Solar (annular) Eclipse Sunday May 20

[MarkBC]

It looks like quite a few of "us" will be able to see this.

Peaking at about 6:30PDT/7:30MDT pm, Sunday.

Solar Annular Eclipse Locations/Time/Path



Solar Eclipse of May 20, 2012

Not as cool as a total eclipse, but still worth checking out -- INDIRECTLY!


Unfortunately, we'll only see a partial eclipse here in central Oregon.

I guess I could make a quick trip down to Redding to see my parents...or to Susanville to visit Smokecreek1 -- those locales will be center stage.

 

[CraggyMan]

Clouds seem to be in the forecast for these here parts (BendOR)

 

[highz]

Our neighbors at the National Solar Observatory will be hosting a public viewing. They'll have telescopes with neutral density filters and a Hydrogen-alpha filter (I think). Barko, that's in driving distance for you-all. NMSU is doing something, too, I believe. If you go towards ABQ, you'll be closer to the centerline, though. Haven't decided where I'm going yet. Either way, stay away from where I go. I have bad eclipse karma ... Been clouded out of two total eclipses.

One of my favorite things is to find the shadow of a leafy tree, where the gaps between leaves act like pinhole cameras and there are all these images of the eclipsed Sun cast on the ground. Hmmm, the Sun's altitude will be pretty low for us, so maybe find a tree casting it's shadow on a wall or building.

 

[Smokecreek1]

Clouds seem to be in the forecast for these here parts (BendOR)


Understand they are having a big party over at Pryamid Lake-someone said free fishing for the day. Supposed to be best around 525 here! It's starting to get overcast here, a bit windy too, hope it nice and clear on Sunday!

Smoke

 

[ski3pin]

We are just outside the annular path but we have a partial. It's dark outside right now! Pretty cool! It makes us want to go out and dance and celebrate.

 

[MarkBC]

As forecast, it's cloudy here in Bend...but we're way outside the (relative) totality path anyway.

 

[highz]

We didn't have an annular eclipse in the Sacramento Mountains, either, but close to it. The light was pretty eerie during the maximum. I tried holding my eclipse glasses up to my cheap point-and-click, but the results were less than spectacular because of the limited zoom.

Instead, I found an "eclipse tree". This photo was taken during egress. See all the crescents?

 

[highz]

And the Sun was still eclipsed at sunset.

 

[MarkBC]

And the Sun was still eclipsed at sunset.

View attachment 14345

Very nice, highz.

 

[CraggyMan]

Very cool. highZ... I figured with our cloud cover it would be a bust, but still was intrigued by the idea of some out of the ordinary lighting. Try and get my images "developed" tomorrow and see what/if I caught.

 

[Jamesiam]

Here's my shot of the Ring of fire from Nevada Beach in the South lake Tahoe area. Canon 50D with a 75-300mm and a 5 dollar 14 welders lens rubber banded to lens

 

[ski3pin]

And the Sun was still eclipsed at sunset.


Great sunset Mr. highz!

 

[Stan@FourWheel]

We were over on the UC Davis campus when we saw the eclipse.

Some of the students let us look through a welding mask.

Great experience for my kids.

We also saw some crazy circular shadows on the building wall.

I thought it was from the trees, but now know different.

Looking around outside was really weird.







.

 

[Lighthawk]

I was working the Auburn Home Show, so didn't have much time to work on the eclipse. Tried to beg, borrow or steal a piece of welder's glass for the 24 hrs. before the event and every hardware store was sold out.

The show ended at 6pm and I ran outside to check it out. We tried the pinhole method and got this informal result:


Then I started noticing that the trees were creating thousands of pinhole camera effects, projecting crescents everywhere. Oddly, many people were so focused on taking down their outdoor booths that they didn't notice.


Here's Bryan, one of my stalwart helpers:


I thought you guys would probably like this one best:


I like this one:


Serendipity. When I wanted a piece of welder's glass, someone offered theirs to me. Here's what I got, partially covering the lens of my 70-200 tele, zoomed fully at 200mm. I could desat the green out, but I think it's cool:

 

[ski3pin]

Very nice Lighthawk!

 

[Lighthawk]

And the Sun was still eclipsed at sunset.

View attachment 14345


HighZ, maybe you can help me understand why the horns of the sun seem to end with rough stubs, instead of points?
It may be hard to see here, but if you click the link to my site and view at 'original' size it's obvious.



Click here for original (may take a minute to load)
http://www.lighthawkphoto.com/Nature/Solar-eclipse-Auburn-CA/23089591_sTQm8c#!i=1858620271&k=t8sjTwS&lb=1&s=O

 

[MarkBC]

Great, Lighthawk -- cool and unusual!

Hmmm....why have I never before noticed these natural pinhole images, seen in highz's and Lighthawk's photos?
Shouldn't they also appear when the sun is normal, like, everyday?

Maybe I'm just so used to seeing them that I don't think about the fact that they're pinhole images...they just look like bright disks of light.

 

[highz]

James, Stan and Lighthawk - really enjoy your photos. Some creative stuff! I like the crossed fingers pinholes pic a lot.

Lighthawk, I'm not sure why the horns of the Sun are truncated like that, but I am certain it is a camera effect. Two possibilities are that the exposure time was long enough for the image to saturate a bit, or maybe the camera jiggled slightly so you have a closely spaced double image.

Mark, yeah, we should and do see round pinhole images every day. I guess we just notice it when the Sun isn't it's normal shape.

 

[Lighthawk]

James, Stan and Lighthawk - really enjoy your photos. Some creative stuff! I like the crossed fingers pinholes pic a lot.

Lighthawk, I'm not sure why the horns of the Sun are truncated like that, but I am certain it is a camera effect. Two possibilities are that the exposure time was long enough for the image to saturate a bit, or maybe the camera jiggled slightly so you have a closely spaced double image.

Mark, yeah, we should and do see round pinhole images every day. I guess we just notice it when the Sun isn't it's normal shape.

Well, it's a mystery. I looked at EXIF and the exposure was 1/5000s, so doubt camera movement was the issue. Certainly hand holding pitted glass over a non-supported camera is not very scientific method. Interestingly, this effect was visible in other images taken shortly before/after this shot.

 

[Lighthawk]

Great, Lighthawk -- cool and unusual!

Hmmm....why have I never before noticed these natural pinhole images, seen in highz's and Lighthawk's photos?
Shouldn't they also appear when the sun is normal, like, everyday?

Maybe I'm just so used to seeing them that I don't think about the fact that they're pinhole images...they just look like bright disks of light.

I thought the same thing. Guess we're surrounded by orbs we haven't been noticing!