(first posted 8/21/2017) In case anyone missed the news, we are experiencing a total solar eclipse today. Depending upon where you might be in the world, it might have already happened or is yet to appear. In the Midwestern U.S., however, it is peaking right about now.
We have read many warnings about the dangers of looking directly at the sun in order to see this historic occurrence. But never fear dear readers – We here at CC have come to your rescue with a completely safe way to experience this phenomenon.
As we all know, there were hundreds of minor automobile manufacturers in this country in the 1920’s and for our purposes we note two of them today.
The Sun was built in Elkhart, Indiana in 1916-1917 and a little over 1,000 units were built before the company entered receivership. Its assets were purchased and more Suns (of a different design) were built by the Automotive Corporation of Toledo, Ohio in 1921-22.
The Moon was built in far greater numbers by the Moon Motor Car Co. of St. Louis, Missouri. From its beginnings in 1905 (as an offshoot of Joseph. W. Moon’s carriage business), the company survived until early in the Great Depression. Moon’s peak came in 1925 when it was able to build 10,271 cars.
So there you have it – the Moon, which totally eclipsed the Sun. What – that’s not what you were expecting? You want to actually see it? Well we have you covered here too. Just stare at the above image and let your eyes cross a bit, and there you are, with no damage to your retinas in the slightest.
Alright, you want more? You shall see the entire thing:
So now feel free to brag to your friends that you were able to stare directly at the Moon as it crossed over the Sun and that your eyes are perfectly fine. And you even learned a little bit of obscure automobilia in the bargain.
HA! Very good, JP. Put a smile on my face.
We have had nothing but rain this summer in southern Ontario. Not even a sign of an eclipse. The sunniest afternoon we have had all year and not even the least bit of darkness. I’m not a fan of Donald Trump but if he said the eclipse was fake news I might just believe it from my point of view.
Don’t feel bad. I live in Charleston SC. Great spot to view today’s eclipse and it rained. It got really dark for about 30 minutes
Same here (MTP). The clouds parted just enough for about 30 seconds at totality. Other than that it was cloudy enough to look at it without glasses.
When the Sun is eclipsed by the Moon, you might see a Star, a Comet, or a Planet.
Haha, very good. I understood that Astronomers were hoping for a better view of Mercury. Perhaps they might even be able so see a faraway Pluto.
Or perhaps we could see a couple of Satellites?
And here’s a photo of the actress Clara Bow with a 1919 Moon:
http://www.mooncarclub.com/
Haha, yes, this gives the old phrase “Once in a blue Moon” a whole new bunch of possibilities, doesn’t it? 🙂
Your comment shows the link but not the photo itself, which is good enough to share.
Just no Saturns, please. 😉
Or Jupiter 8s
Cool! Co-incidentally, we just had this post in our Facebook group yesterday. Gene Winfield’s “Reactor” was one of the cars featured at Pebble Beach last weekend.
Corvair powered, front wheel drive and Citroen DS hydraulic suspension. What’s not to love? 😉
Hey, let’s not forget the second-brightest star in the northern celestial hemisphere, Alpha Lyrae, otherwise known as VEGA!
“Vega has been extensively studied by astronomers, leading it to be termed ‘arguably the next most important star in the sky after the Sun.'”
One of the early print ads for the Vega, before the cars actually hit the showrooms, had the headline, “Twinkle, twinkle, little car.”
Neat ~ yet more classics I’ve never heard of .
Always something new here .
-Nate
Poor Moon was “eclipsed” by the Windsor for 1929-’30. Its best years were 1924-25, after which the Moon “waned” rapidly….all right, enough already!
Although it was a well-built assembled car which employed chiefly Continental L-head engines, and a snazzy Rolls-Royce-style radiator shell from 1919 on, the day of the assembled cars were numbered by the mid-late-1920’s.
An assembled car was one which was built from primarily components sourced from proprietary makers, of which there were many then. To a great extent, even cars from major companies are “assembled” cars but the general public came to regard any car that didn’t manufacture its own engines as a lesser product, fair or not.
All true about the Moon. That company, along with Gardner, Ruxton and a few other brands make for some interesting automotive history to come out of St. Louis. I wonder if our Man in Missouri has something about the St. Louis manufacturers somewhere on his overloaded plate?
It’s still on the ever-expanding agenda.
The Moon was succeeded by the Dorris. Also from St. Louis was the Traffic Car (or something like that), a heavy duty chain driven truck. And that’s only St. Louis; Kansas City likely had something also and we all know Ford is still building pickups at the Claycomo plant.
