U.S. Solar Eclipse of Aug. 21, 2017

[mfb]

You can observe the same effect, but a bit less spectacular, if you are at a low point but have mountains nearby. Several kilometers of view are advisable, but that doesn't need a proper mountain, many hills work.

 

[BillTre]

This links to a video, from space, of the shadow of the moon, on the earth, during a recent eclipse.

 

[1oldman2]

I hadn't noticed the "Mercury aspect" of this project.
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/chasing-the-total-solar-eclipse-from-nasa-s-wb-57f-jets
"Observations of Mercury will also be taken a half-hour before and after totality, when the sky is still relatively dark. These images, taken in the infrared, will be the first attempt to map the variation of temperature across the surface of the planet.
The images of the corona will also allow the team to search for a hypothesized family of asteroids called vulcanoids. Its thought these objects orbit between the Sun and Mercury, and are leftover from the formation of the solar system. If discovered, vulcanoids could change what scientists understand about planet formation."

 

[OmCheeto]

I hadn't noticed the "Mercury aspect" of this project.
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/chasing-the-total-solar-eclipse-from-nasa-s-wb-57f-jets
"Observations of Mercury will also be taken a half-hour before and after totality, when the sky is still relatively dark. These images, taken in the infrared, will be the first attempt to map the variation of temperature across the surface of the planet.
The images of the corona will also allow the team to search for a hypothesized family of asteroids called vulcanoids. Its thought these objects orbit between the Sun and Mercury, and are leftover from the formation of the solar system. If discovered, vulcanoids could change what scientists understand about planet formation."

Vulcanoids?

Oh good grief, ain't nobody got time to be looking for "oh, and bye the way, can you look for these hypothetical thingys?"

Unless of course, someone can point me to a "one-size-fits-all" camera that will fit on my 3" telescope, that costs less than $200, and if it would even be worth it.
I'm a tad over budget this year.

ps. I am so tired of "eclipse maths"...
Yesterday I worked out the "If my brother owns a house at the coast, 2 miles from the edge of the total eclipse, should I go there, and what's the value added by walking for an hour in the correct direction?" maths problem, given that I think I can walk at 2 mph.

Given that it is "now" eclipse time, and it is quite hazy here, I think I should get ready for a road trip, in the opposite direction.

 

[OmCheeto]

I got invited to the river two days ago, for the "sole" purpose of discussing the eclipse.
Of the 8 hours I was there, we discussed the eclipse for maybe 10 minutes.
One of my friends, 6 years my senior, said she was at Maryhill WA, and didn't think it was that big a deal.

After looking at videos from the period, I can understand why.



Do not take drugs before the eclipse. They will make you stoopid, and dance like a hippie, and miss the whole thing.

ps. Young peeps, never ever ask old people about the "70's"...

 

[mfb]

This links to a video, from space, of the shadow of the moon, on the earth, during a recent eclipse.

Watch the video and try to visualize that it is the Earth that rotates, while the Sun stays in the same direction.

 

[1oldman2]

said she was at Maryhill WA, and didn't think it was that big a deal.

Some folks just have no appreciation for celestial mechanics.

After looking at videos from the period, I can understand why.

Here is one that will be more "in tune"

Do not take drugs before the eclipse. They will make you stoopid, and dance like a hippie, and miss the whole thing.

It will also likely lead to...

ps. Young peeps, never ever ask old people about the "70's"...

Also "That 70's show" isn't a reliable source of information.

Given that it is "now" eclipse time, and it is quite hazy here, I think I should get ready for a road trip, in the opposite direction.

Good call, John Day seems like a better bet. Just "Head East" until you don't see anymore Banana Slugs, they are a reliable climate indicator.

 

[1oldman2]

Vulcanoids?

Oh good grief, ain't nobody got time to be looking for "oh, and bye the way, can you look for these hypothetical thingys?"

