Here comes the moon

Yesterday my sister and our friend Kevin (an avid Stuffer), and I were able to witness a partial solar eclipse in the backyard. How, you ask? As the eclipse began, the clouds which had hung around all day finally cleared, so the weather was no longer really an issue. But the solar filters, as I said yesterday, did not arrive on time. Last night the company apologized, citing weather difficulties, and offered to refund the purchase. What good sports! The company was Draco Productions, and we had ordered their Baader solar filters.

Anyway, I had read that you could use a blank CD-R as a makeshift solar filter (and I had seen a photo as evidence). So that was our plan: to observe the sun through blank CDs. Kids, don't try this at home! It was hard to get a clear view as certain parts of the CD made the image blurry; other parts, however, showed a clear image. Either way, we looked at the sun for too long and ended up getting headaches, not to mention annoying afterimages (and probably retinal damage). Photographing through the CD-R was nightmarish as well because even through two discs, the brightness of the sun washed out the chunk of the sun that was missing. The result: an image that looked almost exactly like a regular picture of the sun.

This was all going on while the eclipse was beginning. Time was running out before the eclipse's peak at approximately 6:20 P.M. It occurred to me that a pinhole projector would be a good way to view and photograph the eclipse. One of the simplest pinhole methods is poking a pinhole in a piece of paper and projecting the sun's image through it onto another piece of paper. So we tried this. We were not amused by the tiny crescent sun that appeared on the piece of paper only if you held the sheets at the correct angle. It was better than looking at the sun through a CD, but then I had a better idea.

Using multiple pinholes is a clever way to project more than one image of the sun. You can even spell out the location and date in pinholes so they appear in your images of the eclipse. We got a piece of thin cardboard and, using a pin that just happened to be lying around, I attempted to poke out "8-Apr-05". It was only about 10 minutes till the peak of the eclipse. We made it in time (though the pin did not exactly survive). The image that follows was taken at 6:16 P.M., just a few minutes before the moon obscured the sun the most it was going to.

Click to enlarge

Assuming I'm here in south Florida my whole life, the next solar eclipse I'll be able to see will be on August 21, 2017. I seriously think I should make plans to go to an area where the eclipse will be total. According to various sources, a total solar eclipse will come right this way on August 12, 2045. The period of totality (when the moon totally blocks the sun) will be six minutes and six seconds, which is very long for an eclipse. The location of the longest totality will be just off the coast of south Florida, so if I'm on land it'll be about that long too. (The eclipse's track can be viewed here; click on the map 2041-2060 eclipses to see it.) I'll be 56 years old then.

Not all Ask Jordon questions I get actually make sense. Here are some I've received lately that I can't answer.

Patrick: How much would a Shawn Marion authentic jersey w/ autograph be worth

I have no idea. Try eBay.

Mike L: why did you choose #23

Sorry, but if I knew what you were talking about, I'd let you know.

Sarah: How does Hinduism affect the lives of people in India?

Courtney: How does hinduisum affect the lives of people in India?

Wow, and sent within a minute of each other, no less. I would venture to guess that this is of my friends who has write a paper or something.

Kriz: is there a site where images are already together with alt codes?

Images and alt codes? I don't see the connection.

Speaking of eclipses as we just were a moment ago, AstroMeeting is a site with a lot of celestial photos, including (but not limited to) eclipses. Here's one of my favorite pictures and how it was taken.