I saw a pic of the balloon fest, and thought of you, as you probably had a great view from your place. We have the projector made, though a little disappointed at how small the image is, even using a big box. But, will see how it goes tomorrow.
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I started avoiding balloon events the summer I learned to skydive; I couldnât stand being among all those crafts suitable for getting to 12k feet while not being able to go up and jump from one.
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Iâve already got NASAâs eclipse tracker ready to go. The weather is actually slightly worse than expected and with gas prices just pennies under $5 per gallon I canât afford to drive to the only place there are tolerable odds for viewing.
This is truly annoying since I canât remember the last time I watched an annular eclipse; Iâve only been fortunate enough to see total or near-total.
I wasnât able to get a great picture â I forgot my phone wouldnât be available so I tried with a couple other cameras I have. It was such a small piece covered that itâs hard to see with all the light. But it did look like Cookie Monster took a little bite of the sun!
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You were under a tree for that first one? Broken clouds would not have projected that, I shouldnât think.
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Right, that was dappled sunlight through a tree onto the deck with my grand dog Scout. The other pics were made through an old darkroom filter I had.
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Just thought Iâd open this up since the total eclipse is coming up soon. We have our eclipse glasses and are still trying to figure out the best place to go, but might depend on cloud cover.
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We live pretty much in the center of the eclipse, and have a bed in camper still open. It is supposed to be a zoo around here, but we will see if that pans out. Our church is opening the parking lot and having a âLook to the Sonâ event for whoever shows up.
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Nice! Must be good to not have to travel, and thatâs great that your church is getting involved too.
I think Maine will be a zoo too, because the band of totality is very rural and that areaâs supposed to get another foot of snow before then, so parking could be a nightmare.
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I sort of wish I could afford to travel to watch it, but gas prices here went from $3.49/gal to $4.89/gal last week, which I find to be ridiculous; at any rate, an extra $28 per fill-up is prohibitive.
Iâve seen a good half dozen eclipses that I can remember (I played science man to younger cousins on two such occasions) so itâs no big deal. My biggest interest in observing wouldnât be in the eclipse itself, it would be hoping to observe the interesting phenomenon of cumulus clouds vanishing as the eclipse progresses and returning afterwards â and since thereâs no way to guarantee there will be any cumulus clouds present, my inclination to travel for an eclipse is minimal.
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Interesting, I did not know about the clouds. I have a faint memory from one total eclipse that there were some small clouds in the sky and nothing seemed to happen to them.
What I found interesting in a total eclipse I watched was the behavior of birds. As a birdwatcher, I notice almost automatically what birds are doing. When bright daylight suddenly turned to dusk, some birds started to sing, others seemed to react by becoming vigilant and stopping movement for a moment.
Nervous singing may be a common reaction to drastic changes in the surrounding. One former professor told that when he was in war and there was a break in continuous and heavy artillery fire aimed at their position, birds (one or more) started suddenly singing in the shredded remains of the forest. That was striking in a surrounding where loud noises had suddenly stopped and most trees were stumps shattered by explosions.
An eclipse is a nice experience, unlike warâŚ
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Check in the US at your public library for FREE eclipse glasses from NASA. Still got lots at the Library of Michigan.
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A very true graph - there is a huge difference between partial and total eclipse. It is like the difference between day and dusk.
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A bunch of local businesses are getting in on the action by hosting âeclipse partiesâ and such, but are sharing the caveat that the sun in their area will be only 98 or 99 percent eclipsed. Iâd much rather drive a couple hours north and see totality.
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I watched one once where it was something like 99.5%+ total, and it was awesome â there was a ring of light with an incredibly bright spot on one edge, like a gold ring with a glowing topaz. It was surprising how much difference that ~0.5% made; people not far away who saw it at 99% found it disappointing.
It looked a lot like the image that is sixth from the left in this, except I remember it as the ring being gold:
Another one we watched we were just on the edge of the totality zone, and found we could see gaps in the lunar rim!
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This cannot be overstated.
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