Friday, February 15, 2019
And here's the beer
Repeating the work of an anonymous genius:
And here is a time-lapse clip from the GOES satellite, showing the beer. A series of huge cyclones in the Pacific, impacting Hawaii on one side and the West Coast on the other. NWS claims the series is fading out, which means we might finally get a break from the chugging contest. I hope and pray they're right. I don't really see the fading in the video.
The neatest part of this video is the movement of dawn and dusk. We tend to think of the sun's horizon as a straight north-south line sweeping westward. Our image is probably assisted by longitudes. Our image is wrong. It's not 'vertical' at all!
Stopping to think, dawn and dusk have to move this way to give northern places a shorter day than southern places in winter. But the actual shape is still a surprise. Can't wrap my mind around it yet.
Later: Now I get it, with the help of HappySun. The satellite pic is mysterious because the earth is still and the sun is moving. When you hold the sun still, the effect is obvious.
As always, Ptolemy and Galileo are both right. Each view is better for some purposes.
Meta-both-right: When we 'liven up' the sun, normally we show the sun's benevolent face looking down on us. This animation needed to have HappySun facing the other way, which means the sun is mooning the earth. We are blessed and illuminated by lit sunfarts. More like the depressively realistic Eskimo god-stories.
And here is a time-lapse clip from the GOES satellite, showing the beer. A series of huge cyclones in the Pacific, impacting Hawaii on one side and the West Coast on the other. NWS claims the series is fading out, which means we might finally get a break from the chugging contest. I hope and pray they're right. I don't really see the fading in the video.
The neatest part of this video is the movement of dawn and dusk. We tend to think of the sun's horizon as a straight north-south line sweeping westward. Our image is probably assisted by longitudes. Our image is wrong. It's not 'vertical' at all!
Stopping to think, dawn and dusk have to move this way to give northern places a shorter day than southern places in winter. But the actual shape is still a surprise. Can't wrap my mind around it yet.
Later: Now I get it, with the help of HappySun. The satellite pic is mysterious because the earth is still and the sun is moving. When you hold the sun still, the effect is obvious.
As always, Ptolemy and Galileo are both right. Each view is better for some purposes.
Meta-both-right: When we 'liven up' the sun, normally we show the sun's benevolent face looking down on us. This animation needed to have HappySun facing the other way, which means the sun is mooning the earth. We are blessed and illuminated by lit sunfarts. More like the depressively realistic Eskimo god-stories.Labels: Answered better than asked, blonde moment
¶ 5:34 AM
