BajaNomad - annular solar eclipse next week

annular solar eclipse next week

woody with a view - 5-13-2012 at 11:09 AM

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/05/12/solar-eclipse-may-...

Just two weeks after the huge "supermoon" wowed skywatchers around the world, the heavens will offer up another observing treat — a solar eclipse on May 20 that should be visible from much of western North America.

The May 20 event is what's known as an annular solar eclipse, in which the moon blocks out most of the sun but leaves a ring of light visible around its circumference.

It should be quite a spectacular sight for favorably placed — and appropriately careful —skywatchers throughout Asia, the Pacific region and parts of North America.

Annular solar eclipses: The basics

As the moon revolves around Earth, it passes between our planet and the sun once every 29.5 days. Most of the time,the moon zips either above or below the sun, and no eclipse occurs. [Video: How to View the May 20 Solar Eclipse]

But if the moon is close to one of its orbital nodes— the points where the orbits of Earth and the moon cross — the moon will pass directly in front of the sun and block its light. If the moon is also close to apogee,the point that marks its farthest distance from the Earth, it will not completely cover the sun, and we get an annular eclipse.

"Annular" comes from the Latin word annulus (ring) and refers to the fact that a ring of sun shines all around the moon.

On May 5, we had a so-called"supermoon,"the largest and brightest full moon of 2012. The full moon was nearly at perigee — as close to Earth as it can get — and it looked huge in the sky as a result.

Two weeks later, on May 19, the moon will have traversed half its orbit and arrived at apogee. When the eclipse occurs a few hours later, the moon will be too small in the sky to cover the sun totally, resulting in an annular eclipse, or "ring of fire."

Annular eclipses are sometimes said to be less interesting than total solar eclipses, in which the moon completely covers the sun, because we don’t get to see the sun’s prominences and corona. But they are still beautiful and awe-inspiring events, and well worth trying to observe. [Must-See Skywatching Events in May 2012]

The May 20 annular eclipse: How to watch

Like most solar eclipses, this one will be best observed from the narrow band on Earth’s surface where the shadow of the moon falls.

This path begins at dawn in southern China. It then sweeps across the Pacific Ocean, passing south of Alaska, and makes landfall on the Pacific coast near the California-Oregon border. It ends near Lubbock, Texas, at sunset. Partial phases of this eclipse will be visible over most of western North America.

First contact is when the edge of the moon first touches the edge of the sun. Second contact is when the disk of the moon is entirely in front of the sun and moving inward. Third contact is when the moon touches the edge of the sun as it begins to pass off the solar disk. Fourth contact is when the moon is completely off the sun. Locations in red will experience a true annular eclipse, a ring of fire; the other areas will see only a partial eclipse.

In North America, the eclipse will occur late in the day, so it’s important to observe from a site with a good western horizon.

The biggest wild card in observing is the weather. In case of inclement weather, you should be prepared to travel; the Clear Sky Chart offers a useful guide of where to go. Start with the clear sky area closest to your chosen location. If it shows poor weather prospects, check the clocks farther away, within a radius or 60 or 120 miles (100 or 200 kilometers). If you can see a clear patch, hop in your car and drive!

Because the eclipse will occur just a month ahead of the summer solstice, the sun will be setting quite far north of due east. Check the sun’s setting point a day or two beforehand to verify that trees or buildings do not block your view.

Safety first

Warning: Never look directly at the sun, either with the naked eye or through telescopes or binoculars without the proper filters. Doing so could result in permanent and serious eye damage, including blindness.

To safely observe the annular eclipse, you can buy special solar filters to fit over your equipment, or No. 14 welder's glass to wear over your eyes. No. 14 is denser than the standard No. 12 available in hardware stores and can be purchased only at specialized welders' supply stores.

You can also buy "solar shades," special glasses widely available from telescope stores before eclipses. Do NOT use standard sunglasses or any kind of homemade sun-shading contraption.

The safest and simplest technique is perhaps to watch the eclipse indirectly with the solar projection method. Use your telescope, or one side of your binoculars, to project a magnified image of the sun’s disk onto a shaded white piece of cardboard.

The image on the cardboard will be safe to view and photograph. But make sure to cover the telescope's finder scope or the unused half of the binoculars, and don't let anybody look through them.

If you do get the proper filter, you can take some impressive photos of the eclipse with almost any camera through your telescope or binoculars because the sun’s image through the filter is still quite bright. A camera adapter will ensure a firm connection between camera and telescope.

What to Look For

It will be interesting to compare your own times of the four contacts with the predicted times above. First contact is usually observed a little late, because you can’t actually see the moon on the sun’s disk until the exact time of first contact is past. Fourth contact occurs when the disk of the moon finally leaves the sun.

As the moon moves across the face of the sun, it may pass close to sunspots or other surface features on the sun, creating interesting photo opportunities. The view of the sun through a telescope with a hydrogen alpha filter, such as the Coronado PST, will be very dramatic, and contact times may differ significantly from times obtained with normal white light filters because we’re looking at a different layer in the sun’s atmosphere.

