Solar Eclipse/ Catastrophe Themes

1
What would cause a permenent total solar eclipse? Im in the middle of doing a media class assignment and i have to make a low budget trailer for a disaster movie. i wondered if it was possible to have a permenant total solar eclipse, and what sort of thing would cause it?, i would love some ideas.
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Last edited by suzeee on Sat Aug 21, 2010 10:22 am, edited 2 times in total.

2
Hello Suzeee,
What would cause a permenent total solar eclipse?
In short nothing. Its an impossibility so you will need to come up with other plot ideas. :) An occultation of the Sun by the Moon is termed a solar eclipse. This type of event depends on the distance of the Moon from the Earth. A total solar eclipse occurs when the Earth intersects the umbra portion of the Moon's shadow. When the umbra does not reach the surface of the Earth, the Sun is only partially occluded, resulting in an annular eclipse. Partial solar eclipses occur when the viewer is inside the penumbra.

Solar eclipses are relatively brief events that can only be viewed in totality along a relatively narrow track. Under the most favorable circumstances, a total solar eclipse can last for 7 minutes, 31 seconds, and can be viewed along a track that is up to 250 km wide. However, the region where a partial eclipse can be observed is much larger. The Moon's umbra will advance eastward at a rate of 1,700 km/h, until it no longer intersects the Earth.

During a solar eclipse, the Moon can sometimes perfectly cover the Sun because its apparent size is nearly the same as the Sun when viewed from the Earth.

A solar eclipse only occurs when the Moon in its orbit is exactly placed between the Sun and the Earth. Although the Moon moves between the Earth and the Sun each month (the New Moon) it only obscures the light of the Sun when it moves to the same latitude along the ecliptic as the Sun. That is why every new Moon does not result in an eclipse. Only when the conditions are right can a total eclipse occur. The Moon like all celestial bodies is constantly moving through the heavens. Change and flux is at the heart of all astronomical cycles.

Here is a diagram that might help.
Image
Last edited by Mark on Thu Aug 19, 2010 6:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
As thou conversest with the heavens, so instruct and inform thy minde according to the image of Divinity William Lilly

3
it would have to be an alien invasion, and since its a movie you could do it, basically what you need is a Star wars type base large enough to block the sun that puts itself in an orbit that perpetually blocks the sun, I can only presume they would do that because they are nocturnal creatures. but again since you are talking movie, its fantasy plausible.

Another think! something that might be close, would be if the moon were somehow turned to rubble and became a big dusty hazy ring around the planet, BUT! anything big enough to turn the moon into a big dusty haze is cataclysmic enough that most of us wouldn't have survived the initial incident to begin with. It would likely have stripped a huge portion of our atmosphere away leaving us just another mars. the rubble in the martian lunar orbit rather suggests they may have had a similar event a long time ago.

I'm generally willing to entertain fantasy, since it so often mirrors the realities we are too parochial to believe can happen and then oops! there you go, cell phones... I mean communicators. ;-) Granny

4
If we are talking Science Fiction disaster movie plots here are a few ideas:

http://ldolphin.org/twentyways.html

Of course many of these ideas have been done. For example Asteroid/Comet impact -Deep Impact/Armageddon. The idea of the poles reversing seems quite credible. In the movie The Core Earth's molten core is slowing down, leading eventually to the collapse of the electromagnetic field which will expose the surface to the Sun's lethal radiation. This is highly unlikely but the reversal of Earth's poles is an accepted scientific theory. The evidence suggests it may be about to happen again.... Other astronomical possibilities that could be disastrous are Gamma-ray bursts from stars exploding into Supernovae or the Sun entering a part of the galaxy with a Black Hole.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernova#Impact_on_Earth

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma-ray_burst

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_hole

A less apocalyptic but quite plausible possibility for a disaster plot would be a dramatic Solar Superstorm:

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/sc ... uperstorm/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... years.html

Mark
As thou conversest with the heavens, so instruct and inform thy minde according to the image of Divinity William Lilly

6
While we are in the world of fiction, a more likely title for a film would be 'Super Nova'. The film would build upon the dramatic events in conjunction with a Star in our local Galaxy exploding and emitting rays in our direction. The intensity of this light could cause a second Sun to appear in the heavens and there would be great speculation into the maximum and duration of the Super Nova. - Oh, I see now that Mark suggeted this one.

A novel I enjoyed in my youth was called 'Sixty Days to Live' by Dennis Wheatly.
http://www.astronor.com

7
While we are in the world of fiction, a more likely title for a film would be 'Super Nova'. The film would build upon the dramatic events in conjunction with a Star in our local Galaxy exploding and emitting rays in our direction. The intensity of this light could cause a second Sun to appear in the heavens and there would be great speculation into the maximum and duration of the Super Nova. - Oh, I see now that Mark suggeted this one.
Hello Andrew,

Hollywood has beaten us to it. :x I haven't seen it myself but by most accounts this movie is pretty dreadful! :)

http://www.screenhead.com/reviews/2012- ... make-well/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvMtP8Tu1zM

Mark
Last edited by Mark on Mon Aug 23, 2010 7:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
As thou conversest with the heavens, so instruct and inform thy minde according to the image of Divinity William Lilly

10
And the Deer of Doom! was upon us! :P
margherita wrote:And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood.

Revelation, 6,12
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margherita

11
And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood.

Revelation, 6,12
You call that scary? I can top that!

''Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous Red Dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads.'' Revelation 12.3

''His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to earth.'' Revelation 12.4

Image
As thou conversest with the heavens, so instruct and inform thy minde according to the image of Divinity William Lilly

12
Why don't we make a film about the two astrologers (or maybe we should be three?) who travel North to see the Northern Lights, East to see a Total Solar Eclipse and South to see the constellations of the Southern Hemisphere?

And then the World explodes?
I like the basic plot but the ending is a big let down. :( Come on now start thinking Hollywood! We need three beautiful, dynamic, sexy astrologers who through brilliant last minute prognostication save the planet! Just dont know where we will fit the explosions and CGI in :???:

Mark
As thou conversest with the heavens, so instruct and inform thy minde according to the image of Divinity William Lilly