If you have a chance to get where you can see the upcoming solar eclipse it's an awesome sight. I saw one 30 some years ago in Africa, I was in the Peace Corps, and it occurred near midday. Because the only light was coming from where the sun shown on the horizon the effect was a sunset on 360 degrees. One warning though, don't be driving during it. A Presbyterian pilot was driving a motorcycle past a market when things went dark. A woman unclear on what was happening panicked and ran into the street, he swerved, she swerved, he swerved again as did she. Too late, she had broken ribs and he a broken leg.
I have already scheduled my eye appointment for August 22. I plan to burn my retinas out on this bad boy.
I plan on being near the centerline so assuming it will be cloud free I should get 2.5 minutes of totality.
The US is getting prime viewing for the total solar eclipse coming up on Aug. 21... US in rare bull's-eye for total solar eclipse on Aug. 21 Aug 5, 2017 | It will be tough eclipsing this eclipse. The sun, moon and Earth will line up perfectly in the cosmos on Aug. 21, turning day into night for a few wondrous minutes, its path crossing the U.S. from sea to shining sea for the first time in nearly a century.
I've never seen one before, but I have heard that you aren't supposed to look at it directly or you could go blind or permanently damage your vision.
You can look directly at it...as long as you have a good filter. Walmart (at least our local walmart) is selling eclipse glasses. These glasses have a metallic film on them that you can't see through unless you're looking at a really bright light. Make sure you test them out before buying them. If they're proper ones (like the ones in Walmart) you shouldn't be able to see anything through them except for really REALLY bright lights. If you can see a dim glimmer from the ceiling lights in the store...don't buy them. The ones I have, the sun looks like a dim orange ball in the sky. A really good and safe test, put the filter over your phone's camera and look at the sun that way. If it's a dim orange ball...you're fine. Point of note, smartphone cameras are a little better at picking up light so when you see the sun through the filter...it's going to be a bit dimmer than the camera's image. Now all of that is just for the partial eclipse watching areas. In the total eclipse...the Sun is safe to look at since the super bright bits are now all covered. The corona and the prominences that are launched into space are dim enough to see without the filters safely. In fact...you have to take off the filters since they're too dim to see through the filter.
I'm actually wishing I still had that old reflective telescope I used to have. It was an 18-inch one and I had the solar filter. I could see the sunspots nicely with that. I'd hook up my camera to that and get a video of it as it's happening. <sigh>
It'll make the chickens go to sleep when it gets dark... Total solar eclipse 2017: What is it and what will happen? August 16, 2017 - You've probably heard by now to watch out for a total solar eclipse in the United States on Aug. 21. But do you know exactly what it is and what will happen when it occurs? Here's what you need to know:
