What could cause the sun to appear to be missing a chunk? [Details]?
Asked by
ibstubro (
18804
)
October 23rd, 2014
This evening on the way home I looked west and the sun appeared to be missing a large chunk. Pie chart style, with from 1/5 to ¼ missing. I kept looking at the edge as closely as possible, and it didn’t appear that something (such as a cloud) was blocking the sun. It appeared as if a chunk was missing.
I wasn’t alone, and everyone that saw it had the same impression. A chunk of the sun was missing.
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21 Answers
Gee. The partial eclipse?
What they said. ^^
i’m always worried that the gods have been angered but that hasn’t been the case yet
I didn’t know there was an eclipse Imminent, and I’ve never seen one before. I said in the car, “I don’t thing it’s an eclipse because the missing part looks so random, rather that crescent.”
Thanks, @DrasticDreamer & @Blondesjon.
Nice snark, @gailcalled.
It was an awesome sight!
Solar Eclipse. If a part of the Sun suddenly disappeared, it would slowly readjust to a smaller global form.
and no one would bring up “Solar Warming”
So lucky! I wish I had known about the eclipse. You saw it just by happenstance.
Meanwhile, never look directly at the sun! LOL. You know that is bad for your eyes, right?
@ibstubro Dirt bag. We never saw it through the solid clouds over head. Scum sucker. :) Glad you got to see that.
Hubby teaches an astronomy class. He was out there with his telescopes and students and a few passers-by to show them the amazing sight. He even brought home the pictures on his cell phone, which we could blow up so we could see the sunspots. Pretty darn cool!
@snowberry You’re a scum sucker too! I’m so jealous of you guys. I love that stuff. We’ve had days of solid clouds at 3500 feet. Around 1100 meters for you progressive folk.
I’ve wanted to see a solar eclipse since I was a little kid. One is finally visible in NJ and where am I ? Central America….. go figure.
I’ll just wait till 2023 for the total solar eclipse down here I guess :P
I have never seen a total, that’s on my bucket list
I saw a total solar eclipse on March 7, 1975 in Virginia Beach, one of the thrills of my lifetime. We made a considerable effort and spent lots of money to get there…worth every penny. Then I was able to watch an extraordinary Leonid meteor shower in the late 1990’s, visible from my deck… 60 or so meteors per minute. My last wish is to see the Aurorae Borealis.
Even though a total lunar eclipse is not visually so dramatic and striking, it too is still thrilling. I have seen four in the last 28 years, all also visible from my deck. The moon is eclipsed by the sun’s shadow, of course, but the reflected light makes the lunar surface appear like a rusty penny.
@gailcalled I remember that total eclipse. One news crew went to a zoo for it. The animals were all weirded out. That was wild. I saw the Aurorae Borealis one night in LP, amazing.
@gailcalled Aurorae Borealis is on my bucket list as well. I hate the cold and could die happy if I never saw snow again, I’d gladly make the exception and freeze my ass off to see that though.
@snowberry Unfortunately I didn’t get an eclipse picture. I had intended to set up my telescope at work, but yesterday afternoon we got slammed and I could barely step outside. I did grab my solar filter and show a bunch of people in front of the hospital, though.
To me, though, the more exciting event was the huge sunspot that was right underneath the eclipse. It’s bigger than the Earth.
Weather Channel had some good pictures of it this morning.
It was wilder because I didn’t know about the eclipse. I looked at my seatmate and behind her was the sun, and I just said, “Whoa. Look. Part of the sun is missing!” Surreal. Something that you can’t look at is partially gone. I only had a few seconds to look, then the clouds blocked the horizon, or I might be blind today.
I draw constant inspiration from the sky. There’s hardly a day go by that I don’t wish for a camera to capture something I see above, knowing full well that trying to capture it would somehow lessen it.
“What did you think was causing the bite out of the sun?”
I assumed it was a dragon.
I suspected that it was a cloud or something of that nature that I couldn’t see because I couldn’t look directly at it. The confusing part was that it didn’t appear to me that a crescent was missing, but more angular; more like a pie chart. I only had seconds, and couldn’t look at it directly.
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