Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Cheering a Total Solar Eclipse

NASA ^ | Tuesday, March 15, 2016 | (see photo credit)

[SunkenCiv]

Explanation: What would you do if you saw the Sun disappear? Quite possibly: cheer. That's what many exuberant sky watchers did across Indonesia during a total eclipse of the Sun last week. There and then, the land and sky went dark during the day as our Sun disappeared for a few minutes behind our Moon. Many people watching knew they were witnessing a rare event, and their joyous exclamations can be heard on the featured video. What a far cry this reaction is from centuries ago, when more typical eclipse reactions derived from fear and worry. The video shows first shows a Sun only partly eclipsed by the Moon as totality approached. From many locations, foreground clouds on our Earth either obscured the view or made the view more interesting. The total eclipse was only visible from a narrow swath of Earth that included several Indonesian islands. At the same time, in the opposite direction, NASA's EPIC camera aboard NOAA's DSCOVR satellite captured the shadow of the Moon moving across the Earth.

[SunkenCiv]

[Video Credit & Copyright: Associated Press, Exploratorium]

[SunkenCiv]

The pic links to the YouTube vid, there is no Big One, alas.

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[kidd]

We are considering travelling to see the total solar eclipse on August 21, 2017:

You really need to be within the narrow band shown to experience the eclipse. You won't notice anything if you are less than 95% eclipsed

[SunkenCiv]

I’m sure I don’t need to tell you to be sure to have the proper eye protection, or only view it through a camera obscura.

[Verginius Rufus]

A total eclipse of the sun is spectacular.

If the Republicans win the election, I predict they will bring one of these to the United States next year.

I suggest they pick August 21--warm weather, should be lots of clear skies.

[kidd]

Thanks.
Of course.

I was within the 99% band of the annular eclipse on May 10, 1994.

It was almost totally dark. Really wierd but really cool.

[SunkenCiv]

I’ve seen, hmm, three solar eclipses of some kind or other, right here in Michigan. First one was in a camera obscura that our dad built out of a big cardboard box and a sheet of white meat wrapping paper, early 60s, I was pretty young. It was a treat for the old dad to be home for a few minutes during the day like that. We stuck our heads through the viewing hole he’d cut, and we could see the projection on the paper.

There was a partial when I was in college (so, must be four), another in the early 1980s, both times I noticed the shadows of the small trees cast on the ground were “shaking”, and found out later that’s a thing that happens.

I’d thought about setting up a camera obscura for the second transit of Venus at the workplace, had it all figured out, then it just slipped my mind. Maybe next time. ;’)