OT: Eclipse

[Yuri]

Off topic, but thought I'd share the one photo I was able to get through the clouds of the eclipse!

Enjoy!

[BigDumbDinosaur]

Yuri wrote:

Off topic, but thought I'd share the one photo I was able to get through the clouds of the eclipse!

Things are starting to dim around here.  The eclipse will be about 94 percent maximum.  In 2017, I think we got 80-85 percent, and it looked like twilight.

[barnacle]

Too far east here in East Germany

Neil

[barrym95838]

The dimming was barely noticeable here in central CA, but I knew from the radio when to grab a welding mask and briefly confirm that there was a ~30% chunk missing around 11:15 am or so. Or maybe it was 10:15 ... I was buried under a typical Monday workload, so I only allowed myself a moment to be mildly amused.

[Sean]

We drove about 75 miles west to very near the center line of the path. At totality, we could see the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Jupiter, and Earth. Very cool. (And then my alternator bit the bullet in the heavy stop and go traffic on the way back. Sigh. Fixed now.)

[Dr Jefyll]

Sean wrote:

At totality, we could see the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Jupiter, and Earth. Very cool.

Very cool, indeed!

barrym95838 wrote:

The dimming was barely noticeable here in central CA [...] a ~30% chunk missing

In order to witness totality, my friend and I left Stratford and headed south about 100 km. Traffic had gotten pretty heavy by the time we approached Port Bruce on the north shore of Lake Erie, and the town itself was jammed. Even the country roads in the adjoining farmland were beginning to run short of space, but luckily we were able to park without any serious difficulty.

Judging by the daylight, I thought we'd have some time to kill before the action started. But much to my surprise, a peek through the eclipse glasses showed the sun already about 30% occluded (just as Mike observed). Only at the 98% point did the dimming begin to seriously take hold.

Although my photos don't clearly show the occlusion itself, I think you'll notice the eerie quality of the sky, and of the remaining daylight at ground level. Also I'm attaching a screen shot from timeanddate.com. The purple dotted line through Lake Erie shows the path of the center point of the totality shadow, and the solid purple line is its northern extreme. The spot marked "C" is Port Bruce, well within the path of totality! (which, at that location, lasted just over 2.5 minutes)

-- Jeff

[BigEd]

Congrats to everyone who managed to see it! More important to be there in the moment, I think, than to get a photo (unless you're a very serious photographer.) I have a vague idea to go to Spain in a couple of years time, for the purpose.

[BigDumbDinosaur]

I was lucky to see a nearly-total eclipse while at sea when I was in the Navy.  It was sort of like dusk, but without any discernible shadows.

[barnacle]

Dr Jefyll wrote:

Judging by the daylight, I thought we'd have some time to kill before the action started. But much to my surprise, a peek through the eclipse glasses showed the sun already about 30% occluded (just as Mike observed). Only at the 98% point did the dimming begin to seriously take hold.

The human eye is a remarkably non-linear device, able to see in both bright sunlight and starlight (or at least moonlight)... and to autoexpose itself to accommodate those sorts of extremes.

For a squishy bag of transparent jelly, it's quite impressive.

Neil

[BigEd]

As ever, XKCD has some guidance - travel to see a total eclipse if you can, it's off the scale compared to a partial eclipse.
https://xkcd.com/2914/

[Yuri]

barnacle wrote:

Dr Jefyll wrote:

Judging by the daylight, I thought we'd have some time to kill before the action started. But much to my surprise, a peek through the eclipse glasses showed the sun already about 30% occluded (just as Mike observed). Only at the 98% point did the dimming begin to seriously take hold.

The human eye is a remarkably non-linear device, able to see in both bright sunlight and starlight (or at least moonlight)... and to autoexpose itself to accommodate those sorts of extremes.

For a squishy bag of transparent jelly, it's quite impressive.

Neil

It also does lots of various advanced matrix calculations and weird maths in your neurons so you can process images. TBF the human body, (and nature in general) is a very complex machine! <3