Is the opening eclipse sequence an artistic deal, somewhat relevant, or part both? Also, an annular eclipse is on the 22nd of Sep.! Options

[Empyrean Ring]

Hi there-

I'm not thinking this is spoilerish, though it could be more of a speculative thing. If you notice any freely available trailers or promo spots for Heroes, you'll see the earth with light shining on it, and then with the sun behind it, it's as if we're in the earth's shadow and we see the eclipse. Pretty cool graphics and all, but what were we seeing?

Is it like the opening of "Serenity", where the Universal Studios logo blends to "Earth-That-Was", and after a few other smooth transitions in the first 9 minutes, you've gotten a decent introduction to the story? At first when I saw that globe, I thought it would be the 'versal logo transitioning to the eclipse. So is there some part artistic/ part relevant reason why we see that transition? Or is it purely just an artistic flair without much meaning to it?

Otherwise, if the scene was supposed to be pertinent to the story, then we're witnessing a solar eclipse only if we happened to be on the side of the earth opposite the sun and from the point of view of some other object in space, like the moon. I mean, the first (and maybe only) ones who have actually been privileged to record such an event (a solar eclipse made when the Earth passes in front of, say the moon) are the second group to land on the moon, from Apollo XII. Is that supposed to be the point of the solar eclipse from the moon's p.o.v.? That it is a rare experience? Otherwise, we would just be shown a possible lunar eclipse on earth would look like from the moon's perspective, and that's not really part of the story. Unless it's supposed to be a lunar eclipse and I missed that detail...

Oh, and guess what?!? I noticed an annular eclipse will be happening on the 22nd of September this year, which is three days before the official NBC premiere of "Heroes". I'm thinking that's gotta be more than a coincidence!

And one previous annular solar eclipse (which, by the way, is the kind that seems to be portrayed in the previews, since it doesn't look like a total eclipse) that was pretty quick to find happened on the 16 of February, 1999, and the continent of Australia was treated to that sight. And guess what was really close to the path of the shadow?

Do ya know? This time ya gotta guess!

Oh, alright... Why, Uluru, of course! Here's a pic of the path of that eclipse (you can click on it to get an enlarged photo):


I thought that was interesting! Well, the first thing I noticed, the solar eclipse (from the viewpoint of the moon caused by the Earth passing between) in the opening sequence of the previews was just something I thought was curious, and I was wondering if it had any significance or just an artist's touch, BUT the whole idea that there will be an annular eclipse 3 (yeah, that's right, THREE) days before the premiere of "Heroes" and that there was one over Uluru was really interesting! Do ya think that that is part of the plot at all?!?

So, is it just nothing, and I am finding things that aren't there, or do you think it's worth paying attention to?

Well, I also attached some pics taken from Apollo XII of the earth-caused solar eclipse, just 'cuz it looked similar to the opening eclipse scenes in the previews. I think there's some video footage of that Apollo XII eclipse, too, but I haven't really looked for it.
 solareclipse1.jpg ( 6.15K ) Number of downloads: 56
 solareclipse2.jpg ( 1.77K ) Number of downloads: 50
 solareclipse4.jpg ( 45.39K ) Number of downloads: 62
 solareclipse3.jpg ( 8.77K ) Number of downloads: 55

Compare with the screenshot found here:  HeroesEclipse.jpg ( 73.04K ) Number of downloads: 74


Edit: I found one company, Finley-Holiday Stock, that has the Apollo XII eclipse video included with a bunch of space videos (for $299! ), and the link in this sentence goes to a clip of the video. Does anyone know where else to find the solar eclipse recorded by Apollo XII?

Also, if TPTB wanted to add a more sci-fi element to the story, they can tie in the idea that Apollo XII captured video of an "unidentified 'flying' object" while near the moon! Google vids has it here!

And if they wanted to tie in some more current events, the space shuttle Atlantis may be in space during the next annular solar eclipse, too!

[☆Fabster☆]

hahaha wow! That is actually pretty cool. Hmm... lets see... I think that the eclipse is for artisticness and has a deeper meaning, but I'm to lazy to figure it out now hahahaha but I'm sure that once the show starts, we will figure it out!

[Aron Coleite]

Empyrean:

That is so damn impressive work there. Damn impressive.

I can tell you that the eclipse does have meaning on the show and is not simply an artistic choice (although the amazing designers at Stargate, our computer graphics company, just CRUSHED that imagery.) As we always like to say, everything is connected.

Of course, I can't tell you what the eclipse means just yet, that would be giving too much away. But, I will tell you this...

Tim Kring wrote the pilot with the eclipse months and months and months before we knew our air date (or even if we'd make it onto NBC's schedule.) We found out about the Sept. 22 eclipse while we were in the middle of shooting the pilot.

A lot of elements about this show have felt like, they were meant to be. Call it coincidence. Call it fate. Call it whatever you like... but it does feel like stars are aligning. If you believe in that sort of thing.
-coleite

[Sui Generis]

I agree with Aron. That must've taken a lot of time to research and find out about, so kudos to you. Hmm, that's actually kind of interesting @ Uluru and the eclipse. Thanks for sharing those, Empyrean & Aron. Great to know a few interesting facts

[kitty]

That was good work, good research, thank you for posting that, it was all very interesting!

[MandaBrook]

I found this thread a few weeks ago and posted a link to it in the thread about the eclipse (this thread: http://www.9thwonders.com/boards/index.php...=41448&st=0 )

I wonder why Empryean Ring only had ONE post, all the way back in August... and then never again. Seems like he would be a GREAT poster with lots of good insight if he were still around...
Also, I wonder why Aron Colite stopped posting.. probably too busy, oh well...

[Ladeedah]

wow, Empyrean Ring, amazin!
thanks for all your hard work and research...and fer sharin!

[Empyrean Ring]

Empyrean:

That is so impressive work there. .. impressive.

I can tell you that the eclipse does have meaning on the show and is not simply an artistic choice (although the amazing designers at Stargate, our computer graphics company, just CRUSHED that imagery.) As we always like to say, everything is connected.

Of course, I can't tell you what the eclipse means just yet, that would be giving too much away. But, I will tell you this...

Tim Kring wrote the pilot with the eclipse months and months and months before we knew our air date (or even if we'd make it onto NBC's schedule.) We found out about the Sept. 22 eclipse while we were in the middle of shooting the pilot.

A lot of elements about this show have felt like, they were meant to be. Call it coincidence. Call it fate. Call it whatever you like... but it does feel like stars are aligning. If you believe in that sort of thing.
-coleite

More details (maybe from CaptainNemo's research):

In addition, a number of people wrote it with the same 1962 thoughts, but Brian Summer had all the details. "During the new moon and solar eclipse of February 4-5, 1962, an extremely rare grand conjunction of the classical planets occurred (it included all five of the naked-eye planets plus the Sun and Moon), all of them within 16° of one another on the ecliptic. At the precise moment of the new moon/solar eclipse, five celestial bodies (the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, and Jupiter) were clustered within 3° of each other, with the Earth in close conjunction with them. Taken in totality though, this grand conjunction included the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, with the Earth also in alignment with the Sun and Moon at the exact moment of the new moon/solar eclipse (eight celestial bodies in total)." Wow, that's pretty crazy. So, is the eclipse referred to in the logo actually referencing this event, versus the event in the first episode? And will we ever travel back to February, 1962 in an upcoming episode?

First of all, Brian – we love you. Seriously. We love you. Take that for what you will. And, we did an episode six months in the past. Time is not an issue for this show. Take from that what you will, too.

Source (caution: contains profanity)