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Partial Solar Eclipse Coming to N.America

Posted by timothy on from the partial-blindness dept.

mblase writes: "Space.com has the goods on the upcoming June 10 partial solar eclipse, the only North American eclipse this decade. Greater eclipsing occurs in the South, and Midwesterners and Texans will get the best show when maximum eclipsing occurs near sunset, when the sun appears largest. A good excuse to teach any young children you know some basic astronomy. (Remember, use pinhole cameras, never look directly at the sun, yadda yadda yadda.)"

5 of 22 comments (clear)

  1. Pinhole Viewers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    But Mommy do I have to?

    The view of the eclipse through a pin hole sucks! All the cool kids get to burn their retinas. Why can't I?

  2. Floppy Diskettes by karnal · · Score: 3, Funny

    I've always used 3 1/2" diskettes for this task, and it hasn't killed my eyes yet. (Although, you can never be too careful.)

    I just slide back the dust cover, and look at the sun through the magnetic media portion of the diskette. Voila - perfect picture, and your eyes don't hurt.

    Gotta wonder about the UV rays though.... ???

    --
    Karnal
    1. Re:Floppy Diskettes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Yeah, that pinhole shit is some pretty complicated high-tech stuff. I wouldn't expect the average slashdotter to understand it.

      The best thing is clear glass. I know this sounds like a bad idea, but the glass stops the dangerous ultraviolet rays while passing only the visible color range. This will give you a good view of the eclipse without any worry about your retinas. At first it's kind of hard to look directly at the sun, even through the clear glass, but you can watch the eclipse this way for as long as you want.

      Just be careful with the glass. If you drop it, you might break it and cut yourself.

    2. Re:Floppy Diskettes by heneon · · Score: 2, Funny

      Diskettes are so.... 2001's! Couple of years ago I was fortunate to see total solar eclipse, and I used CDs. If it has got lot of clear surface on the label side (e.g. NT 4 installation cd) it works great!

  3. Too bad about the next N.America eclipse... by bopo · · Score: 3, Funny
    The next solar eclipse visible across this much of North America will occur in 2012.

    Let's hope it happens before December 22, 2012. Otherwise we'll all probably be too busy fighting shapeshifting bounty hunters and supersoldiers to notice.

    Oh well.

    --
    "Understand you're having a little Jimmy Page trouble."