Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Solar Eclipse Day in Colorado

I am lucky enough to be working for a company that is 100% full of science geeks, so Monday's eclipse was a very special time around the building.  Here in Colorado, we hit 92% coverage, so it was still fun to watch.
One of my co-workers set up a pair of binoculars on a tripod to project good magnified images on a back board. I didn't need to look through any fancy specs directly at the event. Instead, I had more fun taking cel phone pictures of the projections at 15 to 20 minute intervals during the entire eclipse.

This is a picture of the observing set-up used.  Makeshift, but very effective...

 






Ten minutes into the event....

The rock holding the back board in place is a good representation of the rogue planet NIBIRU, which is supposed to destroy the earth soon!













This pic was taken at maximum coverage in this area, approx. 11:47 a.m. MST

A cool picture showing hundreds of mini projections in the shadow of a nearby tree. This was taken slightly after maximum coverage.

































I don't expect that many people took too many images of the moon's limb exiting the sun's.  I'm a professed nerd, so here it is...



The really cool thing is these maginified projections show sunspots!  A large grouping appears in lower center of the sun's disc, and a smaller group appears just next to the tiny remnant of the moon's image in this photo.  Also if you enlarge this photo, you can actually see hints of the 'grainy' appearance of the sun's surface, as well as the characteristic curvature shading around the disc edges.

Yep, I may have missed out on the spectacular views of totality enjoyed by the many who traveled to be in  'The Path', but I had a very enjoyable day at work viewing 'Eclipse 2017' with all of my geek friends and co-workers!

Astronomy is nearly as fun as model rocketry!