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ed, by Heidi Trester and Winnie-the-proot!*, wearing vest and shared-boulder, takes a journey with eddie the beagle warthog bike to meet brother keaf, beneath an umbra and on to other totalities...

* Died. October 2006 aged 17, RTA

:: introduction ::

Winnie (16), a Cheshire cat, prooted toothlessly, "Go east, young man...", "and try to close the door, please, there's a heck of a draft in a hoolery-blow and these lumps aren't getting any younger, y'know", she gurgled to no-one in particular.

Anyhoo, on with the plot...

Hello and welcome to yet another trek of an aging physicist. This time to see a total eclipse of Sol. Currently, I'm under the forecast shadow but near its northern edge and to be beneath the umbra is the aim. The penumbra will darken variously more than a third of the earth's surface for some time on Wednesday, 29^th March, 2006. Sol's darkened fraction hereabouts will be but a few per cent and I'll bet none it'll be clear skies over Holwick.

Stars and other relevant objects will dance in the gravitational disturbance of space-time due to the alignment: earth (=1), its moon (a fraction but positioned to cover completely Sol's face), Sol (10⁶, a million) and the distant object - 10⁶ to 4 π r², where r, the radius of this neck of the observable universe, is 2.74x10¹⁰ light years, give or take a few hundred thousand light years. The current area of the sky is, by Euclid, somewhat greater than 10²² ly² or, many square metres for every atom in the solar system.

Richard Feynman wrote up the observations and theory to date in his 1973 book 'Mechanics'. The 21st-century, M-theoretic prediction is for electromagnetic radiation to undertake a greater deflection (θ, theta) than General Relativity theory in four dimensions (GR4, due to Einstein, Minkowski, Poincaré et al) predicts.

For the case of distant light passing Sol in near-grazing incidence,

θ_GR4 = 1.75 seconds of arc ~ 8x10^{-6 c} (eight microradians) (Feynman, BOINC)

θ_Current_observation = θ_GR4± a few per cent. (Cassini, 2000-2005)

To determine if θ_reality is gauged better by M-theory (Witten, Hawking, Steinhardt, Turok et al, 1994-2004), the required measurement error is near 1/10th of 1 per cent. Reality here is that defined in "The Road to Reality", Professor Sir Roger Penrose, Oxford University Press, 2004. In summary: U(3) - Unitary group in three dimensions - is real, positive, definite: the methods of earlier study are valid in their realm and the objects described abound in reality. Theoretically, SU(11) - Special Unitary group in eleven dimensions - probably solves all physics. WOW! SU(dimension count tends to infinity) contains itself: a theory of everything, indeed; a twisted ouroboros, I wonder?*

Experiment is possible. I guess I'll need further help than hitherto...

For example, the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR), that looks like a black-body heated to a temperature near 3 Kelvin degrees (-270º Celsius), will twist too. The disturbance of space-time will be apparent, under the umbra, on this background, clearly: the Lens-32 screensaver from lizardworks is a (sort of) working model of the event - with incorrect twist, however.

Mustn't forget the litre of liquid helium in that stainless steel flask and be on a mountain top...

The trek began in Holwick, UK, during the Solar Annular Eclipse of Monday, 3^rd October 2005. It was a cloudy but otherwise fine day hereabouts with an easterly wind blowing between 8 and 12 metres per second (roughly 20 miles per hour) and a relative humidity around 75-80%

· A tail that is eaten by its own snake.

· E8, Spin(8) as the model:

Holwick :: 54.7º North, 2.2º West, 320 metres (1000 feet) above mean sea level

Breaks in cloud cover were rare, like conditions under the 1999 near-total solar eclipse here, and determination to approach a position with increased viewing chances for the next totality became a priority: by bike, if necessary.

TSE 2006 route options and selection.

Testing, 0, 1, 2.