Heads up, eclipse coming!

[wallenba]

A lot of lucky members here are in for a treat Sunday, 20 May.
info: http://news.yahoo.com/sunday-solar-eclipse-visible-national-parks-195845913.html :smile:

[missionary5155]

Greetings
Thanks for the heads up.. Just wrote my sister in east central AZ about that event.
Mike in Peru

[Wazupy]

First I heard of this, can’t wait! That article says don’t point a camera at the eclipse or it can damage it. It doesn’t say anything about your eyes. Make sure you don’t look at it directly. I remember making like a pin hole camera thing in school to look at the eclipse. I need to look that up.

sorry, can't read so good. Guess they do talk about safely viewing with binoculars

[C.F.Plinker]

See if a local astronomy club or musuem will have viewing stations set up. This would enable you to view the eclipse safely and get an ongoing description of what is happening. Even if you are not in the path of totality, you may be able to see a partial eclipse.

[PanaDP]

A welding glass is dense enough to allow viewing.

[Hardcast416taylor]

A cardboard box that is closed on all sides was what was used when I was a lad. We made a 1/2" hole and cut a 1/2" wide slit for viewing the sun`s image in the box where the sun shone thru the hole. Of course you had your back turned to the sun and not looking directly at it.Robert

[KCSO]

The last one I photographed was in 1978 if I rember right and I thought I kept a list of the filter stack I had to use. We set up a 35mm camera and filtered up and it worked fine. If I remember right we used welding helmets to look at the display.

[PanaDP]

One more neat trick I learned from a stage lighting designer. Get a poptart- flavor doesn't matter;)- and look through the wrapper with the shiny side (can't remember if there's a dull side or if they're both shiny) toward the sun. It will act as a very heavy ND filter and you'll see quite well. With all of the tools available to a professional lighting designer that works every day, he still focuses up a show looking through a poptart wrapper.

[Moonie]

The eclipse will not be visible from here however there is another interesting celestial event on June 5'th. Venus will transit the sun, this only happens once every hundred years. Next one is in 2117.

http://www.transitofvenus.org/june2012/where-to-be

[C.F.Plinker]

If you are going to view the eclipse directly use at least No 14 welding goggles or get the eclipse viewing glasses. Remember that you have to block the IR and UV as well as most of the visible light in order to protect your eyes. Another way to view it is to make a pinhole viewer. Get an old shoebox, punch a 1/2 hole in the center of one small end and make a pinhole out of shim stock (beverage can aluminum works fine also) and tape it over the center of the hole you punched. Point this end toward the sun and move the box around until you see the small image of the sun projected on the other end of the shoe box. The pinhole should be 1/32 to 1/16 inch in diameter.