Page 128 tells a pretty good story about that.
https://ia801902.us.archive.org/7/i...ventsfor2017/101AstronomicalEventsfor2017.pdf

 

[1oldman2]

This http://eclipse.montana.edu/ is a pretty cool take on a project done in Oz during the 2012 Eclipse.
"Taken from a high-altitude balloon, it shows Australia’s Nov. 14, 2012 total solar eclipse as seen from 37,000 meters (120,000+ feet, nearly 23 miles) above the Earth"

 

[OmCheeto]

Some folks just have no appreciation for celestial mechanics.

It took me awhile, but it appears that she was fogged in.

We could see across the way to Goldendale Washington where the observatory was broadcasting on NBC news and where a huge crowd had gathered as a huge cloud condensed out of the cooling air and settled in right over the observatory. We could see I-84 along the Columbia River fill up with cars stopped bumper to bumper, fog forming over them. [ref]​

Here is one that will be more "in tune"


It will also likely lead to...

Those two songs, along with my signature song, seem to have been inspired by eclipses.

"The Word"

This garden universe vibrates complete.
Some we get a sound so sweet.
Vibrations reach on up to become light,
And then thru gamma, out of sight.
Between the eyes and ears there lay,
The sounds of colour and the light of a sigh.
And to hear the sun, what a thing to believe.
But it's all around if we could but perceive.
To know ultra-violet, infrared and X-rays,
Beauty to find in so many ways.
Two notes of the chord, that's our fluoroscope.
But to reach the chord is our lifes hope.
And to name the chord is important to some.
So they give a word, and the word is OM.​

"OM"

The rain is on the roof
Hurry high butterfly
As clouds roll past my head
I know why the skys all cry
OM, OM, Heaven, OM

The Earth turns slowly round
Far away the distant sound
Is with us everyday
Can you hear what it say
OM, OM, Heaven, OM

[watch the eclipse musical interlude]

The rain is on the roof
Hurry high butterfly
As clouds roll past my head
I know why the skys all cry
OM, OM, Heaven, OM​

[insert Archimedean Spiral images from the end of the video, my driveway, and FB post]​

I'm guessing that "I know why the skys all cry" is euphemism for; "I know why these guys all cry", as they were not in right place, at the right time.
And "Hurry high butterfly", is an image of the corona.

A hmmm... This is the way my brain works.

Also "That 70's show" isn't a reliable source of information.

Never watched it. (Ok. Maybe once, but just to confirm that people who lived through it, didn't really remember it.)

Good call, John Day seems like a better bet. Just "Head East" until you don't see anymore Banana Slugs, they are a reliable climate indicator.

ps. Have done tons of preliminary experimenting over the last two weeks.

I've decided against the 500 & 1000 lines per millimeter diffraction grating, and opted for a 200 lines/mm glass "Woo woo. Rainbows!" lens I found in an old box.

 

[1oldman2]

It took me awhile, but it appears that she was fogged in.

Ahh, the coastal curse.

A hmmm... This is the way my brain works.

Interesting, I never would have made the Moody Blues connection.

Never watched it. (Ok. Maybe once, but just to confirm that people who lived through it, didn't really remember it.)

Same here, I don't have patience enough to relive that one.

 

[Borg]

This is a nice link that I found yesterday. It shows the path of totality on the map. By clicking on the map, it pops up a table showing the times when the eclipse and its totality begin and end.
http://xjubier.free.fr/en/site_pages/solar_eclipses/TSE_2017_GoogleMapFull.html

CAUTION for reading times in the table: The times are given in UTC which is centered in England. There is a timezone display option on the left of the screen that shows the UTC correction for the point that you selected. However, it doesn't change the displayed times in the table. For those who don't know UTC, the tables in Oregon will show max eclipse times from 17:16 to 17:26. This is 12:16 to 12:26 LOCAL time.

