Partial Solar Eclipse Coming to N.America

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.)"

Comments

Sun Spotters

[Anonymous Coward]

The sun is much too bright to look at directly. So how can you see it? In this activity, you'll build a pinhole projector. It will let you see the sun safely.

1. Go outside on a sunny day. Find a place where the sun is not blocked by trees or buildings.

2. Use the push pin to poke a little round hole in one piece of paper.

3. Hand the paper with the hole to an adult. Ask the adult to turn his or her back to the sun. Then, ask the adult to hold up the paper and move it around until the sun is shining directly through the hole in the paper. Do not look directly at the sun! (See the illustration to the right.)

4. Pick up the second piece of paper. Hold it up so that the sunlight that is shining through the hole shines directly onto your paper.

The small round image you see on your paper is... an image of the sun! If the image is too small, move back a little. The farther back you stand, the bigger the image will be.

Never look directly at the sun. It can blind you! Check your binoculars to be sure they don't heat up as you use them to project the sun.

Want to see the sun more clearly? Here's what to do:

1. Put your binoculars with the big side of the lenses face down on one piece of paper. Trace around the lenses. Cut out the two circles you traced.

2. Push the lenses through the holes so that the binoculars are wearing a construction paper mask.

3. Go outside. Ask an adult to hold the binoculars so that the sun shines directly through the paper mask, then through the eyeholes, and then onto the ground. (See the illustration to the left). Do not look through the binoculars.

4. Put the dark colored sheet of construction paper on the ground so that the images of the sun are shining onto the paper. You should see two nice, clear images of the sun's surface. Your adult helper can move the binoculars back and forth or adjust the focus to make the picture clearer.

Hint: Wear sunglasses!

The next solar eclipse will occur on December 25th, 2000. The sun will appear to change shape as the moon moves between it and the Earth. People across the United States will be able to see a partial eclipse. Use your solar projector to watch as the moon "takes a bite" out of the sun!

Look under a tree for cool efect!

[zulux]

Last eclipse, I happened to be looking at the ground under a leafy tree. The tree and it's leaves created bunches of little pin-hole lenses and cast tons of little crecent images of the partially-eclipsed sun on the ground. Worth looking for.