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Science

Partial Solar Eclipse Tonight 233

Posted by chrisd from the don't-look-right-at-it-though dept.
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!
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Partial Solar Eclipse Tonight More

Partial Solar Eclipse Tonight

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  • Party like its 2012 (Score:2, Informative)

    by dirvish ( 574948 )
    There will not be another one until 2012, so you might want to check this one out.
  • That is pretty impressive.
    • It's happening close to sundown. Unfortunately, I'm in the southeast US, and won't get to see any of it.

      EGearman

    • Re:A solar eclipse at night? (Score:5, Funny)

      by coljac ( 154587 ) on Monday June 10, 2002 @02:49PM (#3674579) Homepage
      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.

      • 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.

        17 hours?!? Where's that? The south pole? Where I am now night lasts about 5 hours (10:30pm - 3:30am)

        BTW, when does the eclipse [the one where the MOON blocks light] start in CST? I want to look at it and go blind ;)

  • BS (Score:3, Funny)

    by George Michael ( 467827 ) on Monday June 10, 2002 @02:38PM (#3674485)
    I, for one, don't believe that science can predict when such an event will occur. And certainly not hours in advance.

    • Re:BS (Score:3, Funny)

      by mjackson14609 ( 69635 )
      I, for one, don't believe that science can predict when such an event will occur. And certainly not hours in advance.

      Get with the program. The official Bush Administration position has changed to "OK, science can predict eclipses, but there's no point in doing anything about them."
      --

  • And the rest of us? (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    What about us Western Europeans? When do WE get a solar eclipse? Why does America have to MONOPOLISE everything?! Why can't Americans learn to share their damn astronomic phenomena instead of greedily keeping them for themselves?! This ABSOLUTELY TYPICAL OF DUBYAHS FACIST REGIME, monopolise the solar eclipses, soon you'll have a monopoly on 10 km radius asteroid strikes and nearby supernovas as well!
    • Why does America have to MONOPOLISE everything?!

      That's "monopolize"; if you lived over here in the great US of A instead of your silly backwards Europe, you'd know how to spell it right.

  • Golden opportunity (Score:5, Funny)

    by L. VeGas ( 580015 ) on Monday June 10, 2002 @02:41PM (#3674510) Homepage Journal
    I love stuff like this.

    to my three-year-old:
    "You better be good boy, or Daddy's going to destroy the sun!"
    • Legend has it that after Columbus wore out his welcome with the natives in Jamaica, they stopped bringing his crew food, and even jailed a couple of them for improprieties with native girls. Knowing a lunar eclipse was coming, Columbus threatened that his God would destroy the village if they did not release the men and bring his crew food. The natives laughed at this, but Columbus said that his god would show his power by eating their moon that night. After about an hour of the eclipse, Columbus announced that God would return the moon to the sky if the natives promised to bring them food and release the men. Of course, he got what he asked for.

  • the ring of fire (Score:5, Interesting)

    by F2F ( 11474 ) on Monday June 10, 2002 @02:44PM (#3674529)
    actually some people will have a chance to see the amazing annular eclipse [nasa.gov] 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!
  • Will I be able to see this in the North East (Montreal)? The article doesn't say, but I'm hoping to see a partial.

    What time would it be at?

    S

  • Today/tonight? (Score:4, Funny)

    by clinko ( 232501 ) on Monday June 10, 2002 @02:48PM (#3674565) Journal


    Tonight there's a Solar Eclipse?

    The world really is coming to an end.

  • not a full solar.. (Score:5, Informative)

    by Xzzy ( 111297 ) <sether@tr u 7 h . o rg> on Monday June 10, 2002 @02:48PM (#3674567) Homepage
    The moon is at it's furthest point in it's orbit around earth. The effect this has is that the moon is incapable of fully blocking the sun, this is because the moon's orbit is slightly elliptic.