 

[anorlunda]

Here's a question that may be difficult to answer. I've been desparately trying to find a place to watch the eclipse, that is not overrun by crowds. A friend invited me to watch at his house near Bend, OR. But he warned me that the country road near his house is expected to be overwhelmed by 500,000 people in the 20 miles between his house and the eclipse centerline. Therefore, he is unwilling to go even one mile closer because of the horror scene.

The NASA site says that his house will experience 99.97% occlusion. My question: will I be able to see the sun's corona with that 99.97%?

 

[mfb]

0.03% of the sunlight corresponds to mag -18, while the corona seems to have a similar brightness as the full moon, about mag -8. The brightness contrast would be similar to a star directly next to the full moon, and worse than Jupiter's moons compared to Jupiter (two of them are easily bright enough for the human eye - but you don't see them because Jupiter is too bright and too close).

To make it worse, the brightness of the sky will still be significant. It might outshine the corona, even if you can block the spot of direct sunlight.

Doesn't sound promising.

 

[tony873004]

My question: will I be able to see the sun's corona with that 99.97%?

My guess is yes based on watching some Youtubes where people are shouting "Corona!" during the Diamond Ring. But that 0.03% giving you the Diamond Ring is still bright photosphere, and you are heavily discouraged from viewing it without a filter. And with a filter, you won't see the corona. So you'll be breaking everyone's safety advice by trying. Besides, the view of the corona will be much better with the photosphere completely blocked out. The amount of time you can see the corona will be greatly extended if you can complete the final 20 miles.

With 20 miles to the centerline, your friend must be closer to Redmond than Bend. 20 miles from centerline is in the path of totality.

Here's a simulation I made of the view from Bend. Find your friend's Latitude and Longitude and change it. Every 0.1 degrees more in latitude is about 7 miles. Notice how vastly the sky is improved by juat adding 0.1 degrees to latitude. Keep in mind this simulation is simply my guess as to what it will look like based on 2 total eclipses I have seen (but rained out) and 3 annular eclipses.

http://orbitsimulator.com/gravitySimulatorCloud/simulations/1501885903145_eclipseBend.html

 

[anorlunda]

Here's a simulation I made of the view from Bend.

That's awesome. Thank you. I'll let you know how it turns out.

 

[OmCheeto]

My guess is yes based on watching some Youtubes where people are shouting "Corona!" during the Diamond Ring. But that 0.03% giving you the Diamond Ring is still bright photosphere, and you are heavily discouraged from viewing it without a filter. And with a filter, you won't see the corona. So you'll be breaking everyone's safety advice by trying. Besides, the view of the corona will be much better with the photosphere completely blocked out. The amount of time you can see the corona will be greatly extended if you can complete the final 20 miles.

With 20 miles to the centerline, your friend must be closer to Redmond than Bend. 20 miles from centerline is in the path of totality.

Here's a simulation I made of the view from Bend. Find your friend's Latitude and Longitude and change it. Every 0.1 degrees more in latitude is about 7 miles. Notice how vastly the sky is improved by juat adding 0.1 degrees to latitude. Keep in mind this simulation is simply my guess as to what it will look like based on 2 total eclipses I have seen (but rained out) and 3 annular eclipses.

http://orbitsimulator.com/gravitySimulatorCloud/simulations/1501885903145_eclipseBend.html

I have a feeling that someone didn't like my "info-graphic" that I posted on FB last week.

Which is probably a good thing, as now that I think about it, it is still a crumby explanation.

 

[russ_watters]

Eclipse test shot, taken with a Canon EOS T3i on a focal reduced Explore Scientific 127CF, at about 710mm focal length.

Full resolution, but cropped image available here:
http://www.russsscope.net/images/The-Sun-8-5-2017.jpg

How far out from the sun does the corona typically get? I'm thinking I might need a little less focal length...

 

[OmCheeto]

...

How far out from the sun does the corona typically get? I'm thinking I might need a little less focal length...

From May:

Look at the pictures on Miloslav Druckmüller's site.
http://www.zam.fme.vutbr.cz/~druck/Eclipse/Ecl2016i/0-info.htm
This will give you a very good idea as to how to frame your image. His images are created from bracketed images, so you get a dynamic range closer to what the human eye sees.

