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A rare solar eclipse is occurring today .. the moon is passing in front of the sun and if you are in the right physical location, you'll see a firey ring around a dark circle.
Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, we don't get to see the ring .. BUT ... with a *very primitive* pinhole camera, Mr. Pirate & I were able to see a partial eclipse. (If anyone was stupid enough to look directly at the sun without the proper precautions, they have now burned their retinas out.)
I had gone outside on our deck and was immediately struck by how ODD the sunlight seemed. It wasn't nearly time for twilight .. and even if it was, the light just was NOT twilight. It was just "darker". Then I remembered the eclipse.
I got a manila folder; Mr. Pirate tore it in half and poked a (literally) 3 pinholes in the middle of one.
(One pinhole would have been sufficient, but you know boys .. more is better! :-) ).
He then held the non-holey page underneath and at a distance from the page with the pinholes.
The sunlight shines through the holes (as light is wont to do) and what was projected onto the page below was .... THE ECLIPSE! woo hoo!
Granted, it was only a partial one here .. it looked like a bite had been taken out of the sun. But, what a nifty sight!
Then, as the moon moved along, the sunlight got stronger .. and now (let's say 15 minutes later), we have our normal late afternoon sunlight back again.
But .. DANG! That was neat! :-)
Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, we don't get to see the ring .. BUT ... with a *very primitive* pinhole camera, Mr. Pirate & I were able to see a partial eclipse. (If anyone was stupid enough to look directly at the sun without the proper precautions, they have now burned their retinas out.)
I had gone outside on our deck and was immediately struck by how ODD the sunlight seemed. It wasn't nearly time for twilight .. and even if it was, the light just was NOT twilight. It was just "darker". Then I remembered the eclipse.
(One pinhole would have been sufficient, but you know boys .. more is better! :-) ).
He then held the non-holey page underneath and at a distance from the page with the pinholes.
Granted, it was only a partial one here .. it looked like a bite had been taken out of the sun. But, what a nifty sight!
Then, as the moon moved along, the sunlight got stronger .. and now (let's say 15 minutes later), we have our normal late afternoon sunlight back again.
But .. DANG! That was neat! :-)
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