Celestial Christmas Gift

ggrappone writes: "If you call North America your home you'll be treated to a Christmas day eclipse. This article on CNN describes the rare event in more detail."

Comments

More Details

[maggard]

Unfortunately unless one is watching for the eclipse it'll be unnoticable.

The popular perception of a solar eclipse is the skies & land growing dark as streetlights pop on & birds take cover for the night. While that does indeed happen for a full eclipse a partial one is much less impressive, particularly one as partial as this will be for most folks.

Taking a 'bite' out of a very bright light-source leaves - a very bright light-source. The effect for most folks will be no more noticable then an high-altitude cloud. The landscape will slowly (imperceptably) dim then later brighten very subtly.

That said the images of the sun will be very impressive. I'm going to assume a /.'ers know better then to look at the sun directly (sun = bright light in the 'big blue room'.) Even good sunglasses don't generally filter enough, particularly for the extended viewing like this. It *is* possible to permanently harm one's eyes this way and no, your reflexes won't save you if you override them.

One of the simplest (and thus kewlest) ways to view is to punch a hole in a piece of paper (or tinfoil or whatever else handy) and let the sun shine through. The hole should be ~.25mm and a second surface (prefereably white) ~20-50cm behind it (Your Milage May Vary) This will get you a view approximately the same as the fantastic photos you see but it'll be yours & real-time.

Good luck. Even for those of us in Northern parts of North America (Montreal) this will be an easy-to-miss event but if one takes the time & effort (& the weather cooperates) it can be an exciting one to catch.

Eh?

[Greyfox]

Christmas day eclipse on precisely the Christmas before the Millenium ends? That's a little bit creepy...