Watching the Eclipse (a Wacky Wednesday Post)

Many people traveled to see the eclipse recently. Perhaps a once or twice lifetime event to actually see a total eclipse of the sun was worth it for many. To many more a partial eclipse was sufficient to stay away from the large crowds.

I was fortunate to see the total eclipse for one and a half minutes. I was not on the center line where people got up to 4 minutes of the event, but it was sufficient for me.

Just prior to the event. We were blessed it was a very clear day this day. Unusual for this time of year.

Here you can see the start of the eclipse. From start to total eclipse it took about an hour and ten minutes. That was nice as it helped to build the anticipation.

I shot these images through a filtered lens on my IPhone. I read that it was possible to burn out the lenses on modern phone cameras due to the high resolution so I didn’t want to gamble. Besides, unfiltered shots really didn’t reveal the eclipse on my phone (yeah I gambled a few times).

Sorry but my photo abilities are not that great. Most of my images a bit blurry. I was sent some shots from a couple friends at different areas around the country who took great pictures. Much better than mine. In some you could see the Corona Mass Ejection (CME).

As everyone knows, you don’t look directly into an eclipse unless it is a full eclipse and the sun is totally blocked. It has nothing to do with the eclipse itself but rather the sun. You never look directly into the sun.

Your eyes focus much like a magnifying glass. If you’ve ever used a magnifying glass to focus sunlight onto an object, you realize what that concentrated energy can do. It burns! Now consider doing that in your eye. It can cause cornea flash burns and permanently damage your vision.

But the eclipse does nothing to enhance this process. It’s just dangerous because this is when people tend to stare at the sun for prolonged periods. Normally, all of us naturally avoid looking directly into the sun. It’s just not comfortable.

Total eclipse. In these photos the corona is in full display. The corona was not as fully pronounced when looking at it with the eye only. But for some reason, very pronounced through my camera lense.

During full eclipse, with the sun’s rays fully obscured, it was possible to remove the protective eyewear and stare at the event with the naked eye.

I heard a couple comments from others around me about how the moon must be larger than the sun to block the view. Uhm….no. The sun is about 400 times larger than the diameter of the moon. The moon can cover the sun from our vantage point by the angle of perspective. It’s like standing 1,000 feet from your house and putting your thumb up near your eye until it blocks the view of your house. Your small thumb can block the view of your large house even though your house is a thousand or so times bigger.

I’ll leave you with my amateur videos: