wyatt@cfa.harvard.edu (Bill Wyatt) (10/23/86)
>Quiz time: You are planning to be on a beach to see an eclipse at > sunset. How much sandy space will be available to set > up telescopes in? That is, will the tide be low or > high (or in between)? The expected answer is low tide, but in fact you can't tell, since every point on the earth has a different lag time between the time of high or low tide and the time the moon reaches zenith (or nadir) and rises or sets. The interesting thing about this configuration is that it doesn't matter whether its a solar or lunar eclipse, since the same tide occurs when the sun and moon are together as when they are 180 degrees apart. Bill UUCP: {seismo|ihnp4}!harvard!talcott!cfa!wyatt Wyatt ARPA: wyatt@cfa.harvard.edu