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Crescent Sunset

Posted by michael on from the awesome-photo-opportunity dept.

nick_davison writes "According to those ever helpful folks at NASA, next Monday's (10th) sunset should be a "crescent". Depending on where you live, as much as 80% of the sun should be obscured by the moon, leaving just a glowing cresent shape. If you are lucky enough to be in the middle of the Pacific ocean at the time, the moon will pass dead-center. Though too small to cause a full eclipse, the annular eclipse should create a "ring of fire" as the sun shines around it."

10 of 24 comments (clear)

  1. Damn! by PhysicsGenius · · Score: 2, Informative

    I thought I was going to have a chance to show the little one a (partial) eclipse but apparently the east coast won't see any action. "Only west of Atlanta" it says.

  2. Welding glasses my tailpipe... by watashiwananashidesu · · Score: 2, Funny

    I stare at the sun every now and then, and even though I'm nearsighted and have mild problems with some colors, I can still see. What's staring at one during an eclipse for a few seconds going to hurt? I'll just see spots for a few minutes...

    And yes, I KNOW I'm being stupid. But it'd be nice if someone could show me just why.

    1. Re:Welding glasses my tailpipe... by Fantanicity · · Score: 3, Informative

      Here's why

    2. Re:Welding glasses my tailpipe... by bcrowell · · Score: 2, Informative

      Nope, they're right. You're thinking of the energy per photon, which is relevant if you're worried about getting cancer from it, but irrelevant here, since the danger is from heating.

      --
      Find free books.
  3. Not all of us live in Detroit, MI, you know... by anthony_dipierro · · Score: 2, Funny

    How west-of-Atlanta-centric of slashdot to post this story.

    1. Re:Not all of us live in Detroit, MI, you know... by anthony_dipierro · · Score: 2

      I guess my tongue-in-cheek statement would have been more obvious if I had explicitly mentioned that I lived on the eastern coast of the U.S. Thanks for pointing this out.

  4. Eclipse Map by LearningWell · · Score: 4, Informative

    The best eclipse map I've seen is in this May 20th article at space.com.

  5. Pacific Rim Sunrise by mgarraha · · Score: 3, Informative

    Taiwan, the Philippines, and New Guinea will see the eclipse at sunrise on June 11. This Sky and Telescope article has another map.

  6. Be very careful by jesterzog · · Score: 3, Informative


    Be very careful if you ever do this. The retina in your eye doesn't have proper nerve endings, so it's quite possible for your eye to be wasting away without it immediately hurting. You may not notice all the damage until much too late.


  7. Annular Eclipse by martyn+s · · Score: 3, Informative

    The story says that in the middle of the pacific, the sun is a ring of fire. I just wanted to point out that such eclipses are about as common as total solar eclipses, and they are called annular eclipses. Since the angular size of the sun varies over a period of a year, it causes about half of 'dead on' eclipses to be annular eclipses instead of total eclipses.