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From the Rector
The Reverend. C. Phillip Craig, Jr.
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August 18, 2017
Where Do We Go From Here?
Dear Ascension Family,
With all that has taken place in our nation this past week, may I commend you to a timely video statement from our Presiding Bishop, the Rt. Reverend Michael Curry. His remarks, entitled "Where do we go from here: chaos or community?", seek to set our work as faithful Christians in the context of our current national discourse. I
invite you to set aside five minutes of your time to see and hear this valuable statement.
After you watch the video, take the time then to read the fascinating and inspiring article on Monday's solar eclipse, from our very own "Parish Resident Astronomer," Dr. Rod Pommier.
We will continue these conversations on Sunday morning.
Blessings,
To watch Bishop Curry's video, simply click on the image below.
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The Solar Eclipse
August 21, 2017
Reflections from our
Parish Resident Astronomer
Dr. Rod Pommier
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As the unofficial Ascension Parish Resident Astronomer, I have been asked by Father Craig to write an article about the upcoming "rare" total solar eclipse. Surprisingly, they are not rare. They occur every 2 years, so they are twice as common as presidential elections. However, the moon's shadow is only 60 miles wide as it sweeps a path thousands of miles in length , in just a few hours, across Earth's entire sun lit face. Unless you stand within that narrow path, you will not see the wonders of a total solar eclipse. Stand less than a mile outside that path and even the tiny bit of the sun that still peeks out from behind the edge of the moon will keep the sky bright as day. Yes, the sun is that bright.
Simply based on Earth's relative surface areas, the paths of most eclipses fall on oceans, Siberia, Africa, or polar regions, where few people see them. This is the first to cross the U.S. in 38 years, so the anticipation is palpable. We are particularly blessed because the path sweeps directly through Oregon. Sadly, it misses Portland by several miles and it will experience a 99% eclipse. That's dramatic in its own right, but no degree of partial eclipse can compare with the astounding sights of a total solar eclipse.
So, if you have never seen a total solar eclipse, then I strongly urge you to journey into the path of totality. You shall not be disappointed by what you see. Everyone who has seen a total solar eclipse agrees, it is a spiritual experience, if not a deeply religious one. You will find this to be true the moment totality begins. People loudly express sounds of astonishment and amazement. They cry out with joy. Many weep. Some fall on their knees. I have even seen hardened non-believers become believers.
Total solar eclipses are miraculous and spiritual on many levels, beginning with the math and physics behind them. You don't actually don't have to see an eclipse to appreciate these things. It is like faith: Blessed are those who have not seen an eclipse, yet believe the following facts are astonishing.
That eclipses occur at all is essentially a miracle. The sun's diameter is 400 times that of the moon, but it is also 400 times farther away. Their apparent sizes in the sky match almost perfectly. The moon appears barely large enough to completely cover the sun for a few minutes, but not so big that it hides all the glory surrounding it. Incredibly, this is the only place in the solar system (or the known universe, for that matter) where this ideal match occurs. Total solar eclipses occur nowhere else.
The mathematics behind eclipses is even more miraculous. Now, bear with me through this part. I promise it will be worth it.
The moon makes one orbit around the Earth with respect to the stars every 27.32166 days, which is a sidereal month. The moon returns to the same phase, like a new moon, the only phase during which a solar eclipse can occur, every 29.53059 days, which is a synodic month. The moon returns to the same distance from the Earth, which dictates whether it appears large enough to completely cover the sun, every 27.55455 days, which is an anomalistic month. The moon's orbit is tilted 5 degrees to the plane of our orbit around the sun, so an eclipse doesn't occur every new moon. Most new moons pass well above or below the sun. But the moon crosses the plane between the Earth and sun, which is the only place in the moon's orbit where a solar eclipse can occur, every 27.21222 days, which is a draconitic month. Note, none of these are the same.
Now for the amazing part. It turns out that 241 sidereal months is equal to 221 synodic months, is equal to 239 anomalistic months, is equal to 242 draconitic months, which all equal 6585.3211 days, or 18 years, 11 days, 7 hours, 42 minutes, and 23 seconds, also known as one Saros. What this actually means is that any solar eclipse you can see will precisely repeat itself in terms of where it occurs in the sky, how long the moon covers the sun, and the shape the path of totality traces across the face of the Earth 18 years and 11 days later. The only difference is that the additional 7h:42m:23s shifts the entire eclipse path about 8 time zones farther west than then the previous one. But 3 Saros intervals (3 x ~8 hours =24 hours) puts it back in the same part of the world again, and so on. This is the harmony of the heavens!
