basic astronomical observations
No, this is not basic. I should really not engage with a troll, but for anyone else curious about why this is cool:
Current estimates on the size of the sun are on the order of ±1000km. “Wright said different papers using a variety of methods have produced results that differ by as much as 930 miles (1,500 km)”
This request for cell phone observations is trying to do some wild math way out of my comprehension, based on the flashes of light shining between mountains and valleys on the moon, to calculate the size of the sun down to single-digit kilometer accuracy. That’s three orders of magnitude more accurate than our current measurements. And this type of measurement can only happen during an eclipse.
To me that is absolutely wild, good job NASA 🚀
lol unprecedented? The entire country of LA would not exist without the early-LA government buying up water rights in the eastern sierras to pipe to LA, and then telling the local farmers there they were shit outta luck the first time drought hit.
If anyone is interested in Western US water rights - Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner is a great book. I usually recommend at least the first quarter of it, as it gets pretty dry and repetitive in the second half. But the first couple chapters talk about the first expedition down the Colorado River and early water rights, which was super interesting. Second half of the book mostly goes over large water projects like dams and aquaducts.