The eclipse of the century. What you need to know about the April 8 eclipse (III)

this is a follow up of a prevoius post

Attending an astronomical event which has an apparent impact on Earth is also a testimony to our “connection with the Cosmos”, according to him. Experiencing it in a group is even better. “It’s like when the Canadian scores a goal for hockey fans, it’s a collective experience. If you're watching a game at home, it's not the same as being at the stadium, arena or sports bar, right? »

Confused animals

The drop in brightness during the partial eclipse causes behavioral changes in nature. They can easily be observed in birds, among others. “For them, it’s the end of the day. They sing a bit like at sunset, they become calmer. [...] It's the night that begins, even if it's very disturbing, because it only lasts three or four minutes. » When the Sun reappears in the sky, we witness the opposite effect: the birds begin to sing again and the vegetation returns to its usual state.

Stay warm !

With the gradual disappearance of the Sun in the sky, “we will feel a drop in temperature”. The mercury could drop four or five degrees in the area of totality, and even up to 10 degrees, depending on the location and the weather that day. Winds can also change direction or gain strength. To avoid unpleasant surprises, Robert Lamontagne advises dressing accordingly. “Wrap yourself a little wool, because we're going to feel that it's cold! »

Eclipses, an astrological mystery

Draconian changes, emotional upheavals, a dragon that devours the Sun... Astrological traditions around the world have attempted to explain eclipses, but also to determine their influence on human life. “The life of our ancestors was organized around the Cosmos, that is to say that the sky had a capital importance for them on several levels”, much more than for us, underlines the astrophysicist. However, no effects on humans have been proven so far by science.

A distant future without a total eclipse?

Throughout the entire period of human civilization, solar eclipses have had the same appearance, occurring in partial, total or annular form. But that hasn’t always been the case on Earth – and that could also change in several hundred million years.

As the Moon moves away from our planet, at a leisurely pace of a few centimeters per year, its relative size in the sky decreases. This change is imperceptible on our scale, but a day will still come when the Moon will no longer be able to cover the Sun in its entirety. “From that moment on, we will have solar eclipses, but they will always be annular,” explains Robert Lamontagne. And that’s going to happen in about 600 million years. »

Conversely, hundreds of millions, even billions of years ago, the Moon occupied a much larger place in the sky. Eclipses were therefore more frequent, and lasted much longer.