1868: Eclipse Flights

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
Revision as of 16:31, 26 July 2017 by 108.162.246.41 (talk) (Explanation)
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Eclipse Flights
The captain has turned on the 'fasten seat belt' sign.
Title text: The captain has turned on the 'fasten seat belt' sign.

Explanation

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A total solar eclipse will occur on Monday, August 21, 2017. It will be visible as a total eclipse in a narrow band across the northern United States starting in Oregon on the Pacific coast and traversing east from their. Cueball asks Megan what she is doing, which turns out to be mapping the flights of aircraft that will be in the air and will fly through the area of the eclipse. She has found between 50 to 100 such flights. Cueball says that the airlines and pilots will be prepared and aware of the situation, but Megan wonders what it would be like on a plane with an unprepared crew. The last panel shows a plane flying into the area of the eclipse with one of the crew telling the passengers that the end of the world has come. The title text refers to the captain's engaging the fasten seat belts signs for the passengers. Despite his belief that the end times are upon them, he also believes having a seat belt on will help.

Transcript

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Discussion

This could use an image. Could someone more versed in this website's inner workings add one please? E.g. http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/blogs/bad_astronomy/2015/03/23/sims_schneider_eclipse_mar202015.jpg.CROP.original-original.jpg --141.101.105.12 21:54, 26 July 2017 (UTC)

I strongly suggest this image of a total eclipse shadow taken from the Mir space station. I found it on this introductory astronomy lecture notes page linked from this excerpt:
While we often sketch the penumbra as uniform, in reality the penumbra shades gradually from the completely dark umbra out towards the edges. The reason is simple: as you move outwards away from the edge of the umbra, you will see an increasing fraction of the Sun peeking out from behind the Moon. There is a very nice Mir image of the 1999 Aug 11 eclipse shadow showing what I mean.
I also suggest that fact be included into the explanation, because the comic showing a sharp shadow transition is factually completely incorrect. 162.158.166.53 04:45, 27 July 2017 (UTC)
It's not wrong, it's just a schematic map of the path of totality. There is in fact a sharp distinction between regions that see a total eclipse and the neighbouring regions where it's only a partial eclipse. This graph clearly shows this, instead of the darkness of the shadow created by the eclipse (in which case the central path would've been pitch black). 141.101.88.88 20:33, 27 July 2017 (UTC)
On the contrary, that "sharp" transition in the Sims/Schneider image spans over a hundred miles because it was taken from an oblique tangental perspective in space. The Mir photo is pointing more directly straight down at the Earth and shows a more accurate representation. 162.158.178.147 05:19, 28 July 2017 (UTC)

I've been looking around, and couldn't find a site to give me flight information for that specific day, and overlaid on a flight path of the eclipse. Anyone have any luck? 162.158.255.118 22:03, 26 July 2017 (UTC)

Does anyone feel as though the explanation is finished? Dontknow (talk) 23:56, 11 September 2017 (UTC)

The airplane depicted is probably a Boeing 737-700. A 737 is recognisable by the "kinked" leading edge to its tail, the presence of blended winglets and a dorsal wifi antenna suggest it is the "Next Generation" series, and the length is most consistent with the -700 variant. D5xtgr (talk) 02:49, 7 June 2020 (UTC)

The xkcd also referenced the April 20 eclipse this year in a recent comic. 172.71.158.231 06:14, 8 May 2023 (UTC)