Wapsi Square Forum

On Monday, August 21, 2017, all of North America will be treated to an eclipse of the sun, and if you're in the path of totality - from Oregon to South Carolina, you get to see a Total Solar Eclipse!

Lots of information here (NASA), including close up maps to help plan your eclipse vacation. I'm already reserved for Florence, South Carolina. Room prices going up daily, so plen aehad!

I'm planning to drive from the Bay area, up into central Oregon. It's a long drive to get there, and a long one back, but I don't want to miss this!

I'm hoping to take the "sting" off of an old disappointment from my childhood. Shortly after my 8th birthday, my family took its summer vacation up into Maine, in an attempt to see the total eclipse on July 20, 1963.

We were right in the path of totality, and had a very nice view of the partial-eclipse phase leading up towards the total eclipse. Unfortunately, a large cloud blew in at exactly the wrong time, obscured that part of the sky, and we didn't actually see the sun completely blacked out.

Am hoping my luck is better this time.

Planning to run up to Clayton GA, fifty miles north, right in the middle of totality, to take pictures.

Bah!, Terrestrial based viewing is so Last century...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_ecl ... n_the_Moon

Just remember this is a Solar eclipse -- the moon blocking the sun as seen from earth.

Lunar eclipses are much less dramatic as seen from our flat earth:

I'll be driving down to southern Illinois with a tent and basic supplies - I don't have the money to get a room, so I'll camp. Much cheaper, and I've needed a camping trip for a long time. It'll only be for the weekend or so, but still.

I'm working with HR to get the days off approved.

And if anybody ends up with a bad cloud, another total solar eclipse will happen on April 8, 2024.

(I... realize I'm about the youngest person here, so it may be in poor taste to say the next one is "only" 7 years away...)

Friend of mine at work will be taking a flight to Oregon to be in the path and schlepping a mess of camera gear to see what he can get for images. He's a shutterbug and is renting special lenses for the effort. He's meticulous and fastidious so if he doesn't stroke out worrying about getting the shot, he ought to come home with something decent to see. He's hoping for detail on the edge of the moon and the ring of sun around the moon.

I'll have to send positive waves his way for clear skies while I'm catching what I can see from my Texas viewpoint. I'll not be messing with cameras on tripods, it'd be Dancing with Chairs the Sequel. Maybe another pinhole to project an image on a piece of paper just to see.

Back in '82-83 or so there was a partial eclipse, maybe 75-80% coverage. At work we had a blueprint print machine, the kind that you placed a drawing on top of paper with a chemical coating, then run it through bright light and then expose to ammonia vapor to create a blueprint. So we made pinhole cameras with boxes, placed a sheet of the paper inside the box and pointed the pinhole at the sun. Took the paper to the machine and developed the exposure. It was blurry but definitely was an image of the eclipse.

GlytchMeister wrote:(I... realize I'm about the youngest person here, so it may be in poor taste to say the next one is "only" 7 years away...)

It's cool. We know how fast 7 years goes by.

Hansontoons wrote: Back in '82-83 or so there was a partial eclipse, maybe 75-80% coverage. At work we had a blueprint print machine, the kind that you placed a drawing on top of paper with a chemical coating, then run it through bright light and then expose to ammonia vapor to create a blueprint. So we made pinhole cameras with boxes, placed a sheet of the paper inside the box and pointed the pinhole at the sun. Took the paper to the machine and developed the exposure. It was blurry but definitely was an image of the eclipse.

I remember that one. Built myself a pinhole setup with a box that had an open side - with a sheet of paper as the target. The eclipse was quite visible on it, as I recall. Likely going to get out the weldor's mask this time and have a try with that, asI can easily set it to the level 14 recommended by an article on NASA Goddard's Web site.

Warning to the kiddies - DON'T LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN!

Re: Blueprint machines: I remember those machines as well - miserable things used glacial ammonia as a developer. Put my sorry arse in the ER when one of my co-workers spilled a bottle of the stuff and I caught a lungful.

