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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.)"

4 of 22 comments (clear)

  1. 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
  2. Look under a tree for cool efect! by zulux · · Score: 3, Informative

    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.

    --

    Moneyed corporations, non-working 'poor' and criminal prisoners are turning productive citizens into tax-slaves.

  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."
  4. Welding Shades by mgarraha · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Diskettes transmit too much IR and provide an inferior image, according to this Sky and Telescope article by Ralph Chou, a professor of optometry. Don't fool around, get a #14 shade from a welding supply shop. They're cheap, convenient, and reliable. Mine is a 4x5-inch plate of black ceramic material that turns the Sun a lime green color. When I bought it, the guys at the shop said, "Yeah, we got a few of those left over from the last eclipse. Nobody uses 'em for welding, they're too dark!"