I was doing some performance tests at TNCM to see how my frame rates were since SU9 update and lo and behold noticed this when I glanced up at the sun through my visor!
At first I was like “Wait! What?” “What’s this Pac-Man doing in my visor?” and then I remembered hearing about an upcoming partial solar eclipse and googled it. Sure enough! April 30 has a partial solar eclipse starting at 1845 GMT … peaking at 2041 GMT … and ending at 2237 GMT. Best visible at southern tip of South America. Save your eyes and watch it from the sim!
Eclipses in KSP are very common since almost all planets and moons are on exactly the same plane with no inclination, thus as long as Mun is on the sunward facing side of the planet, there will be an eclipse each day. And it will always transit along the equator (which is where the main space center is anyhow).
Michail … I was curious so I set date and time to Aug 21, 2017 at around 2:30 pm local time and picked 57NC as airport (just east of Fontana Dam) and flew over to dam. This is the best I was able to get (most minimal crescent). Guess whatever ephemeris tables Microsoft/Asobo uses are too current
Fontana was probably not quite in the zone of totality. Here’s a NASA map of the 2017 eclipse. In Nashville, we had about 40+ seconds - it was amazing. Even the 30 minutes or so before and after was just wild. I don’t think the sim can accurately demonstrate the surreal, dim-not-dark lighting combined with brightness off in the distance outside the path … It was a hell of a thing to experience for sure.
Not center line but it was in totality! I forget the exact amount of time but I think a little over two minutes. It went by in what felt like10 seconds.
I had a cabin that had an extra 2 seconds but wanted to go for the view from the dam.
That was a special eclipse because the moon was at a distance to perfectly match the sun’s size and expose the corona.
Even just the sun peaking though a valley on moon the is stunningly brilliant.
I would actually try to go back in real time to the date of that Eclipse in 17’ just so I won’t stare at the sun this time because, my eyes have never been the same since .
Yeah I took precautions but, I just don’t think the sunglasses I was wearing had the actual amount of protection as stated.
Yes, you can. I was in Idaho for the 2017 eclipse. It was absolutely extraordinary.
When MSFS came out, I went to the exact place where I saw the eclipse and set the time to the right time and I didn’t see it. The sky did not dim correctly, but I wasn’t really expecting it to. (There is a Wishlist topic for that.) But I was surprised that I didn’t see a bite taken out of the sun. I’m going to have to go back and see if I can see it through the visor!
LameLefty … ok, I went back in and set location to KTWT in Kentucky (Greatest Eclipse according to your diagram) and tried again (not to doubt Michail’s claim of totality at Fontana Dam )
With perfect plane angle (in the C337 Skymaster this time) I was able to capture many images by shifting time about 15-20 min each time and made a composite image. I think this is the best it gets in MSFS. Pretty good though … after all it’s a flight simulator, not an apocalypse predictor.
.