Every eclipse belongs to a Saros cycle, a group of repeating eclipses. Hundreds of different Saros cycles are possible over time and they have been calculated and numbered for thousands of years into the past and into the future. It takes between 1,226 and 1,550 year for all the eclipses in a Saros cyle to play themselves out. At any point in time, at least 42 different Saros cycles must be active. This eclipse is the 22nd of 77 eclipses in Saros cycle number 145, which began on January 4, 1639, and will end on April 17, 3009. This eclipse is a precise repetition of one I saw and photographed in Turkey on August 10, 1999. Yes, that will be 18 years and 11 days before this eclipse, but I was, of course, 10 time zones to the east.
What will you see during a total eclipse? No words can describe it, no photograph can capture it, and certainly nothing can reproduce the emotional experience. We are all doubting Thomases when it comes to totality; we must actually see it to believe it. Although a total solar eclipse is the moon completely covering the sun, the wonder comes not from what is hidden, but from what is revealed. You can actually see the moon's shadow rushing across the landscape. It will pass over you at a speed of over 4,300 miles per hour, or Mach 5.6. You will see the corona, the sun's pearly white ionized plasma atmosphere, extending out for millions of miles beyond the sun, projecting as rays along the sun's unimaginably powerful magnetic field lines and blown into long streamers by the sun's intense, supersonic solar wind. The sun's temperature is an amazing 9,941 degrees F, but the corona above it glows with an inconceivably hot temperature of several million degrees. This is the only circumstance in the known universe where an object being heated is magnitudes hotter than the object heating it. How does that miracle of physics occur? No one knows. You see bright magenta solar prominences, each several times larger than the Earth, projecting beyond the pitch black limb of moon. Overhead, surrounding the corona, you see a circular dark sky surrounded by 360 degrees of sunset/sunrise. Within the dark sky, the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Jupiter, and the stars of the constellations Orion, Taurus, Leo, and Virgo and even the Big Dipper, will be visible during the daytime. It's amazing to suddenly realize that these celestial gems are passing over us every day in the sun lit sky, but we cannot see them. You can during totality.
In this way, total solar eclipses always remind me of the Psalm (and the hymn we sing annually) which proclaims, "To God, the light and the dark, they are the same". For the few minutes of totality granted to us but once in a while, God shows us that they truly are. During those fleeting moments, the day and the night, the sun and the moon, the stars and planets, and the depths of the infinite universe are miraculously blended together in the grandest, most spectacular sky the eye can ever behold.
I wish you all clear skies and a spiritual eclipse on August 21.
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From our
Minister
of Music
Emma Riggle
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Dear Parish Family,
This Sunday, please welcome Mr. Bob Spiers back to the organ bench for our
9:00am Mass. Mr. Spiers will be playing a selection of hymns centering around the theme of God's glory in the heavens - a little way to celebrate the eclipse that Fr. Phillip thought of! I'll miss singing these with you!
I won't be at Ascension
this Sunday because I'm participating in the
William Byrd Festival as a member of Cantores in Ecclesia. I'd like to particularly invite you to one of our events
this Sunday night,
August 20, at
5:00pm at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral. We will be singing an Evensong service featuring music by William Byrd and Orlando Gibbons.
Evensong will be preceded by an organ recital at
4:30 by Mark Williams of Magdalen College, Oxford. I hope many of you will be able to join us!
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Emma Mildred Riggle
Minister of Music
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Reminder: Amazing New Website!
Just the occasional reminder that thanks to the good work of our Communications Coordinator
Emma Riggle
, we have a terrific new website. Take a few moments to look it over. What a great way to present ourselves to the outside world.
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We pray for Janet Mersereau
(Beloved wife of Brad)
We pray for all who travel
(especially around the events of the solar eclipse)
We pray for an end to violence
(and those who are affected by hateful acts)
A Prayer for the Diversity of Races and Cultures
O God, who created all peoples in your image, we thank you
for the wonderful diversity of races and cultures in this world.
Enrich our lives by ever-widening circles of fellowship, and
show us your presence in those who differ most from us, until
our knowledge of your love is made perfect in our love for all
your children; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
(Book of Common Prayer, page 840)
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