirst for knowledge. We’re lucky to live at a time when we can learn from so many other people, past and present. We have ever more information, and can better understand what it all means. We get to push back the fear, but keep the wonder.

The path of totality—the swath of America that, as the solar eclipse sweeps over the country August 21, will fall under its full shadow — is a busy place to be this week, as people prep for a deluge of tourists, scramble to find safety glasses, and gird themselves for possible encounters with notorious lizard men.  In all this hubbub, though, some towns are still finding time to plan for the future: they’re making eclipse-themed time capsules.

Story highlights travelers who planned for 5 years to travel nearly 400 miles to total solar eclipse crossroads college town of Carbondale Illinois.

While not in the ways claimed by astrologers, it can’t be denied that the motions of the heavens sometimes have a strong influence on events on Earth. We can with confidence predict that a full solar eclipse, such as that visible across the USA and online today, will prompt unusual actions from large numbers of people, as well as peculiar animal behaviour and a dip in the generation of solar power, as the sun casts the moon’s shadow over part of the Earth.

The 2017 eclipse is an important chance to track the effects of an eclipse on solar power and learn lessons that will be useful in 2024, when another eclipse will sweep from Texas to Maine. But this isn’t the first time utilities have paid close attention to the grid during a solar eclipse. Back in 1925, the electrical companies serving New York City were interested in the eclipse that passed over Manhattan, and set out to measure its impact.

The total solar eclipse may have you stressed, but some paranormal experts say it could be heavenly energies working on you. If the aligning of the sun and the moon could heighten our emotions and behaviors, then why wouldn’t it affect the spirits around us?

In certain ways, a solar eclipse is a great equalizer: we’re all under the same sun, and everyone within the path of totality today will be able to enjoy the same few minutes of wonder. If you want to watch the event with abandon, though, it’s best to wear a pair of eclipse glasses — currently a hard-to-find accessory. To that end, at least two cities have been providing free eclipse glasses to homeless community members.

The regular movements of the heavens are the oldest and deepest intimations of order in the universe. So it is hard, no matter how enlightened you consider yourself to be, not to feel a primordial lurch in your gut when the sun suddenly disappears from the sky.  But we are children of the light, and when the light comes back, we’ll be dancing in it. That, by the way, is a fine time to cry.

Developed by a retired NASA astrophysicist, this user-friendly interactive globe showing the routes taken of more than a dozen total eclipses of the sun taking place around the world over the next two decades. In the map below, the three lines of each path represent the northern, central and southern borders of the path of totality.  Note: The interactive globe works best in the latest versions of Safari, Chrome and other browsers.

Just in time for back-to-school.  Take a step back from your telescope and take a look at these goodies.  With these stellar items at your fingertips, you’ll be able to blast off into the school year, ready and willing to explore the great unknown.

In case it’s not abundantly clear by now, on Monday, August 21, the Great American Eclipse will sweep across the United States. While a total solar eclipse may appear otherworldly and ethereal, there is a ton of science to suggest it is totally normal. But as evidenced by posts on Craiglist and other dark corners of the internet, mounds of scientific evidence won’t stop people from believing some pretty bizarre eclipse myths—mostly ones that involve sex and/or death.

Storytellers have long fixated on the awe-inspiring phenomenon that is a total solar eclipse. From ancient myths about dragons eating the sun to hundreds of more contemporary depictions in any number of sci-fi TV shows eclipses have been so present in fiction that they can be traced through literally thousands of years’ worth of storytelling across a wide range of mediums. Mapped across history, these depictions can provide insight into everything from a writer’s cultural identity to how scientific advancement changed the way humans interpret natural phenomena. But how accurate are they? How are solar eclipses portrayed differently across different mediums? What kinds of narrative trends have they been part of?