Why travelers love eclipses & forecasting

[Prez]

Spitballing some things here and starting to develop a plan, as we're in a unique period.
I recommend everyone see at least one total solar eclipse in their lifetime. If you could only ever do one & you're in the US....this is the one.

April 8 is the Great American Eclipse 2.

It's not a stretch to say that this one is even more special than the last one, not just because there won't be another until 2044.
Eclipses are known fixed points. All universes agree on that.

Why are they fixed points? Because orbital mechanics is mostly trivial, and the amount of effort that would be involved in trying to change it in the slightest is even more significant than the effort required for multiversal traveling. So any civilization that's not Type 3 has no chance of ever changing it.

So you can't change when the eclipses happen, but you can forecast every eclipse with 99.999% certainty for the foreseeable future.
We're in an election year as well. Elections, of course, are not quite fixed points. But they're really really hard to cancel. Thus, they're predictable anchor points, and the ability to change an outcome is proportional to the number of eligible voters. Nowhere near impossible though.

Anyway, my plan is to head on up to Erie PA this year and capture some lightning under the eclipse. I've got a small group coming with me from all over the world. But before anyone gets twisted about the "capture some lightning" I'd just explain further that my intent is to artificially create fulgurite (not time traveling) in the ~4 minutes of darkness. The fulgurite would be a gift to other chasers.

 

[Num7]

Eclipses are mysterious and esoteric. It's been that way for a long time.

I didn't realize they were that rare, though. That's interesting.

Do you think eclipses have consequences and effects we're not aware of?

 

[Prez]

Do you think eclipses have consequences and effects we're not aware of?

Most certainly. In order for total eclipses like those common on Earth to occur--already requires an extreme amount of improbability on the overall size / distance / placement of the moon, size / distance from the sun, etc., for them to happen in the first place (which is kind of taken for granted in modern times but wasn't in ancient times & isn't in future times).

Eclipses are the one time of the year where things can happen in certain places that happen uniformly across many universes & still doesn't result in any major divergence. So travelers like to time their stuff around cosmic events in particular, but again, this year we've got the doubly whammy with election year + eclipse in the US. SO much up in the air right now (except for the eclipse)

 

[Num7]

Yeah, the moon being the same relative size as the sun, is one of the most unlikely things ever. The chances of that happening naturally are crazy low. This alone makes me wonder if we live in an artificially created reality. Most people do not grasp how unlikely it is. It blows my mind.

The idea that time travelers might time their stuff around such cosmic occurrences is intriguing, I like the idea. Hopefully, we'll hear a couple of interesting stories over the next 2 weeks.

 

[Prez]

Where & When

The Monday, April 8, 2024, total solar eclipse will cross North America, passing over Mexico, the United States, and Canada.

science.nasa.gov

For any travelers geographically looking.
If you're in the US, you're blessed

 

[Prez]

Here's a little something special for Monday. My original plan of Erie PA isn't going to work out, so I'll be doing the partial in D.C. If anyone was extra interested there's a little X where the paths of the two American eclipses overlap. Obviously separated by time, but the same relative space. Doesn't matter that we're millions of miles away from August 2017, relatively speaking these two events can happen at the same time in different universes. Things that make you ponder....