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

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For those who are in a partial eclipse zone (like us in upstate NY), if you are near a rural area with woods, apparently you may be able to experience the leaves creating lots of "pinhole" effects, resulting in a deluge of crescent-shaped patches of light and shadow. We have several acres of woods right in back of the house so we'll see.

This must be a very well-known phenomenon but I hadn't heard of it before. My wife heard about it on a radio show featuring our local astronomy buff/author Bob Berman. I also found a web page from the 2012 eclipse with photos:

Tree Leaves as “Pinhole Cameras” During a Solar Eclipse
 
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Moon phase today: New moon (1st day)
[Meaning the moon is totally invisible]

This is the only time (phase) a total solar eclipse can occur, because the sun has to be exactly on the other side (180°).
Also it's not the moon's shadow that we see [as we speak] hiding the sun, but the moon itself; it's just that it's invisible because it's new moon ... (and not just because it's day and it's in front of the sun)
(obvious basic astronomy)
 
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Guess who just showed up in Kentucky? In the picture are @jim hardy and @anorlunda .

Two men standing on a wooded paved road under dense trees, both looking up at the sky; one wears a dark t-shirt, cargo shorts and a cap, the other a plaid shirt and jeans.
 
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Watching from Durham, NC. A few puffy clouds in the sky, otherwise pretty clear.

I saw about a 75% coverage eclipse in... oh... maybe 1973 or so, in New Jersey when I was in the third grade. It is supposed to be about 93% here. Really wish I could have gotten out of town to check out the totality... Hopefully there will be more opportunities.

Watching live coverage in Science Channel and tracking it on various websites.

Nature sure puts on some cool shows.

diogenesNY
 
Totality has started a few minutes ago, currently over the Pacific.

From Western Europe you can see a very shallow partial eclipse close to sunset. Map
 
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The partial eclipse has begun in upstate SC, but clouds have been popping up. Maybe about 40% sky coverage. Keeping our fingers crossed...
 
Started watching the eclipse just outside the hotel but kept flirting with fog blocking the sun. Then a garbage collector passing by told us that if we just went down to the next traffic light, turned up the road and went another 3/4 mile, it was clear. It was, and we were able to catch totality. Amazing!
 
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No totality but nice little patterns everywhere at 99%.
Photo of a partial solar eclipse against a dark sky, showing a thin glowing orange crescent of the sun at upper right.

Ground surface on which many small crescent-shaped bright patches of sunlight are projected, each a partial solar eclipse image formed through gaps between leaves.

Crescent-shaped sunlight patches projected onto a car's silver body panel and rear window during a partial solar eclipse, with tree reflections in the glass.
 
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I built a projector out of a box and some spare lenses I stacked up. About a 74% eclipse in Texas, made some nice designs in the shadows of the trees!

Large cardboard box lying on its side on grass, open face showing a blue-gray inner base, used as a solar eclipse projector; a person's legs are visible at the top left.


Photo of a partially eclipsed sun, shown as a bright crescent against a pale grey sky, with faint diagonal shadow patterns cast across the surface.


Dappled tree shadow on a concrete patio with many small crescent-shaped sunlight spots, each showing a partial solar eclipse, beside a brick edging and grass.
 
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Looks like the dragon disgorged the sun, and the world doesn't end this afternoon. :)

94% occlusion here. It got much darker, but a bit of an anti-climax... must make a point to get myself to the totality next chance I can get.

Definitely got the dozens of crescents through the leaves of the oak tree in the front yard. Cool effect.

No noticeable change in the behavior of several observed local animals. (Four cats and one dog).

diogenesNY
 
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Was able to get a couple of shots of totality with our digital camera. Ended up collecting email addresses from other people in the small group we were with that didn't get as good a picture with their cell phones.
Will have to wait until I get home to transfer pictures from camera before I can post them. Spending the rest of three day at the beach before heading home tomorrow.
 
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You'll kill me for this bad pun. That was totally beautiful.

It was a sight that I'll never forget.
 
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Some off-grid solar energy power charts during the Solar Eclipse.

