Experience a Solar Eclipse

3218 Words7 Pages

Experience a Solar Eclipse

You don’t witness an eclipse…you EXPERIENCE it!

You can literally feel the ominous shadow of the moon before it arrives. The temperature drops. The wind picks up speed. The sunlight slowly dims, bathing your surroundings in an eerie twilight that produces colors with shades rarely seen in the natural world. Then it is time. Moments before totality a wall of darkness comes speeding towards you at up to 5,000 miles per hour—this is the shadow of the moon. You feel alive. You feel in awe. You feel anxiety. Then—totality! Where the sun once stood, there is a black disk, outlined by the soft pearly-white glow of the corona, about the brightness of a full moon. Small but vibrant reddish features stand at the eastern rim of the moon’s disk, contrasting vividly with the white of the corona and the black of the of moon’s disk. These are prominences, giant clouds of hot gas in the sun’s lower atmosphere. After what seems like a brief moment, the moon continues on its journey and the shadow races away, marking the end of totality. It is then you ask, “When is the next one?”

Participating in a total solar eclipse is as addictive and insatiable as eating that first potato chip. It’s no wonder thousands of people from all over the world converge every year or two on a tiny strip of land no larger than 1% of the Earth’s surface to experience this awesome phenomena.

The next total solar eclipse will occur on March 20, 2015. It will be the last one visible in Europe until the eclipse of August 12, 2026. To add scientific value to your viewing experience it on that day, why not try to perform these projects that will enhance your observing skills and enjoyment of this spectacular event.

Envi...

... middle of paper ...

...he bands do not reliably appear or exhibit similar behaviors at each eclipse, even when eclipses have similar geometric circumstances. When they do appear, shadow bands vary considerably in both width and separation, but range most frequently between 0.75 and 2 inches in width and are separated from one another by 2 to 10 inches. Their direction of motion across the ground seems to depend upon where an observer is located along the eclipse path. Their velocities vary most often between 5 to 10 feet per second.

Photographic project: Dim lighting, poor contrast and rapid movement make still photography difficult at best. Low-light camcorders offer a significant advantage and can be centered on the viewing screen to capture the motions of the bands for later playback and data reduction.

There’s only one last thing left to do. Enjoy the eclipse!!

END

More about Experience a Solar Eclipse

Open Document