Neal,
I do appreciate the information you've posted, and I do understand what you're saying about the shadow - in that the outer edge may not be visible due to it not being an obvious shadow. But in the video that I posted last night, there was a NASA photo featured which clearly showed that a clear shadow was only about 50 miles wide during a past eclipse. There was no wider shadow that was dim or clouded or mottled. I hope you won't be offended that I cannot accept your evidence, because it doesn't really prove your point regarding the shadows.
The video I posted last night probably does contain errors. The fellow who made it is not a scientist - he only wants to understand reality. However - he makes a very important observation: SCALE.
You yourself mentioned that the model pictures you provided are not to scale, and here's why I think this is extremely important. Your pictures cannot be accepted, due to their inaccuracy, because of scale. I've tried to find pictures of a true rendering of scale in a picture of your heliocentric system, but couldn't find any on the internet, and here's why I think that they may not exist. If a true-to-scale picture were made of your heliocentric system, then it might render that system absurd, because it would then be apparent that in the heliocentric system, the earth is so far away from the sun, that the earth couldn't possibly "rotate" around the sun every 365 days.
The cozy heliocentric system, as depicted in the models that we all grew up with - you have to agree that the models are wrong.
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MY "heliocentric system?" When did I say I agree with that? Don't bother looking because I never said I support it. You and others keep accusing me of that but it's a good example of your continual misrepresentation of all kinds of things. As often as I have explained this and that, you keep getting it wrong. Why should I keep trying? It's like beating a dead horse.
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The simple reason that accurate scale is not shown is that you wouldn't be able to see anything. The sun would be a dot on one side of the page and the earth and moon would not be visible on the other side of the page. So how can a picture that doesn't show anything be of any help? The size of the sun, moon and earth are exaggerated so that you can SEE SOMETHING and the parts of the subject can be identified. Just because the reality is so distant and the parts would appear so small on the page does not prove they're not possible. If you tried to accurately depict the size and parts of an oxygen molecule on the page there would be nothing to see, because the nucleus would be tinier than a speck, and the electrons would be so small for any ink quantity to depict. Does that mean oxygen does not exist? Try showing a SCALE IMAGE of a person standing in New York City, and another person standing in Washington D.C., with the distance between them according to real scale and the size of the two people. NY would be the size of a nickle and DC would be the size of a dime, with 15 inches of nothing between them. The fact that you would not be able to see either person does not mean that nobody exists in either place.
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in the video that I posted last night, there was a NASA photo featured which clearly showed that a clear shadow was only about 50 miles wide during a past eclipse. There was no wider shadow that was dim or clouded or mottled. I hope you won't be offended that I cannot accept your evidence, because it doesn't really prove your point regarding the shadows.
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Any "clear shadow" from NASA is for illustration purposes only and not to accurately depict what is being discussed. Someone standing in the total eclipse shadow will have no question whether it is dark all around them, but just try to find the EDGE of that shadow. You will be able to see photos from airplanes after the 21st, no doubt, and it will be quite challenging to find the edge of the (dark) umbra shadow, labeled "Path of the total solar eclipse" in the image below. One reason for this is the fact of shadow bands. These are wavy cloud-like ripples on the ground that wave like a flag in the wind or the surface of water. From a distance, they have the effect of causing a DIFFUSION OR BLURRINESS to the edge of the shadow. For this reason alone,
the edge of the total eclipse shadow will be impossible to identify. .
There will be NO CLEAR SHADOW IN FACT. The eclipse shadow edges will be ANYTHING BUT clear.
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There are many images on the net that chart the varying degrees of penumbra (light or fading) shadow that will be visible all over the USA on the 21st. It is due to the partial coverage of the moon over the surface of the sun from various places......
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Take the 0.9 mag line, just below the path. Everyone on that line will see 90% of the sun covered, and will not see any shadow bands, nor will they see darkness as if it were night time with stars visible in the sky. They will be in a partial shadow, which will be less than daylight but still brighter than night time. Some animals might behave strangely like they think the sun is going down but birds probably won't roost and crickets won't start chirping.
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As you move further south, like the Rio Grande area in Texas or Mexico, the 0.7 magnitude shadow will be less dark with 70% of the sun covered. And so on. The further south you go the less dark the shadow, until eventually it will be no shadow at all. So it should be easy to understand, if you're paying attention, that the edge of the moon's penumbra shadow will not be something discernible by plain sight in real time.
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This same website has a very good image (NOT TO SCALE!!!) showing how the various parts of the sun, sunshine, moon, shadow and earth are made comprehensible. This is for illustration purposes, and not intended to depict the accurate sizes of these entities. There is no way to depict this stuff accurately by scale. No way whatsoever.
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That's just about as good as it gets illustration-wise. The lines of the edges of the sun's light are properly drawn out to show where they fall on the moon and earth along with the associated shadows.
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Don't bother getting upset that the sun is larger than the earth in the bottom version but smaller than the earth in the top version. I won't be impressed. NOT TO SCALE is what it says: not to scale. The top one is a solar eclipse and the bottom one is a lunar eclipse.
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Likewise, don't bother getting upset over "EARTH'S ORBIT" with the dotted line. They could just as easily have "Sun's orbit" with a dotted line and nothing else would change!! So that's not important here.
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Keep in mind that ALL PARTS OF THE SUN shine with comparable intensity, so that all around near the edges of the sun the light is just as bright as it is in the center of the sun, unlike your flashlight where there is a bright spot in the center and a less bright area all around the bright spot. Furthermore, all parts of the sun shine in ALL DIRECTIONS equally. The sun is not a searchlight but an omnidirectional beacon without peer in our experience. No wonder so many pagan cultures practice sun worship!! HAHAHA
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