Wednesday, May 20, 2009

eclipses in 2012

My son was telling me that there will be 3 eclipses in 2012. The first two eclipses will be of the normal variety that we usually have on earth. However, he said the third eclipse is not a solar and not a lunar eclipse but a Galactic Eclipse. I'm not entirely sure I'm clear on what that even means. However, what he did say was that since this is a once in every 26,000 year event we might be exposed to a gamma burst from the Galactic Core's Black Hole that holds the galaxy together. Scientists are worried about this he said, as no one was alive(that we know of) that experienced the last 26,000 year event to find out if they were exposed to a gamma burst from the Galactic Core Black hole then.

The following is my personal speculation: Since I can't seem to easily find references so far about the 3 eclipses in 2012 it is my thought that this information might be being repressed by world governments who remember y2k quite well and all the panic over that even though people found ways around it so it didn't really happen. There is also the theory that because at least 7 people died when Orson Wells read an excerpt from H.G. Wells on Halloween night around 1940 thinking the world was really being invaded by another planet, that the government suppressed UFO information from the general public from 1940 onward to the present to avoid mass panic and deaths like in 1940. So it makes sense to me because of the panic issue that most credible information might be suppressed until the week of the potential event and might even be suppressed then. However, with a large enough gamma burst all life on earth might end, even if people were underground when it occurred. However, this all sounds a little too much like a Star Trek TV episode for me to entirely believe it.

However, I was able to find this one site on related information easily.

begin quote from included website
http://www.greatdreams.com/2012.htm

The date December 21st, 2012 A.D. (13.0.0.0.0 in the Long Count), represents an extremely close conjunction of the Winter Solstice Sun with the crossing point of the Galactic Equator (Equator of the Milky Way) and the Ecliptic (path of the Sun), what that ancient Maya recognized as the Sacred Tree. This is an event that has been coming to
resonance very slowly over thousands and thousands of years. It will come to resolution at exactly 11:11 am GMT.

On the winter solstice of 2012, the noonday Sun exactly conjuncts
the crossing point of the sun's ecliptic with the galactic plane,
while also closely conjuncting the exact the center of the galaxy.
end quote

I was, however, able to find an annular solar eclipse on May 20th, 2012 at the following site that tracks all eclipses:

http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEgoogle/SEgoogle2001/SE2012May20Agoogle.html

Also, at the NASA site it says something about the transit of Venus during that year as well.

Also, there will be a total solar eclipse near New Zealand on November 13th 2012 also according to this NASA site.

So, to name all the dates and the types I found available for 2012. They are:

Solar eclipse May 20th 2012
lunar eclipse June 4th 2012
solar eclipse Nov. 13th 2012
lunar eclipse Nov. 28th 2012

I looked for an average number of eclipses both solar and lunar and they seems to range between about 4 to 6 eclipses per year.


I liked this more scientific yet fun approach to the problem with some cool pictures at the following website:

http://startswithabang.com/?p=1351

In the following quote he is referring to the Galactic Eclipse.
quote from startswithabang website above:
As best as we can tell, this perfect alignment happens rarely, about once every 31 million years. And it happens, this time, to occur sometime between the years 1983 and 2018. (The picture above is someone’s estimate, not an actual picture.) It’s a very neat and very rare astronomical event, and it’s really neat that it’s happening during our lifetimes! It’s a little unfortunate that even with our best measurements, this 35-year range is the best we can narrow it down to.

Other than it being neat, however, what’s its significance?

That’s right: absolutely nothing. If nothing happens slightly below the center of the galactic disc or slightly above the center of the galactic disc, why should anything special happen in the direct center of it? There’s nothing special about its magnetic fields, its gravitational fields, its density, or any other property we can even fathom. It’s not even a doomsday scenario, because there isn’t even a possible physical explanation of anything that could happen.

This is not the first time I’ve read something contending that the world is going to end in 2012. So be afraid if you like. Buy your duct tape and stock up on your canned goods. But don’t fear the galactic eclipse; you’re better off going out and watching for it! end quote.

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