    A rather spectacular image [nasa.gov] from a 1992 annular eclipse (the name given to this type of eclipse) can be found at APOD [nasa.gov] today.

  • Remember (Score:1, Funny)

    by Wrexen ( 151642 )
    Don't look directly at the eclipse! [angryflower.com]
  • I can't wait to see it... oh wait, i forgot you're not supposed to look at it.. oh well... i guess the fun is knowing it is happening even though you aren't looking? -- Look Mom the Sun it's disappe-AAAAHHH my eyes!!!

  • They're not that great. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Sabalon ( 1684 ) on Monday June 10, 2002 @02:49PM (#3674592)
    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 :)

  • Alright kiddies (Score:2, Informative)

    by lingqi ( 577227 )
    follow the link here [space.com] for more info and a nice map of what you expect to see the eclipse time is ~6PM PST, which mean the sun is FAR from set -- at the bay area, anyway, the sun does not set till ~9 and don't stare at it! 2 good ways to look at the eclipse 1) bioculars / telescope reflected on paper 2) get a bucket of water, tint the water (ink, whatever) and look at the reflection (used to do this in low-tech China)
    • 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 ;)
  • Of course, never look at the sun, even when partially blocked by the moon. To look safely, poke a pin hole in a piece of paper, and let the sunlight come through that paper and focus the image on a second piece of paper.

    I've also had luck looking through a floppy disk, but I wouldn't recommend it. You can use welding glass, though.
    • You should focus the light that comes through the hole in the paper, of course.

      I'm an idiot.
    • I've actually had success looking at an esclipse through a CD. I was in the Netherlands during an eclipse in 1999 and the CD worked great. Of course, people look at you funny if you are standing on the street with a CD held up against your face.....
      • I've actually had success looking at an esclipse through a CD

        I've had success looking at an eclipse with my naked eyes. Last thing I ever saw though...good thing /. is braille browser friendly.

        Seriously though, would a CD actually be effective? I have my doubts....
  • I bet I can get a really good look at the eclipse using my telescope!! Those warnings about not looking at the sun printed on the body of the scope? Oh, that's just for kids!!

  • Some hours (Score:3, Informative)

    by cheezycrust ( 138235 ) on Monday June 10, 2002 @02:52PM (#3674617)
    This story appeared earlier [slashdot.org] on Slashdot (but only in the Science [slashdot.org] section). If you want to know the hours, you can read the NASA article [nasa.gov], or be lazy, and select one of these links:

  • I always post this, but the best eclipse web site is at http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/eclipse.html [nasa.gov]

  • Every time you hear about an eclipse, they tell you not to look directly at the sun. I know it can burn out your retina and make you blind, but so will staring at the sun on a day without the eclipse.
    Does anyone know if looking at the sun during an eclipse is actually worse for your eyes than looking at the sun at any other time? I would guess that the intensity of the sunlight would have to be greater during an eclipse to cause more retinal damage in a shorter period of time. Anyone know why this is the case?
    • Nah, there's no greater risk, if you were prone to staring at the sun all the time.. the problem is that the media and everyone (even Slashdot!) tells you that the sun and moon are going to be doing something worth watching on this particular day, and so a MUCH larger amount of people are going to be looking at the sun. It's not any more dangerous, but more people will be taking the risk.

    • This is funny. I got a degree in astronomy and did a few years of volunteer work at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago. I'm always amazed at how often this question is asked. I remember as a kid being deathly afraid to look up during an eclipse thinking that there were some evil death rays that only came out during an eclipse that would turn me into a zombie or something [I think that was a bad movie I saw once...]

      The answer is no, the sun is no worse for your eyes during an eclipse, it's just that most people (Galileo excluded) aren't stupid enough to look at the sun when the moon's not partially in front of it so there's no need to warn them on a daily basis.

      obligitory warning: Oh and by the way...please don't try to prove me wrong (or right) by looking at the sun today or any other day. It ain't good for your eyes.

