Solar Eclipses and the sunlight on other planets

So one of the most fascinating things about total solar eclipses is not just that the light level drops, it's the way it drops. You may have seen this from some of the videos posted earlier in the blog. It is an absolutely INCREDIBLE experience to witness this!
 
As the sunlight dims, the light level simulates the amount of sunlight that the Earth would see if it were as far away as the other planets in our solar system.

If you travel to the path of totality, you get to see how much sunlight all the planets in our solar system beyond Earth receive.

There was a discussion about this on the eclipse chasers discussion group recently. Michael Zeiler made the initial post, and eclipse experts Glenn Schneider, Terry Mosel, and Robert Nufer made further calculations. 

Michael shared them on his page:  https://www.greatamericaneclipse.com/fact-of-the-day/
 
Here are the direct links:

goo.gl/I6gLD7 – When the sun is about 63% covered, the sunlight is similar to what the Earth would experience if it were at the distance of Mars (~142 million miles from the Sun). This happens about 32 minutes before totality if you’re in the path. 

goo.gl/Zk88k0- When the sun is about 96% covered, the sunlight is similar to what the Earth would experience if it were at the distance of Jupiter (~484 million miles from the Sun). This happens about 5 minutes before totality if you’re in the path.

goo.gl/TqBhfI- When the sun is about 99% covered, the sunlight is similar to what the Earth would experience if it were at the distance of Saturn (~889 million miles from the Sun). This happens about 2 minutes before totality if you’re in the path.

goo.gl/ytgq5J- When the sun is about 99.7% covered, the sunlight is similar to what the Earth would experience if it were at the distance of Uranus (~1.8 billion miles from the Sun). This happens at about 48 seconds before totality if you’re in the path.

When the sun is about 99.8% covered, the sunlight is similar to what the Earth would experience if it were at the distance of Neptune (~2.8 billion miles from the Sun) This happens at about 27 seconds before totality if you’re in the path.

When the sun is about 99.9% covered, the sunlight is similar to what the Earth would experience if it were at the distance of Pluto (~3.67 billion miles from the Sun). This happens at about 19 seconds before totality if you’re in the path.

Notice that the light level at about 2 minutes before totality is similar to being about 889 million miles from the Sun, and the light level at 19 seconds before totality is similar to being about 3.67 billion miles from the Sun. That’s how fast the light level would drop if you were in a rocket at the outer reaches of the solar system flying 2.8 billion miles in 1 minute and 41 seconds!

And the light level drop accelerates in those final 19 seconds!
 
Consider a quote from Joel Harris, eclipse chaser: “This is the closest experience that anybody alive right now will ever have ….to being on an extraterrestrial planet.”

Think about that this weekend. Hope it's a great one!


Source for planet distances: https://www.universetoday.com/15462/how-far-are-the-planets-from-the-sun/

Source for Joel Harris interview: https://www.beingintheshadow.com/being-an-eclipse-chaser/