LibriVox Forum

I don't know about the cell phone thing. I would assume that won't burn your eyes.

I understand that looking at the sun is harmful on any day, but the eclipse is supposed to be brighter than normal, right?

No, the sun doesn't get brighter during an eclipse. When there's no eclipse and you try to look at the sun, it's so bright that it causes pain quickly - you can't look at it, really. But during an eclipse, the rays are still powerful. There are fewer of them, due to the blockage by the moon, but they still harm. So you are ABLE to look at it directly and not feel immediate pain or have to look away because it's so bright, but the damage is still done to your eyes.

Selfie mode seems like a good thing. It won't blind the camera and you're just looking at normal pixels.
No, it is unlikely that the sun is any brighter than normal, but more possibly because it isn't bright (I remember it felt like the sun had hidden behind a cloud) your instinctive reaction to look away is compromised.
In days of yore astromoners built a camera obscura - interesting thing to do these days.

I saw some pictures on FB of people doing the selfie viewing of the eclipse in LA, and you just see sun shining brightly. Of course, I had fog, so I watched on the internet! It would have been cooler to see it with my own eyes, with solar eclipse glasses on of course, but at least I got to see it. My dad was in totality, he said it was awesome!

I did the backwards binoculars thing. It worked very well!

I had perfect conditions in Southern Alberta for an 80% coverage. No clouds and a cool breeze. I watched it from beginning to end, laid back in my recliner with a stacked pair of #10 welding lenses held to my eyes.

It got very shady in my yard (east of Tampa), but the corona of the sun still glared mightily on anything white, like sidewalks. It's hard to tell in the video I took; camera is pretty old. I did get some photos of shadows through the leaves of the crescent sun with the moon somewhat defined, as the moon began moving out of position. The effect was more obvious inside my house, making it look like early evening.

I had a great time at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago. They passed out 30,000 pairs of eclipse glasses - the people kept coming and coming . . . I think the line was almost 2 miles long!

Some clouds, but enough to keep it from being impossibly hot - and there were enough gaps to see what was going on. Really cool and very glad I was able to volunteer! People were so nice and it was like a fun and friendly block party, with people sitting out by the lake, looking up or looking around, and enjoying the day.

Best video I've seen on-line is the moon's shadow moving across the US. Well, maybe that gets second place behind the space station tracking across the sun during the eclipse!

Great day!

MaryAnn

We watched from my parents' house in South Carolina. About 2.5 min of totality and it was absolutely amazing. It got dark fast like someone pulled down a shade, the glasses came off, and suddenly we were no longer really looking at the sun -- we were looking at the moon, huge and with a gorgeous sunburst halo behind it. Unforgettable.

There was a very light hazy cloud cover, so you had to use your imagination to see the dimming. But the beach was crowded.

We had about 70% totality here in western NY. Fortunately it didn't become cloudy until near the very end of the eclipse, so we were able to see most of it. At the zoo where I work, we had eclipse activities that drew some good crowds. A local astronomer had arranged to bring a good telescope with a sun filter, and there were lines of people waiting to look through it all afternoon. We also had two tables set up for folks to make pinhole eclipse viewers out of cardboard and foil, and also had a couple dozen NASA-approved eclipse glasses that visitors could take turns using. My supervisor arranged for all the gate staff to be rotated off our posts at about 15-minute intervals so we could take turns stepping outside the booth to take in the fun. I got to look through the telescope twice, to use the eclipse glasses a number of times, and to try out several different models of pinhole viewers. Altogether a rather festive way to spend an afternoon at work!

I don't know what percentage coverage we got (central TX). Nowhere near totality, but I got some neat pictures of crescent-shaped shadows. I also did the selfie-over-the-shoulder thing. My mom thought that would ruin my phone's camera, but I couldn't see how, so I went ahead and did it. So far, it doesn't seem ruined. Those pictures came out much better than I thought. (I couldn't see them at the time for the glare.) You can actually see a little black crescent in the sky. (Although, come to think of it, why would the crescent be black??? )

commonsparrow3 wrote:We had about 70% totality here in western NY. Fortunately it didn't become cloudy until near the very end of the eclipse, so we were able to see most of it. At the zoo where I work, we had eclipse activities that drew some good crowds. A local astronomer had arranged to bring a good telescope with a sun filter, and there were lines of people waiting to look through it all afternoon. We also had two tables set up for folks to make pinhole eclipse viewers out of cardboard and foil, and also had a couple dozen NASA-approved eclipse glasses that visitors could take turns using. My supervisor arranged for all the gate staff to be rotated off our posts at about 15-minute intervals so we could take turns stepping outside the booth to take in the fun. I got to look through the telescope twice, to use the eclipse glasses a number of times, and to try out several different models of pinhole viewers. Altogether a rather festive way to spend an afternoon at work!

Was there much research done on how the animals reacted to the eclipse? I read somewhere that some of the zoos were watching their animals with interest.

Our exact coverage was 27% and arrived at 6:30 am, not long after sunrise, so a big crowd gathered at Makapu'u on the windward side.

And it was cloudy.

And it rained.

Bummer.

The big observatories on the top of Mauna Kea were all jacked up about it.

And it was cloudy.

And it snowed.

Double bummer.

carteki wrote:Was there much research done on how the animals reacted to the eclipse? I read somewhere that some of the zoos were watching their animals with interest.

I'd be interested in hearing how the zoo animals reacted! All I can say is that my parents' animals seemed oblivious. The dogs were asleep indoors nearly the whole time, and the chickens didn't go to roost -- they wandered out of the coop during totality, probably either because it got a little bit cooler or to see why we were making so much noise.

chocoholic wrote:

carteki wrote:Was there much research done on how the animals reacted to the eclipse? I read somewhere that some of the zoos were watching their animals with interest.

I'd be interested in hearing how the zoo animals reacted! All I can say is that my parents' animals seemed oblivious. The dogs were asleep indoors nearly the whole time, and the chickens didn't go to roost -- they wandered out of the coop during totality, probably either because it got a little bit cooler or to see why we were making so much noise.

Being a zoo, of course some educational information on animals and eclipses was bound to be part of our festivities. Our own zoo animals didn't react in any particular way, since we only had about 70% coverage. Basically, it was like an ordinary cloudy day. It got shady, there was a noticeable cooling-off as on a cloudy day, and the animals behaved as they would on such a day ordinarily. But we had talks and videos scheduled at intervals throughout the day, lessons on the animal behavior that has been observed in other places, during total eclipses. When it's total, it mimics night, and that brings out such reactions as birds heading to evening roosts and nocturnal animals waking up. That took place away from the front gate where I worked, so I didn't get to hear any of it, but I picked up a lot second-hand from chat with the education staff when I met them on their way up front. Some really interesting anecdotes!