8/19/2003: Night sky during blackout
 

http://cellar.org/2003/blackoutlights.jpg

The wire services carried a version of this, but I felt it was weak. This version was sent along by Elspode. It's from space.com.

In particular, the wire services didn't carry the time information. So there was no explanation for why unaffected areas like Boston, Philly, Baltimore and D.C. are less lit up. 9:03 PM is pretty much dusk at this time of year, so fewer lights are on, and none in locations west where it's still day.

It's a good one for the record and especially since IotD has been a big fan of all the night sky images.

I think the best state to look at is New York. Compare the island on both days. Almost the entire state is dark on the 14th.

Very good pair of images.

What is the white line on the right?

In trying to find out what the line is, I found this page

http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories/s2015.htm

...which is the actual source of the images above. There are some much higher-resolution images there. But no explanation of the line.

Looks like one of those circular radar-sweep thingies you see in movies.

My first instinct was that the white line would be the terminator (the division between night & day), but it's not positioned correctly. The 9:03 image shows MORE on the "night" side rather than less.

Goes to show what an educated idiot I am, but I thought the line was the edge of earth, ya know it being flat and all:p

It actually looks like that radar thingie juju mentioned, I'm sure they exist outside the movie industry. Anyway, I concur w/ my new hetero friend.

On the other hand, if it is a radar-sweep thingie, it's moving in the direction of its trail.

Both radar and sonar have those sweep lines but that looks like a shutter curtain from a camera. I doubt if they use a regular camera, more likely an array of light receptors like a digital camera. The receptors are probably very sensitive and have to be shuttered to prevent streaking. But I'm only guessing :rolleyes:

No, Juju. It's a day apart.

Once again, I must concur, this time w/Bruce. The sweepie thingie is moving counter-clockwise. These photos were take a day apart, it just so happened that on the 14th the thingie was east of (to the right of, further counter-clockwise from, etc.--take your pick, you know what I'm trying to say:rolleyes: ) its location on the 13th. I actually don't have a clue to what it is, but the sweepie sounds good as it appears to be radiating out from a central point while moving in a counter-clockwise fashion.:confused:

maybe it was raining in outer space when they took these pictures and it's the windshield wiper on the shuttle?

...

Ohh, I get it! I only looked at the time. :)

I suspect the "white line" is in fact the edge of the image as received from the satellite. The costal outlines and poltical borders are supplied by another ground based image on which the satellite image is superimposed. Notice nothing other than the background map image is displayed on the other side of the line.

...You mean the US doesn't have state boundaries neatly marked with glow-in-the-dark paint? Darn.


- Pie