      • Okay, so when you look at the sun on a normal day, and I mean when you glance up at it and look away as quickly as possible, it leaves an afterimage that lasts for a short while, but no permanent damage is done, right? Wouldn't it stand to reason that in an eclipse, since the moon is covering up most of the sun, you would be able to look at it longer without doing any damage?
        • Maybe somewhat longer. But complicating matters is that your pupils may dialate to compensate for the lower light levels, letting in more light again. I don't know the numbers, so I couldn't give details.

        • That seems plausible, but you'd never get any "expert" to admit this was true. You have to understand that even a small percentage of the light from the sun is brighter than all but the brightest terrestrial light sources you are likely to look directly into.

          Plus, you can never underestimate the intelligence of the dumbest member of your audience, especially when (with the Internet) that audience can be global. I suppose it's possible that there's a conspiracy among astronomers to perpetuate the idea that solar eclipse sunlight is more dangerous because it makes it even more likely that people won't look at the sun and hurt their eyes, thereby reducing their ability to appreciate astronomy (hee hee).

          Ok, so maybe that's a little paranoid.

        • Even though less light gets into your eye during an eclipse, the surface brightness (brightness/unit area) of the sun that isn't covered up is the same as always. So your pupil dilates to let more light in, but that light is still bright enough to do permanent damage.
    • The reason it's worse is because, well for one, more people are likely to just sit and stare at it for the time it takes the eclipse to occour. The other reason is that your pupils dialate when the sun is eclipsed, which lets more radiation in, plus, the ring of the sun still visible around the moon is still bright enough to damage the retinia. I could be wrong, but that's what I remember from 6th grade when we all went out to watch the eclipse.
    • Since this eclipse is at dusk, won't the damage be less since the sun isn't as bright?

  • Pi (Score:1)

    by ajlitt ( 19055 )
    "Personal note: When I was little my mother told me not to stare into the sun, so when I was six I did." - Max Cohen
  • The Yahoo article discusses how the eclipse starts on Tuesday, June 11 and ends on Monday, June 10. Interesting, eh?

    Of Course this is because the moon travels east across the sun and over the international dateline but still.
  • Remember, the Sun is our solar system's largest "dirty bomb." While this radiological event has yet to be tied to the Abu Sayyaf or Qaeda groups, be warned that the FBI considers this an act of solar terrorism, President Bush has yet to say if this has been "securitized [msn.com]" for our protection, and the INS reserves the right to fingerprint and mock you.

  • Simulated Time Lapse Eclipse (Score:3, Funny)

    by scott1853 ( 194884 ) on Monday June 10, 2002 @03:07PM (#3674733)
    O(* ) O

    Incredible isn't it.

  • Videotaping the Eclipse (Score:3, Interesting)

    by daviddennis ( 10926 ) <david@amazing.com> on Monday June 10, 2002 @03:11PM (#3674761) Homepage
    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
    • It's not going to look nearly as amazing when it's video taped. You really need a lot of special lens and filters to capture it in decent quality.

      It's only 10% where I am. and I have a mountain range to try to look over to see it.

    • Proper testing procedure... (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I would stare at the eclipse for about 2 minutes before using my camcorder to tape the event. If your eyes feel fine after the 2 minute test period, the senstive CCD lenses in your camcorder should be safe to tape the eclipse. Make sure you don't have any filters in front of your eyes or you won't be able to properly gauge the possible harm that might come to your camcorder. Those things are expensive, so testing with your eyes is the best shot to protect that investment.

      So are you going to edit the movie with iMovie [apple.com]?

    • You absolutely need a filter. If you don't use one no matter how you set up yor camcorder, you are goung to get a CCD "paté". Find any filter, you dont necesarily need to buy one, but if you love your cam i recommend you get anything.

      Even an adapted filter from another model will do the trick, but don't go the un-filtered ...
      • What kind of filter would you recommend? Anything I could get at a local camera store right before the event?

