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Partial Solar Eclipse Tonight
grouchomarxist writes "There is going to be a partial solar eclipse tonight. It will mainly be visible by people in the southwest of the United States. People in Mexico will have the best view, there it will approach a full eclipse." Space.com has a nice page on it too. Enjoy this solar event!
I, for one, don't believe that science can predict when such an event will occur. And certainly not hours in advance.
Actually, doing so can burn your retina so fast you won't know you are blind. Your retina has no pain receptors, so that's why its especially important not to look. In some cases, blindness set in slowly over a period of up to 6 hours after viewing an eclipse. It's better to poke a pinhole in a piece of paper, and then look at the shadow the paper casts on the ground. You should see the eclipse fairly well and safely... provided you are west of the Rockies anyway.
Why do I M2 everything negatively?
Because nerds get laid at least as often as solar eclipses, so all you guys call in sick for tomorrow an go get some nanny...
I love stuff like this.
to my three-year-old:
"You better be good boy, or Daddy's going to destroy the sun!"
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actually some people will have a chance to see the amazing annular eclipse which is much more interesting.
i saw the full eclipse last year (in bulgaria) and will definitely have my smoked glass for tonight's (50% only, where i'm at) eclipse!
Tonight there's a Solar Eclipse?
The world really is coming to an end.
A rather spectacular image from a 1992 annular eclipse (the name given to this type of eclipse) can be found at APOD today.
Yes, like most nights, the earth will eclipse the the sun tonight. The earth's shadow will sweep across the surface of the planet, covering an area of about half the earth's surface at a time.
This eclipse is visible from all parts of the earth starting around nightfall. Depending on your lattitude the eclipse will last up to 17 hours.
By the way, it's safe to look at this eclipse all you like, with no filters at all.
Everyone knows that damage is done to the soul by bad motion pictures. -Pope Pius XI
Check here for some more information. It's got a "graph" which shows where it will be visible, and how much of the eclipse you'll see for your particular location.
My other SIG is a 9mm.
I looked at my first solar eclipse years ago through my telescope. It was bright and spetacular - but since then, non of them have looked nearly as good as that first one :)
That's not true. There's a total eclipse in December.
Perhaps you mean in the US? Also not true, as one will hit Hawaii in Oct 2004.
They say it's BAD, real BAD to look directly at an eclipse. Personally, I think it's an old wives' tale.
It's always bad to look at the sun. But people tend to stare at it more during an eclipse (duh), so that's why it comes up.
I live in Denver, where the sun is still dark red from all of the smoke moving through town. Should make for an incredible sunset.
Teenagers these days don't have as much sex as they want each other to think they do.
O(* ) O
Incredible isn't it.
I'm in the Los Angeles area and own a Canon XL1 MiniDV camcorder with a 16:1 zoom. I was thinking of going up to a nice high point in my area and videotaping the eclipse, using a portable battery and a 9" Sony TV to compose and focus the image. I would then use my camera's manual exposure controls to taste based on the image on the Sony.
If I just go out and start shooting the sun, is this going to damage my camcorder if I use its built-in neutral density filter?
I will be synchronizing my camera's internal clock to Pacific Bell time - will that be good enough to match the time predictions?
I don't think I will have time to buy a filter, but viewing the eclipse through the adjacent monitor should work.
Am I nuts to do this in view of the possibility of blowing out the CCDs of a very expensive camcorder, or should I not worry about it?
Many thanks for any ideas.
D
This morning my MessagePad 120 informed me that an eclipse was going to happen today. Just one more thing that my PDA does that yours doesn't. :)
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I plan on trying to capture it with my digital camera. Hopefully the LED screen doesn't have enough power to blind me :) (Or, if it does, I'm going to sue the FUCK out of Sony ;)
"Mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent present in every electron." -Freeman Dyson
It is a bad idea to look directly at the sun without
l
protecting your eyes in some fashion.
It is possible to look with the naked eye if the
viewers eyes have already had a chance to adjust to
the brightness of the day, and the exposure is
kept short. (Something I experienced as a less
clueful youth)...
BUT, Even then some minor damage is likely to occur,
with symptoms that may not show up until later on
(something I am probably going to learn about as I get older).
IMO, the likelyhood of damage from looking at an eclipse is
made greater because the viewers eyes do not have the natural
feedback of ambient daylight to adjust to before looking in the
direction of the Sun. Instead they will probably try to adjust
to the lessening of reflected light in the environment, and
the effect you will get would be similar to someone turning on a
very bright light when you are in a darkened room; without
the benefit of being able to close your eyes.
Thru google I found:
http://www.hermit.org/Eclipse/what_observe.shtm
which appears to be a pretty good sight for advice on properly
viewing an eclipse. (I do disagree that even looking at a
total eclipse can be safe, because humans don't have very good
timing for knowing when to look away again from totality).
I too am looking forward to seeing this eclipse if I can, but
please do be careful...
I can look directly at the sun - big red ball, not all that bright. Who needs smoked glass when you have smoked air?
80,000+ acre wildfire out of control. Smoke up to 30,000 feet spreading across Colorado to Nebraska to South Dakota (visible on satellite). Completely out of control, nothing we can do but hope for a weather change. They pulled the crews from in front of it, calling it suicidal to fight this thing from in front. Humidities as low as 5%. Winds 25-35 gusting to 45 fanning the fire and keeping hte slurry bombers and tankers from fighting it effectively. Problem is fuel: timber here has less moisture (10%) than kiln dried lumber due to drought.
Peronal note: I worked at the Lockheed rocket engine plant (boosters). And it is in the way of this fire at Waterton Canyon facility. Thats a bad mix: 200 ft wall of flames advancing at 5-10 MPH and tons of rocket fuel in bunkers nearby. Bad combo.
40,000 people evacuated as of 4PM mountain time. Rained ash (like snow flurries) here at my house.
:-/
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