Equinox Eclipse

[oloriel]

BRITISH MEDIA: Friday will bring Europe the most exciting astronomical event of the millennium so far! Celebrate with us and SEE THE SUN SMILE!

GERMAN MEDIA: Kids might look into the sun without protection and GO BLIND FOREVER! Schools should cancel recess and pull down blinds until DANGER HAS PASSED! Also, we have actually no idea whether our electric grid can handle the extreme voltage swings of sudden nationwide sunlessness/ sudden nationwide sun-back-ness! There might be blackouts! ALL IN ALL LET'S JUST HOPE FRIDAY'S GOING TO BE REALLY CLOUDY!

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you: The NEW German angst. Taking the joy out of everything since, oh, I don't actually know, but back when we had our last major eclipse, it was still considered a reason for party. And us kids were just told NOT TO LOOK INTO THE SUN WITHOUT SPECIAL ECLIPSE GLASSES, and we sort of listened? But clearly, that was so 1999 and would never work today.

Mind you, back in 1999 the eclipse was hyped for several months before the event, so everybody and their dog had plenty of time to get eclipse glasses and to grasp the idea that even a partially covered sun can still make you blind. This year, the first little notes trickled in on Monday. So clearly, there was NO TIME TO PREPARE! (~This morning's unprecedented solar eclipse is no cause for alarm!~)

(I still have my eclipse glasses from 1999. I WANT TO SEE THE SUN SMILE, DAMNIT.)

Comments

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

I'd normally expect that, too! *ducks*

It's probably not Europe; I suspect it's really specifically Germany. I think part of it is that it's not a total eclipse where we are (depending on where in Germany you are, you'll get 77 - 82%, which IMO really isn't too shabby!), and part of it is that we genuinely don't know whether our energy grid can handle it. Germany is relying pretty heavily on solar power on sunny days, and due to a variety of circumstances, that might lead to massive power surges that, if not balanced ideally, could blow all fuses and lead to blackouts ranging from half an hour to four days. So if tomorrow is sunny, we'll find out just how well-suited the current electric set-up is to abnormal events.
One should think that something predictable, like a solar eclipse, can be prepared for & dealt with... but apparently, that isn't guaranteed.

I hope so, too! Even at the risk of blackouts.

[ysilme]

I keep my fingers crossed for you! You're getting more to see than we down here anyway. ;o) We have a perfect weather forecast, so I'm curious about the power grid issue, too.
I thought one of the reason for the heavy public warning of protection is the smartphone-photographing-mania that is so omnipresent these days, and that too many clueless people would try to take a picture in this way, and endanger themselves.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Interesting point! Though there was no word about photographing in our newspaper, only blah about how some schools and kindergartens are reassuring parents that kids will be kept in darkened rooms throughout the eclipse. Also, I wonder if the depiction of the sun on a smart phone screen is still dangerous? People could probably point their smart phones in the sun's general direction and take pictures safely, as long as they don't look at the sun with their own eyes...

In general, I think advice on how to observe the eclipse safely would've been so much smarter than just going OH NO DANGER DANGER LET'S HOPE IT'S CLOUDY. What if it isn't cloudy?

[ysilme]

Ha, I'm partly lucky, I'm watching the livestream of spiegel.de, fun comments by passers-by inclusive. *g*

[ysilme]

I was unprecise with my handy camera argument; I meant mostly that people who would try to shoot the sun with their phone would get too much radiation while looking in that direction, because, as it seems, nowadays so many people are stupid that way. I wasn't sure if the photographing itself was safe for the camera, but know by now that it is.

[independence1776]

:P

That's not too shabby a percentage at all. The partial we had last year was maybe 10% from my area (and then it went behind the clouds before the sun set, so I was fortunate to even see that much). I used the telescope set-up you linked Winterwitch to-- really, really cool.

Wow! I didn't know Germany relied on solar power that much (wish the US did). But you'd really think that a predictable occurance would be planned for…

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

It sounds better than it is. When it's nice and sunny, half or more of our power is solar. That is the top priority in the grid so if it's really sunny and other power sources can't go down fast enough, we actually have to pay Belgium to take our excess power until it's balanced out again. When it's cloudy or night, we rely on conventional and nuclear power plants. Or we buy nuclear power from France. We also buy expensive Norwegian water power (which is made possible by Swedish nuclear power). And we have some biomass, and some wind parcs. But the grid was never designed for this mix, and whenever some necessary renewal is plant, you'll have local people protesting that they don't want electric lines through their village! Renewable energies, yes, but not here! Somewhere else! Except that we're a pretty densely settled country, so "somewhere else" will always have people living there. Unfortunately, it's really rather a mess.
Today was no problem, though. It was planned for, too - there were several emergency plans, in fact - but nobody knew whether these plans would really work, and this being a nation that just loves to be pessimist, there naturally was much panic-mongering.

The US probably has more than enough room - and enough sunlight! - to rely more heavily on solar power. But I suspect you may be smarter to wait until we've sorted out the bugs and kinks before installing a comparable system. ;)

[independence1776]

That does sound rather like a mess. At least there were plans. (I wouldn't put it past my government-- local, state, or national-- to give lipservice to planning and not actually doing it.)

Heh. We may have the land and sunlight but I really doubt it'll happen anytime soon. Electric power here is state by state, and maybe city by city and county by county, and I think they're privately owned (maybe). I'm not quite sure how it works, but there's a lot of companies around here. It's not a federal level thing at all. And what makes a well-functioning and balanced system even less likely is that there's the large number of people who appear to think that "going green" is surrendering to the Liberal Environmentalist Agenda. Add in that my state is one of the largest producers of coal for the US, and anything that even hints at taking away those jobs is a political minefield.