18Jun 2020 by admin 2 Comments

THE 2020 SUMMER SOLSTICE SOLAR ECLIPSE

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A total eclipse of the Sun on the longest day of the year? What effects could this have for the Earth and its inhabitants? We had one on the same degree, only 11 arc minutes off, 19 years ago. But the 2001 one was "total total" whereas this years' will be "annular total". The physical difference is that with the total eclipse, the Moon completely cover the Sun whereas with an annular eclipse, the Moon is at apogee (or close to it), at its furthest from the Earth, so that it appears smaller, with the consequence that the outer ring of the Sun remains visible throughout the duration of the eclipse. Total, annular and hybrid (a combination of total and annular) eclipses are stronger than partial ones. But is there…
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12Mar 2020 by admin 7 Comments

COVID-19 and possible future pandemics

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When I predicted a new epidemic for 2020 in my blog of 31 December 2019, I made a small mistake by expressing the opinion that it would break out in the fall. I should have known better - after all, it was me who have discovered that in parallels of latitude, the orb of influence is 20 minutes (of arc). Incidentally (but not so, of course), the disease broke out around New Year when the distance between Neptune and Pluto - the two planets that "caused" the onset of epidemic - was pretty much exactly 20 minutes! The first death was reported on 11 January and in less than three months, WHO declared a COVID-19 pandemic, with well over 110,000 confirmed cases and over 4000 dead. Now, what is to…
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