From the second corona image, it appears to extend beyond 3 moon diameters.

Though, if you read closely, this requires "bracketing", and special software.
The above image is a composite of 34 images, with exposure lengths from 1/1000 to 8 seconds.

This Druckmüller fellow is a pretty good source. From his home page;

Solar eclipse photography if one of the most difficult tasks of astronomical photography. There are at least three reasons for that. The first and main one is the extreme contrast which makes impossible to record the phenomenon on a single image. Neither classical nor digital photography have the ability to master the brightness ratio which is necessary for successful eclipse photography. The second reason is little chance for making experiments. If anything gets wrong it may take years to get an opportunity for a new experiment. The last but not the least reason is the fact that processing of images taken during total eclipse is very complicated and time consuming work with needs of one purpose software being developed specially for this aim.​

 

[OmCheeto]

Was just snooping around on the website of the town I plan on staying at for the eclipse, and saw the following URL snippet:
...ww.radio.cz/…/czech-scientific-team-prepares-for-mo…

I thought; "What a strange coincidence, that's where that fellow I just mentioned on PF is from. I wonder..."

CZECH SCIENTIFIC TEAM PREPARES FOR MOST DEMANDING TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE SUN
03-08-2017

...
The team is headed by Miloslav Druckmϋller and Jana Hoderová.

The expedition team of around 30, composed both of members from Brno university and Institute of Astronomy of the University of Hawaii, will take up positions at a series of locations across the west of the United States. In fact, positions will be taken at five points in four states.

The crucial one will be at Mitchell, Oregon, where the conditions are expected to be at their best. And one of the sites there will be Whiskey Mountain...​

I plan on camping just 5 minutes from Mitchell. Odd to think I might actually meet him. Though, Whiskey Mountain is a 150 mile drive from Mitchell, so maybe not.

 

[Stavros Kiri]

A) With eclipse only a few days away (~2wks), it might be a good idea, especially for those studying eclipse related and/or other phenomena or issues during the eclipse etc., to have an idea about current solar events etc.

For updates and point of reference e.g. see:

https://www.spaceweatherlive.com/en/solar-activity/sunspot-regions

https://www.spaceweatherlive.com/en/solar-activity/solar-flares
(etc.)

+ http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/

For example, there is [still] currently a sunspot group (2670), that came from group AR2665 (renamed). There was a thread recently by @davenn:
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/the-sun-today-9-july-2017-nice-spot-group.919696/

For a brief summary of the history of that latest (still active) sunspot region see also e.g. :
https://www.physicsforums.com/threa...17-nice-spot-group.919696/page-2#post-5815545

B) Also, isn't it time to start looking at regional weather reports?

 

[1oldman2]

At this point it's probably just space filler but you have to admit this is a pretty cool Eclipse shot.

 

[OmCheeto]

This is an interesting interview of the two people who run the GreatAmericanEclipse.com website.

We Asked Two Eclipse Chasers What Keeps Them Hooked
AUG. 8, 2017 AT 12:51 PM

My favorite comment:

Zeiler: "On a scale of 1 to 10, a partial solar eclipse is probably a 3.​

... A total solar eclipse has got to be a least a 1,000 [on a scale of 1 to 10]"

So many of my friends seem to be fine with 99%, and no amount of picto-graphics that I generate, has changed anyones mind.
Oh well. Less traffic for me.

 

[russ_watters]

Some folks just have no appreciation for celestial mechanics.

Here is one that will be more "in tune"


It will also likely lead to...

Ehem...great way to get totally into Eclipse mode:

 

[1oldman2]

B) Also, isn't it time to start looking at regional weather reports?

This is where I'll be catching the show, looks real good as long as the showers on the 22nd don't show up early. (10 day forecasts )

 

[anorlunda]

For each person in North America who sees the total eclipse, there will be 10 who only see the partial eclipse.