One of the nicest things about annular eclipses is that they take a long time to happen, so there’s plenty of opportunity for "sidewalk astronomy"—sharing the view through your telescope with the public. It might be worth setting your telescope up in a public place, such as a park or a mall parking lot, and inviting passers-by to have a look.

Who knows?You may spark the interest of a new amateur astronomer.

[Edited on 5-13-2012 by woody with a view]

astrobaja - 5-13-2012 at 11:22 AM

A good place to go might be Oceanside Photo and Telescope they may have some specialized solar telescopes setup in front of the store. I'm getting some filters for my large binoculars.

http://www.optcorp.com/

Ateo - 5-13-2012 at 12:12 PM

Thanks woody. Anything space related is always up my alley. I'll be watching from the beaches of Puerto Vallarta. Astrobaja, yeah that store in Oside is amazing. Mission avenue....haven't been in there recently but drove by it this morning!

David K - 5-13-2012 at 12:43 PM

It is just one block west of I-5, Mission Ave. exit... on the right.

astrobaja - 5-13-2012 at 01:02 PM

Theres also a public outreach planned by the San Diego Astronomy club at 2 locations. Read about their events here:

http://www.sdaa.org/

Really as cool as the eclipse is by far the bigger event is the transit of Venus across the face of the sun on the 5th of June!! This will be the only time this will be see in our lifetime!!

[Edited on 5-13-2012 by astrobaja]

Ateo - 5-13-2012 at 01:11 PM

Venus across the face of the Sun? Sounds cool......I'm marking my calendar!

Welding glass

thebajarunner - 5-13-2012 at 02:19 PM

You can achieve #13 or #14 by putting together a couple of #7, or other combos equaling your number required- I think 13 is safe.

The total coverage (will be only about 88% and the ring will be deadly to the naked eye) achieved only north of I-80 here in NorCal.

Nothing like the great 7 minutes in 1991>>>> that was a lifetime event!

Packoderm - 5-13-2012 at 02:29 PM

I'll be at the LunarBurn Festival near Susanville, CA. It is pretty close to the red line in the photo below.
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/246982

BCSTech - 5-13-2012 at 07:14 PM

We'll be just North of Reno with our Eclipse glasses. Buy them on EBay for cheap

woody with a view - 5-20-2012 at 03:38 PM

check out this site for free software to view the heavens.

http://www.stellarium.org/

DENNIS - 5-20-2012 at 04:34 PM

Did I miss it, or what? Maybe these events can't get through the June Gloom.

Barry A. - 5-20-2012 at 05:40 PM

REPORT FROM REDDING, CA

It has already begun right now. The moon has come in from the lower right, and now covers the sun about 1/8th.

I found that even my arc welding helmet is not dark enough, but with my high altitude climbing glasses, plus the welding helmet it is perfect.

Cool stuff, for sure.

Barry

Live Feed

bajaguy - 5-20-2012 at 05:43 PM

From KCRA-TV in Sacramento

http://www.kcra.com/video/31089865/detail.html

Hook - 5-20-2012 at 05:53 PM

Those Mayans weren't lyin' ..............

woody with a view - 5-20-2012 at 05:53 PM

can't see it thru the haze in sandy eggo.

bajaguy - 5-20-2012 at 05:56 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by woody with a view
can't see it thru the haze in sandy eggo.

Click on the above link, Woody....it's showing about a half right now

Nada, Nothing but Overcast

Gypsy Jan - 5-20-2012 at 05:57 PM

Sad face. I would love to see this "Ring of Fire" live - maybe Johnny Cash, too.

Barry A. - 5-20-2012 at 06:11 PM

It's sooooooo cool, but it IS gettin dark up here.

If you don't hear from us in the northland, you will know that we were vaporized!!!

Barry

rts551 - 5-20-2012 at 06:15 PM

lookin through my welding helmet (changed to 14 lens) right now... cool

Barry A. - 5-20-2012 at 06:24 PM

I am using my arc welding helmet PLUS my high altitude climbing glasses-------that is about right.

Almost a complete eclispe (sp?) now.

Barry

David K - 5-20-2012 at 07:13 PM

Really lucked out as a cloud made photos possible.

Barry A. - 5-20-2012 at 07:30 PM

The eclipse was wonderful, and we had a totally clear day up here to see it. It got pretty dark, but not as dark as i expected. The moon was considerably smaller than the sun, from this location. Big ring of fire, but I did not see any "solar flares" or anything like that.

barry

David K - 5-20-2012 at 08:52 PM

We were in Chula Vista today for a birthday party (Josh) and just as the eclipse became as full as it was going to get (about 6:30) a cloud came in front of the sun which made a perfect filter! We were also watching a live web cam feed from Area 51 (Rickey.org) where the moon went totally inside the sun for the ring affect.

