Monday, August 21, 2017

#eclipse Helios Eclipses: Zones of Totality and Partiality


The Great Helios Eclipse of August 21, 2017.
Sketched at the North Museum from a Lunar Moth specimen, a Moon Snail shell, and a cut Sunflower which also substituted for a Sunflower Sea Star with ink and watercolor.


In the Zone or Path of Totality, a large Lunar Moth, Actius luna, named for the Greek word luna for "moon", lands on but having no mouth parts does not feed on, a Sunflower, Helianthus, named for the Greek work helios meaning "sun" and anthus meaning "flower" and blocks the entire center of the bloom which is actually many smaller florets that can number up to two thousand each of which may make a seed so that only the sterile ray flowers ringing the edge all with one large brightly colored petal which make up the corona can be seen. 


A Partial Helios Eclipse during which a Moon Snail or Naticidae from the Italian, natica referring to a part of the anatomy I shall call "buttocks" moves across the face of a species of Sunflower Sea Star or Pycnopodia helianthoides, from the Greek helios for "sunbut does not entirely block the view of the rays or arms of the sea star is a very short event since Moon Snails though voracious predators themselves feeding on clams, crabs, and in a cannibalistic way on other snails by drilling holes and releasing acid and sucking out the their prey's innards quickly fall prey to Sunflower Sea Stars. 

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