If you are supervising a herd of kids, trying to tell them don't look, I offer this suggestion. Adults can see that all small heads are safely in a box. Kids can make their own box as a craft project.

 

[1oldman2]

If you are supervising a herd of kids, trying to tell them don't look, I offer this suggestion. Adults can see that all small heads are safely in a box. Kids can make their own box as a craft project.

Great advice (and the price is right), I bought a pack of 25 viewing glasses off of Amazon a couple weeks ago and just received a letter from them saying they couldn't source the supplier so they were refunding my money and I shouldn't trust the glasses (which are printed with the correct ISO code).
It seems the market is being flooded with knock-off viewing glasses so I thought I'd post this site for reference. https://eclipse.aas.org/eye-safety/iso-certification

 

[jim hardy]

Thanks Anorlunda i sent it to all my kids. Grandson is in Boy Scouts , hopefully he can show the troop how to make them.

I understand resolution depends on size of pinhole ? So it's a tradeoff between sharpness and brightness. A light blocking cloth around the neck would be a good idea ?

Last one in Florida i held a cheapie 7X35 binocular to project an image onto a sheet of paper for a small crowd, left one lens cap on and it worked pretty well.
Got a nice compliment from our VP's drop-dead-gorgeous Admin Assistant . Just a smile from that lady would have melted the iceberg and saved Titanic.

old jim

 

[mfb]

The pinhole box doesn't have to be high-tech. Even natural small holes, e. g. between leaves in a tree, can show this effect, and then you get lots of crescents.

Source

If you only have a partial eclipse, you can also hope for the right density of clouds. Safe naked eye viewing, and if it is too cloudy: the next partial eclipse won't be too far away.

 

[OmCheeto]

Warning! Expletive post to follow!

 

[anorlunda]

Warning! Expletive post to follow!

View attachment 208987

Ay Ay Ay. I sure hope that forecast is wrong. I'm driving from Vermont to Nebraska to get an optimum viewing chance. I already gave up my plans for Oregon. If it's cloudy, I'll scream. The local forecast in Nebraska for the 21st is partly cloudy.

 

[Stavros Kiri]

Meanwhile in the Sun ... (new active spot region today (Mon. Aug 14, 2017), producing flares ...):
https://www.physicsforums.com/threa...17-nice-spot-group.919696/page-2#post-5821897

+ cool flare video there too! If only the eclipse was today! ...

"

New active region producing C-class flares

Monday, 14 August 2017 - 13:21 UTC

A new and unnumbered active region is now rotating into the earth-facing solar disk. It is new active region that only started to develop about 24 hours ago based on STEREO Ahead EUVI footage.

This video made using footage from SDO shows very clearly that it only recently started to develop as it rotated onto the earth-facing solar disk."

[Go to this link for the video:
https://www.spaceweatherlive.com/en...14-new-active-region-producing-c-class-flares ]

"As a matter of fact, this newly born sunspot region already produced two C-class solar flares, the strongest of these two flares was a C2.7 solar flare that peaked today at 10:46 UTC. Will this become a sunspot region that has the potential to produce strong solar flares? Time will tell!"

 

[dlgoff]

I'm driving from Vermont to Nebraska to get an optimum viewing chance.

Hey. I'm going to be close by. I'll be at the Rush Airport.

 

[Borg]

Forecast at my planned location in SC is getting worse - now a 50% chance of precipitation.

From the Washington Post:

 

[OmCheeto]

Ay Ay Ay. I sure hope that forecast is wrong. I'm driving from Vermont to Nebraska to get an optimum viewing chance. I already gave up my plans for Oregon. If it's cloudy, I'll scream. The local forecast in Nebraska for the 21st is partly cloudy.

Most of what I saw yesterday said "low confidence". I was just freaked out when I saw the image and Oregon was the only state covered in black. Now I can't remember where I snagged that image from.
Going now through the cities along the path, the image seems pretty bogus.