        Obviously it's too late to mail order anything, or even to go to the huge camera store in Hollywood where I'd normally go :-(.

        D
    • well, I've inadvertently gotten the sun on my videotapes before, and it hasn't seemed to damage it.

      More interestingly, I actually DID take a video of the February 26, 1998 eclipse from Venezuela. It turned out far better than any of our still shots! I got a pretty good zoom in on the sun during totality (I didn't point it directly at the sun during partial phases, so it may not apply to you).

      In fact, here are a couple shots taken from my video with a Snappy:
      The Diamond Ring Effect [geocities.com] and the elipsed sun with planets [geocities.com] (Venus and Jupiter IIRC).
  • 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. :)
  • we have a total solar eclipse *every* 24 hours. What happens is that the other half of the earth completely blocks our view of the sun.
  • Keep in mind that it is quite dangerous to look at the Sun without adequate filtering or a projection system of some sort, look at S&T [skypub.com] for some hints. You can look at a Total Eclipse without filters during totality. Nothing you can do can prepare for that sight.


    This particular eclipse is an Annular, where the Moon's shadow is somewhat smaller than the Sun's disk. From the right location, it appears as a bright ring around a dark Moon. I've not seen one, but I've heard some Umbraphiles say "I wouldn't cross the street for an Annular Eclipse."

  • Yes I know, not related except that these events are close together and if you can't see the eclipse you might want to check this out:

    If you live in Ontario tomorrow night (2002-06-11) at 21:57 the ISS with docked shuttle will show up in the NorthWest near the horizon and make it's way across the sky in 5 minutes to set in the SouthEast. It will show up near Venus which will also be in the NorthWest. Apparently the shuttle docked with the ISS makes for quite a bright celestial object (twice as luminous as the ISS normally is). According to the editor of Sky News [skynews.ca] who was speaking about this (and the eclipse) on CBC [www.cbc.ca] this afternoon it will be unmistakable (not only due to its movement but also its brightness).

    A good tool for tracking the ISS can be found at liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov [nasa.gov] for those who are interested.

    OBEclipse: The moon is in space -- so is the ISS :-)

  • that will tell me if i'll be able to see it at all? i live in northern iowa, i figure i'm screwed
  • "Yup, the guy that sold them to me said they were the very best. And they only cost FIVE DOLLARS!"

  • According to my newspaper, it's going to be a partial eclipse with 54% coverage of the solar surface. That's enough to make it "mainly" viewable here in Eugene, OR.

    I imagine it will be interesting, even in Seattle. (Provided it isn't raining)
  • ...until the MPAA blocks free eclipses too?
  • Thanx alot chris d. First you tell everyone the lone gunmen died, spoiling it for those on the west coast. Now you tell everyone about an eclipse that hasn't yet happened on the west coast for a few more hours. You could have let them discover the sudden disappearance of the sun with total surprise, rather than spoil it for them.

    You should follow the fine example set by Hemos when he waited until closing time to announce the Festival of Inappropriate Technology [slashdot.org] this past weekend in London. That was how /. used to handle time sensitive stories in the good ol' days (of last weekend) :-)

    the AC
    We've had a simulated solar eclipse for the last week. Fscking rain

  • Maybe no seeing it here SW of Denver (Score:3, Interesting)

    by EQ ( 28372 ) on Monday June 10, 2002 @05:11PM (#3675573) Homepage Journal
    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.

    :-/

  • For any who're curious to see: I pulled out the binocs, a white sheet of paper and the camera to snap off a few frames of the eclipse as seen from the southern part of San Jose, CA.

    The pictures can be found here [fbrtech.com].
  • I logged the power generated by my photovoltaic system during today's eclipse. Since I'm in San Diego where the eclipse reached 80%, the dip is quite noticeable.

    The URL is http://people.qualcomm.com/karn/pv/daylife.html [qualcomm.com]

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