Here are 4 photos from my phone camera:

1

elgatoloco - 5-20-2012 at 09:06 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Barry A.
The eclipse was wonderful, and we had a totally clear day up here to see it. It got pretty dark, but not as dark as i expected. The moon was considerably smaller than the sun, from this location. Big ring of fire, but I did not see any "solar flares" or anything like that.

barry

Cool you got to see it. We only saw first half and then clouds moved in. Where we are it was only 86% coverage where you had 97%. You need a TOTAL eclipse to see flares and diamond ring effect.

BajaDanD - 5-20-2012 at 09:13 PM

I stacked 4 pairs of sun glasses worked great

nbacc - 5-20-2012 at 09:19 PM

It was good, really good here in Redding. Barry and I saw the best of the best. I did though expect it to get darker.
We watched through my husbands welding helmet........pretty neat, Nancy

Barry A. - 5-20-2012 at 09:37 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by nbacc
It was good, really good here in Redding. Barry and I saw the best of the best. I did though expect it to get darker.
We watched through my husbands welding helmet........pretty neat, Nancy

Yep, and the moon was smaller than I thought it would be. I saw no solar flares, and I REALLY wanted to see "flares". (-: Pretty good "ring of light" tho, and the moon was centered perfectly on the sun. The temperature in Redding dropped 35 degrees during the event, down to 95. (kidding)

It was great.

Barry

paranewbi - 5-21-2012 at 05:12 AM

Used a Welders mask to shade lens

paranewbi - 5-21-2012 at 05:18 AM

maybe now?

f.jpg - 28kB

woody with a view - 5-21-2012 at 06:19 AM

i tried the hole in the paper trick and it didn't work!?!?! i finally broke out the binoculers(sp?) and saw it real good.

BornFisher - 5-21-2012 at 07:11 AM

Did road trip out to Rachel Nevada to the Little A'Li'Inn. Watched with my crazy cousin who wore his tinfoil hat. 2 for 1 Alien burgers w/ coupon from their website! It was great!!

tripledigitken - 5-21-2012 at 07:34 AM

I think the eye care industry will get a big kick in business for awhile.

thebajarunner - 5-21-2012 at 08:27 AM

4 pair of sunglasses stacked may make you feel good, but your retinologist is likely holding his head in agony over that approach.
Our welding supply stores ran out of #12 (with sunglasses that was about right) early in the week. Just that simple little glass is the ideal way to watch....
My daughter drove up to Redding, stood on the bridge, put on the funky little official eclipse glasses they had bot on line, then tossed them and just used the welding glass OldDad had provided.
She was in awe of the event,
Of course, this is the teenager, back then, who rode 3600 miles to La Paz and back with OldDad in 1991 to see the real event!!

So, now we wait until 2017 when it sweeps across from John Day, OR to Salem.... better drive up to Eastern Oregon, the West will likely be cloudy and the crowds for that total eclipse will be massive along I-5.

Final note- my daughter called and said two things, actually
1. It was awesome
2. Redding was an oven!!

Barry A. - 5-21-2012 at 08:38 AM

Hey---------Redding was cool yesterday---------don't think it even got to 90. Our temps are the only thing that keeps the hordes away------we like that!!.

Barry

Guess she needs to fix her car info

thebajarunner - 5-21-2012 at 10:14 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Barry A.
Hey---------Redding was cool yesterday---------don't think it even got to 90. Our temps are the only thing that keeps the hordes away------we like that!!.

Barry

Yeah, just like the folks in Seattle say it never rains (much)

It was 93 here in Oakdale at 6 p.m. and we run ten back of you guys most of the time,

Her dash thermometer read 98 when they parked at 4 p.m. and walked to the bridge, and she said it got a lot hotter en route.

Barry A. - 5-21-2012 at 10:49 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by thebajarunner

Quote:

Originally posted by Barry A.
Hey---------Redding was cool yesterday---------don't think it even got to 90. Our temps are the only thing that keeps the hordes away------we like that!!.

Barry

I guess I am just use to it---------98 huh!?!?!-------I just checked my Max/min thermometer and it says it got to 92 yesterday up here on the hill I live on where we get a breeze most of the time. Funny, it 's usually cooler down by the COLD river (the Sacramento River) as it comes out of the bottom of Shasta and Keswick dams. Oh well, HOT is relative to what you are use to, I guess. Just wait until mid-July to Aug, tho------------THAT is the HOT time!!! I think.

Barry

oladulce - 5-21-2012 at 11:36 AM

Here are some shots from 26°N

David K - 5-21-2012 at 01:02 PM

Very Cool!

BCSTech - 5-21-2012 at 07:09 PM

We had a full-on view of the ring 40 miles northeast of Reno.

What was surprising were some of the resulting "effects" Nearby clouds around the sun took on incredible rainbow hues, the landscape took on an odd, surreal appearance, shadows of nearby objects became blurry with multiple shadows Really neat.

Although no one had the right equipment, we all tried to take photos as best we could.

Gearing up for the total eclipse passing through Oregon in 2017:

http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEgoogle/SEgoogle2001/SE2017Aug21Tgoogle.html