The Royal Observatory will be live streaming the next solar eclipse in the UK on YouTube and Facebook, featuring state-of-the-art telescopes and expert commentary from Observatory astronomers.
Find out more. Judges' comments: One thing you often notice during an eclipse is how quiet everything becomes. Solar eclipses are calm, serene moments. This stripped-back image captures that serenity perfectly. The calm glow behind the silhouetted hills is all that is needed. Melanie says: A group of us went to Indonesia primarily to view the eclipse, but saw many other amazing things too, such as volcanoes and orangutans.
We were very lucky. The wet weather cleared in the morning to reveal a hot sunny day, before cloud again came over towards the end of the eclipse. This was my first ever total solar eclipse, and so the first time I have ever taken a photo of it.
I am so glad I was able to take a picture of totality and the diamond ring. What an experience it was, one I most certainly will never forget. From Earth it seems like the sunlight seen around the edge of the Moon is broken into fragments because the uneven lunar surface obscures some of the light. This creates the illusion of a string of beads encircling the Moon. Ancient myths from many cultures around the world have explained eclipses as a time when an animal or demon eats the Sun or Moon.
Even today, modern superstitions exist surrounding eclipses, with some believing that they could harm pregnant women. Scientists have debunked these modern superstitions; the only precaution you need to take is protecting your eyes when viewing the Sun. Of course, don't let anyone look at the sun in the mirror.
If you're around leafy trees, look at the shadow cast by them during the partial phases. What do you see? Is it worth a photograph? You will see scores of partially eclipsed suns projected through pinhole gaps between the leaves. This is caused by diffraction, a property of light.
According to Vince Huegele, an optical physicist at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, the light rays do not shoot straight by the rim of the gaps, or a pinhole, but bend around the edge. This wave effect creates a pattern of rings that resembles a bull's eye.
If you want to get all set up for it, we have guides to the best cameras for astrophotography , and the best lenses for astro , so you can be well prepared when the time comes. Acceptable filters for unaided visual solar observations include aluminized Mylar. Some astronomy dealers carry Mylar filter material specially designed for solar observing.
Also acceptable is shade 14 arc-welder's glass, available for just a few dollars at welding supply shops. Unacceptable filters include sunglasses, old color film negatives, black-and-white film that contains no silver, photographic neutral-density filters and polarizing filters.
Although these materials have very low visible-light transmittance levels, they transmit an unacceptably high level of near-infrared radiation that can cause a thermal retinal burn. The fact that the sun appears dim, or that you feel no discomfort when looking at the sun through these types of filters, is no guarantee that your eyes are safe.
There is one time when you can safely look directly at the sun: during a total eclipse, when the sun's disk is entirely covered. During those few precious seconds or minutes, the magnificent corona shines forth in all its glory surrounding the darkened sun; a marvelous fringe of pearly white light.
It differs in size, in tints and patterns from eclipse to eclipse. It is always faint and delicate, with a sheen like a pale aurora. It has a variable appearance. Sometimes it has a soft continuous look; at other times, long rays of it shoot out in three or four directions. It may stand out from the disk in filmy petals and streamers.
But when the sun begins to again emerge into view, the corona quickly disappears and you'll need to protect your eyes once again. As best as we can determine, the earliest record of a solar eclipse occurred over four millennia ago. In China, it was believed that the gradual blotting out of the sun was caused by a dragon who was attempting to devour the sun, and it was the duty of the court astronomers to shoot arrows, beat drums and raise whatever cacophony they could to frighten the dragon away.
In the ancient Chinese classic Shujing or Book of Documents is the account of Hsi and Ho, two court astronomers who were caught completely unaware by a solar eclipse, having gotten drunk just before the event began. In the aftermath, Zhong Kang, the fourth emperor of the Xia dynasty ordered that Hsi and Ho be punished by having their heads chopped off. The eclipse in question was that of Oct. In the Bible, in the book of Amos , are the words, "I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the Earth in the clear day.
An Assyrian tablet also attests to the event. According to the historian Herodotus, there was a five-year war that raged between the Lydians and the Medes. As the war was about to move into its sixth year, a Greek sage, Thales of Miletus foretold to the Ionians that the time was soon approaching when day would turn to night.
On May 17, B. And giving new meaning to the term "scared to death," is the timid emperor Louis of Bavaria, the son of Charlemagne, who witnessed an unusually long total eclipse of the sun on May 5, A.
Both the Sun and Moon vary in angular size throughout the year Sun or month Moon. The Moon's variation is more pronounced. Our planet is closest to the Sun perihelion in early January and farthest aphelion in early July. When near perigee, the Moon can easily cover the entire solar disk and create a total solar eclipse.
But at apogee the Moon is too small to cover all of the Sun's brilliant face. At mideclipse an annulus ring of sunlight surrounds the lunar silhouette, resulting in an annular eclipse.
This path is called the ecliptic, for reasons that will become obvious in a moment. More often than not, the new Moon passes above or below the Sun, and the lunar shadow misses Earth completely. There can be as many as seven eclipses solar plus lunar in any one year.
In there were five solar eclipses - four partial and one annular. On average, there is a total solar eclipse visible somewhere about every 18 months.
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