Monday, April 08, 2024

The Solar Eclipse From Here #eclipse2024

We were slated to get a peak solar eclipse of 22.4% blockage. Instead we got this:


The nice thing about the 2017 total eclipse here in Oregon was that it happened in August, and in summer here pretty much every day has perfectly blue skies.

Hope the weather is better elsewhere in the path of totality (and outside it, too).

7 comments:

Entropic man said...

I had a similar problem. Northern Ireland was promised a partial eclipse just before sunset.

As usual whenever I attempt to observe an astronomical event, it rained.

David Appell said...

Sorry (for us both!)

Layzej said...

The son shone on us where I am. The eclipse wasn't total where I am, but pretty close. My favourite part of a solar eclipse is the little crescents of light that shine through the myriad of pinholes made by the leaves. The trees are bare here in April, but we still managed to get some patches of crescents in the shadows of the trees.

David Appell said...

Layzej, I never knew about these patches of crescents from shadows of the trees, but saw a video clip or two of them. What causes them, esp if there are no leaves out yet?

Thomas said...

David, one of the simplest, safe ways to watch an eclipse is to punch a small hole in a paper and use as a pinhole camera, projecting light from the sun onto a nearby surface. This shows the crescent of light as it shrinks. Any small opening, like between leaves will do the same, and without leaves you can still have branches that by accident leave just a tiny opening for light to pass between.

Layzej said...

You can even make a somewhat large pinhole with your thumb and index finger - imagine the 'A-OK' sign, but with a somewhat shrunken hole. It works wonders!

David Appell said...

Thanks for the suggestions about viewing the eclipse without glasses....