xkcd.WTF!?

Explanation ➲

On the day of this comic's release, a total solar eclipse traversed North America, allowing a substantial portion of the United States to view this phenomenon. Total eclipses in any given area are rare enough and impressive enough that witnessing it was a huge event for many people, both those living in the zone of totality and the many people who traveled specifically to view it. This strip addresses the event through different types of photos that people might take.

The Standard

A photo of the solar eclipse during totality, a typical photo most people might hope to take (examples shown here and here). This photograph captures the Sun totally blocked by the Moon, with a barely visible ring of light around the outside, which comes from its 'atmosphere' and other external features, rather than the solar surface that would normally be visible.

The Partial

A photo of the eclipse in progress, likely approaching totality (example shown here). Another typical photo most viewers take as the eclipse progresses, and the only type of image available to people outside the zone of totality.

The Reaction Shot

During an eclipse, people tend to gather outside in crowds to witness the event in person. Images of people gathering and looking up at the sky capture the human side of this event, and is likely to be more personal to the person taking the photo (particularly since the people may be their friends and family). This article by Global news shows several reaction pictures such as this and this.

The Fancy Lens

A photo of this type (examples shown here and here), that features conspicuous solar prominences, will almost certainly require a lot more preparation and equipment (the 'fancy lens', a tripod or other mounting, etc). The prominences are dim, compared to the Sun, and usually are visible only when the Sun is completely covered because of contrast issues. Due to the lack of significant atmosphere on the Moon, the hard edge of the similarly-sized Moon can reveal these details whilst obscuring the usually dominant sunlight.

The eclipsing body can't extend much beyond the Sun without also hiding the prominences, but that is the fortunate situation with Earth-Moon-Sun eclipses having the Moon, often just large enough to cut out the solar disc. It varies, but the usual exception is the Moon being slightly too far away in its orbit (combined with the Earth being marginally closer to the Sun, in its own orbit) to obscure the whole body of the Sun, leaving a bright ring of solar surface visible. Such an annular eclipse gives similar lighting problems as with a high-percentage partial one; or during the phases leading up to/away from actual totality.

The Focus Issues

People new or unaware of the difficulties of astral photography typically experience challenges focusing their lenses on astral bodies, especially if they are trying to fight against a confused auto-focus. The eclipse is no exception to this, and this type of photo popped up more frequently during this event because more people were taking this fleeting opportunity to take photos of the sky than usual. This article explains some of the tips (such as using a tripod to steady the camera and using manual settings for exposure and focus) to get professional looking pictures of eclipses and shows pictures of an amateur (left) vs a professional (right) picture.

The Traffic Jam

Since the experience of a total eclipse is only available in a specific geographical range, it's extremely common for people to travel to view them, particularly when this range is near to heavily populated areas (as in this case). The number of people trying to get into a particular area for a particular event naturally causes huge issues of traffic and accommodations. One example is traffic jams, which can become huge and last for many hours. The Daily Gazette reports a number of traffic related slowdowns (photo 1, photo 2) in Schenectady, New York as people return from viewing the eclipse. It states many people spent double the normal time to get to their destination as compared to normal (non post-eclipse) travel. The irony of waiting in traffic for hours in order to see an event lasting several minutes can be frustrating, and an image of the traffic jam may be a bitter way to capture this irony.

The Astronaut

Astronauts on the International Space Station had a particularly unusual view of the solar eclipse, seeing the Moon's shadow on the Earth's surface. Forbes has an article that shows the pictures of the eclipse from NASA and the ISS in orbit 250 miles (400 km) above the Earth.

The "Frustratedly Looking up the Cloud Situation in Australia for 2028"

There were clouds over a large portion of the United States and Canada during the April 2024 eclipse. This is a photo similar to the one in the comic, taken in Niagara Falls, Ontario where it was cloudy during the eclipse. For most of North America, this meant that heavy cloud cover blocked their view of the Sun during the eclipse, badly impacting the viewing experience. This was naturally highly undesirable, particularly those who had planned and traveled to see it. The joke here is that such a person, seeing only clouds during the eclipse, might try to figure out the next time that seeing an eclipse would be possible. There will be a total eclipse passing over Australia and New Zealand in 2028. For someone in the United States, this would require a much more significant trip than the 2024 trip, but someone who missed one eclipse might be willing to go to extremes to see another. The irony is that weather is impossible to accurately predict 4 years in the future, so such a plan would involve the risk of traveling halfway around the world, only for them to more likely than not miss another eclipse due to overcast or cloudy weather.

One common type of eclipse image (albeit from more experienced photographers with photo-editing experience) is ; the timelapse; photo (examples here and here) which Randall does not reference in his comic (although a timelapse could feature photos used in the comic). A timelapse eclipse photo includes multiple exposures of the eclipse at multiple times, often before eclipse totality, during totality and after totality; effectively superimposing the before, during and after shots of the eclipse in a single image.

The title text refers to a photograph taken during the Apollo 12 mission when the Earth came between the spacecraft and the Sun on the journey back home from the Moon. Technically there is a "Solar Earth Eclipse" every night, as the Earth is then between you and the Sun and shades your view of it, but Randall is referring to an incident when Apollo 12 was positioned such that the spacecraft, Earth, and Sun lined up. The photograph was taken shortly before totality; other pictures as well as video footage during totality were taken, but are of considerably lower quality due to a shaky camera.