Blargh.

YES. Jackpooooot. I found a welding mask in the trash at work (I'm a garbage man). Al, do I need to do anything to it to make it safe for viewing the eclipse?

EDIT: Argh, never mind. It's not #14.

GlytchMeister wrote:YES. Jackpooooot. I found a welding mask in the trash at work (I'm a garbage man). Al, do I need to do anything to it to make it safe for viewing the eclipse?

EDIT: Argh, never mind. It's not #14.

Check with your local libraries. There's a big effort underway to make lots and lots of eclipse-safe "glasses" (cardboard and plastic film) available to the public, for free, via public libraries. It looks as if there's one Library in Springfield that might have 'em, also Williamsville and Mt. Zion and other locations. Lots down in St. Louis nearer to the eclipse track.

http://www.starnetlibraries.org/2017ecl ... aries-map/

I've got a set or two of these, and two (I think) pieces of suitable welding-goggle filter glass, that I acquired for the annular eclipse five years ago, and then carefully saved.

(I'm surprised that I haven't heard of anybody making #14 eye inserts for Darth Vader / Stormtrooper helmets. Seems like a natural opportunity.)

I'd set up a pinhole to cast a dot at a piece of paper, then use video to capture the eclipse as it is happens so I can slow it down to its phases. Maybe make the capture area graph paper so I can more precisely track the movement of the sun and percentage of eclipse as it passes.

Sadly, I'm only going to get around 60% eclipse, so it won't be nearly as dramatic. Not sure if it is worth bothering for the setup.

I went on the internet and I found this:

GOGGLES.

They even come with clear lenses for use in costumes, and they have multiple color options including copper, silver, and brass!

EEEEEEEE

ShneekeyTheLost wrote:I'd set up a pinhole to cast a dot at a piece of paper, then use video to capture the eclipse as it is happens so I can slow it down to its phases. Maybe make the capture area graph paper so I can more precisely track the movement of the sun and percentage of eclipse as it passes.

Sadly, I'm only going to get around 60% eclipse, so it won't be nearly as dramatic. Not sure if it is worth bothering for the setup.

There was a near-annular eclipse here in the 90s or early 00s, I forget when exactly. It was very cool--all the patches of sun were crescent shaped. So you should get not-quite half-sun shapes anywhere the sun shines through an aperture.

After all of this, it'll probably be overcast during totality.

That could make for some interesting times outside, of course.

GlytchMeister wrote:I went on the internet and I found this:

GOGGLES.

They even come with clear lenses for use in costumes, and they have multiple color options including copper, silver, and brass!

EEEEEEEE

That's actually a quite respectable price for what you're getting. Perfect Mad Scientist kit!

jwhouk wrote:After all of this, it'll probably be overcast during totality.

That could make for some interesting times outside, of course.

That happened when I was in high school--March 1970, I think. It's nearly always overcast that time of year in my native county, and the day was so dreary that the eclipse was easily missed.

GlytchMeister wrote:YES. Jackpooooot. I found a welding mask in the trash at work (I'm a garbage man). Al, do I need to do anything to it to make it safe for viewing the eclipse?

EDIT: Argh, never mind. It's not #14.

Replacement filter can be had and they are quite inexpensive (few bucks, no more). I am going to have a try with my autodarkening helmet and if that doesn't work I still have a static one as a backup.

One safe way to go cheap is use a generic glass front picture frame. Take out the Buy Me picture, leave the cardboard, and you've got a front surface reflector to use as a mirror. Once in totality, then you're good for eyeballing, but don't look directly until then. And of course, after! It's the UV you want to avoid along with the BRIGHT!

Well, looking at the first NASA map, it looks like I'll be clocking in at around 58%... Not only that, but it would be at a time when I'm on the bus, driving.

This makes me wonder: should I worry about being on the road at the time? Would I still need special glasses, just to be safe (but then, how safe would my driving be?) Should everyone stop driving, for the duration? Or would we be OK, as long as we don't look up?