And wasn’t the Diana part of Moon’s operations?
Sure was. Forgot about that until you mentioned it.
KC had the Stafford around 1910, with the first true synchromesh. Harry Truman owned a Stafford when he was a young buck, and apparently enjoyed driving it fast.
The Jordan was another “assembled” car, and it was on the decline by 1927. It’s interesting that sales of the small, non-luxury independent companies began sliding well before the 1929 crash.
Jordan might have been on the commercial decline in the late 1920s, but the company’s last cars were the best, like this 1930 Model Z Speedway Ace.
An interesting literary footnote regarding the Jordan is the character in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s book “The Great Gatsby” of Jordan Baker was named by combining the names of the sporty Jordan and the Baker, an electric car popular with women back then.
That one even has Woodlites. Of course, the Jordan Playboy is remembered for the “Somewhere west of Laramie” ad.
You could also ride off in your Sunset, made in San Francisco until the great earthquake. My understanding is this one I shot at the Old Car Festival in 2015 is the only one extant. We survived the eclipse here in upstate SC just fine.
For some reason the pic won’t show up – Google 1904 Sunset car for pictures.
Stephanie and I just got back from seeing the eclipse totality, about 45 miles north of Eugene. We drove some back roads through the farm country, and stopped at this old historic mill, now a state park. It was awesome, as it got darker and cooler. And at the moment of totality (some 90 seconds) we took our glasses off and saw the black disc with the corona around it.
Unfortunately, my iphone picture of the totality didn’t work out; it reads as a bright spot, not how it looked at all. But one can see a planet near the sun, that’s how dark it was.
Ditto on taking pictures during totality using an iPhone.
One thing the iPhone did do well was capture the crescent shaped shadows that could be seen coming through trees just prior to totality.
Yes those were very interesting. Someone pointed them out to their children and then I showed them to a few others.
During the partial phase, a little before totality, one of the guys down here in Santee, SC took this picture using his iPhone by holding it up to the eyepiece of my telescope (a Newtonian Reflector, so the image is upside down). I was pretty impressed. He got lucky with a clear enough shot that you can make out some sunspots.
During totality, I considered shooting the Eclipse with my iPhone, but thought the better of it and put the phone down and just enjoyed it. It was most awesome thing I think I have ever seen.
I got one shot during totality with my crappy android Motorola, the rest of the time was spent in slack-jawed awe.
The planet in your photo is Venus. I also saw Jupiter which was in the twilight that surrounded the horizon where I was. At the time I saw Venus, thinking that it was a planet, as other stars were not visible.
Surprisingly not yet mentioned;
Don’t forget, just last week was the big meteor shower.
Or how about the Packard Clipper Constellation?
Here in Chautauqua, NY we had about an 80%eclipse well seen with a pin hole projection and equally cool with the safety eclipse glasses. Next total eclipse here will pass through Cleveland and Toronto on April 8th, 2024.
Equally cool today were the multiple eclipse crescents projected through a leafy tree canopy onto to the sidewalk. Enjoy.
I happened to read about that just this morning. In Vancouver about 86% of the sun was covered – these were the patterns on the floor of the front porch.
Nice ! .
Thank you for sharing these .
-Nate
Just prior to totality, we noticed these on a blanket someone had spread out on the ground…
! MORE ! . yay ! .
I told my Son about this, he says he’ll take some shade photos next time .
THANX ! .
-Nate
This morning I noticed that the sun shining thru my east window which has a tree in front of it was making round circles. This is something I had not really noticed before, but this morning I thought to study the light effect to see if it was there.
A coworker of mine says we never notice what’s normal, and only spot the unusual… I had mentioned that I was always good at spotting four leaf clovers in a patch of clover. Her argument was that we are predisposed to noticing patterns and when something looks out of place, it draws our eyes.
I think this effect during an eclipse is similar, SOITWW. We never notice the round sun projections, as they just look like light thru the trees. But a crescent Sun really stands out.
You’re welcome, Nate! – Actually, I was hoping to answer a challenge from someone here a few weeks back. I wanted to find a Mitsubishi Eclipse parked under a shade tree during the eclipse, and photograph it with this effect. Alas, I only saw the one on the way down to the path of totality that I mentioned on the other “Eclipse” article.
Your coworker is correct! We Humans (assuming we are all humand reading this) are very adept at detecting patterns,and even compensating for errors in them. This is a major field of study in artificial intelligence.