Line graph in a spreadsheet window of an unlabelled series (legend reads Column 1) against sample index on the x-axis, from about 0 to 1300; the curve falls from about 205 to 0 and then rises to about 290, with a bump near the middle and a levelling off at the right.

Log-scale line graph on a spreadsheet screen: a curve starts near 200 at left, falls steeply to a minimum near 1 around the middle, then rises back to about 250 at right, with a legend entry labelled Column Q.

Same data, Linear, Log.
Spreadsheet chart in log scale of Column Q values plotted against time, with the vertical axis labelled 0.2, 2, 20, 200; the curve falls steeply from about 200 and dips toward the bottom of the axis near the middle of the x-axis.

Log detail.
 
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Today I realized that the moon has variable sunblock capabilities.
 
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As Russ mentioned, he came up from Charleston to escape the clouds there, and fortunately didn't get clouded out here! Here he is setting up in the morning:

Outdoor eclipse viewing tent on grass with a telescope on a tripod, a Orion Atlas box, and several people seated and standing around the equipment in daylight.


About 25 minutes before totality:

Outdoor setup on a lawn under a green pop-up canopy, with a woman in sunglasses on the left looking up beside a telescope on a tripod, two people with eclipse viewers, a man at a table with a laptop, and a second telescope on the right.


The physics department was on hand, of course, at their own tent:

Outdoor crowd at a campus lawn during a solar eclipse event; a man in a yellow shirt raises a camera, a telescope on a tripod stands in front of a white canopy tent, and a display board with eclipse images is at right.


Six minutes before the Big Moment:

Wide view of a crowd spread across a lawn on a sunny day, many people sitting or lying on the grass, others standing along a concrete path, with brick campus buildings and trees behind them.


I decided not to fiddle with my tripod because of the high elevation of the sun which would have made it difficult to use my DSLR's viewfinder. Instead I tried a few hand-held shots which fortunately turned out OK with some help from Photoshop's curves tool. Note Venus (?) in the first picture!

Night sky photo of a total solar eclipse, with the corona visible as a bright ring near the top left, above a dark building with lit windows and a small bright dot in the sky.

Total solar eclipse: a black disk of the Moon surrounded by a bright white corona against a dark sky, with a faint ring-shaped lens flare to the upper right.
 
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Mech_Engineer said:
made some nice designs in the shadows of the trees!
Argh! I was going to get a shot like that, too, but forgot about it in the excitement. Also I stayed indoors for a significant part of the time because it was so beastly hot and humid outside.

I remember seeing those patterns during (I think) the 1979 eclipse, which I saw only as a major partial eclipse.
 
What was that "vehicle" passing in front of the competing Sun and Moon? Did anyone get that guy's license plates number?

I did! "ISS 2017" ...

Note: This is a real video, originally broadcasted in NASA's live streaming. (I saw it while playing)
 
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jtbell said:
I decided not to fiddle with my tripod because of the high elevation of the sun which would have made it difficult to use my DSLR's viewfinder. Instead I tried a few hand-held shots which fortunately turned out OK with some help from Photoshop's curves tool. Note Venus (?) in the first picture!

love the corona shot ! well done :smile:Dave
 
jtbell said:
As Russ mentioned, he came up from Charleston to escape the clouds there, and fortunately didn't get clouded out here! Here he is setting up in the morning:
Awesome! Mind if I share these outside PF?
 
Photograph of a total solar eclipse: a black lunar disk covering the sun, surrounded by a bright white corona with wispy rays extending outward into the dark sky.

From 6 miles east of Mitchell OR.

Took my breath away.

Spectral shot was a bit disappointing:

Two dark photos side by side: at left a blurred horizontal streak of red, green and blue spectral colours; at right a bright white-yellow solar corona around a dark circular disc.


Both images were extracted from a 6 minute long video.
The autofocus spent about 90% of the time "out" of focus.

Zero luck on the "shadow bands". But I do have a 5 minute long video of a white sheet getting dark, and then light again, if anyone is interested. (I had a spare old camera)
 
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