My family owned one of the Moon mfg buildings in STL for close to 50 years, where we ran a manufacturing business.. It was built in the late 19th c and was so cool. Moon primarily made carriages in it before they got into cars.
I used to love to run the old freight elevator, which you did with a lever. Try hitting the floor dead on! There was also a dumbwaiter in one corner between the 3rd and 4th floors. What stories that old building could tell.
Today, it is known as the Moon Bros Lofts bldg.look it up.
A wonderful use of an old building. Plus, it’s close to some nice attractions such as the City Museum and close to both 40 and 44. Not a bad combination of things!
It’s a beautifully restored bldg now Jason. When we were there, it was 100% original – dirty, crusty, but had a great smell of an old bldg + leather.. At the time, we didn’t know it’s history though.
My brother used to find interesting artifacts in the far corners of the bldg, but nothing too noteworthy. Regardless, it was (and still is) such a cool place.
However, if memory serves, I think the plant they built specifically for cars was on Grand or something like that.
We live in the 50% eclipse zone, so it got a little darker outside, but nothing too major. Now in 2024, we’re directly in the total eclipse zone. I’m really looking forward to it.
I’m fortunate in that I lived within an hours drive of this one, and that my family owns a house right under the center line for 2024…and that house is also within an hour’s drive of the 2040 one.
I might have to retire there
Let us ponder the Galaxie a moment…
Drifting off topic but still eclipse-related:
Funny eclipse joke today, but probably (and if so, sadly) true: Somebody
tried to see the eclipse where it was totally obscured by cloud,
using his new $3 eclipse glasses. But this person saw nothing, and
today took the glasses back to Walmart and demanded a refund…
“These things don’t work, I couldn’t see the eclipse!”
Got no diamonds, got no pearls
Still I think I’m a lucky girl
I’ve got the Sun in the morning and the Moon at night
Got no mansion, got no yacht
Still I’m happy with what I’ve got
I’ve got the Sun in the morning and the Moon at night
–Doris Day
I never heard of either car, but the Moon especially with it`s Rolls Royce style radiator ‘eclipses’ the rather non- descript styling of the Sun,
You’re a genius, JP
I enjoyed your alignment of the planets more than the real thing.
Those early ads remind me more of an old fruit crate than an automobile. Very cool.
Eclipse.
Beautiful model and photography! Bright orange, and muted teal green, go wonderfully together here. The lines of the corrugated steel, leading to the horizon, evoke movement and speed. With a nice contrast, between the smooth bodywork, and linear metal in the background.
In design school, you’d get an A+ for this. lol
Thanks for analyzing my photo. It’s posed on a wheelie bin in front of my shed. 🙂
Always a breath of fresh air, checking out your work. So consistently excellent! The water droplets look great too. Reminds me some of the slick late Pontiac marketing. (100% a compliment. As Pontiac did some nice advertising.)
There has been a fourth gen Eclipse Spyder using this parking lot at the corner of King Edward Avenue and St. Andrew Street in Ottawa, for well over a decade. Not the most affluent part of downtown, but it remains looking in outstanding condition, through that long period of time. Can be spotted in that lot, going far back in time, at Google Maps.
https://www.google.com/maps/@45.4338008,-75.6899514,3a,37.5y,19.54h,78.52t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sRTRetXneAf_MPx4olWXHsQ!2e0!5s20190901T000000!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu
We had a great eclipse at 3:18 pm with about 4 minutes of totality. Heavy cloud cover left just as the eclipse started.
Since we live in a valley we went up to a local farmers market which sells great pies and butter tarts, so we were in the zone of tartality as well 🙂
Like what you did there, DougD. Sounds delicious.
My wife and I had just finished a 1000-piece puzzle during the eclipse, so that was our totality…
(only 20% coverage out west, with totally cloudy skies, equals nothing noticeable)
While not as impressive as the 2017 Eclipse, because I didn’t drive into totality this time, it was nice to share the experience with my wife from home here in Baltimore County. We had about 87% coverage by the moon at max eclipse, and it was a great view when I’d get breaks in between the clouds.
Here’s a pic at about 3 to 4 minutes before our max at 3:21pm yesterday. If you scroll back up, you’ll see a better shot that was taken through the same eyepiece and telescope just before totality in August 2017. Today’s iPhones have more than one lens making this shot difficult. The old single lens iPhones back in 2017 made getting that shot a lot easier.