How to view Thursday's solar eclipse with a shoebox

I thought this was super cool, and it isn't every day their is a partial solar eclipse.

You'll also need some aluminum foil and a white sheet of paper to watch as the moon partially occludes the sun on Thursday.

By Miriam Kramer, SPACE.com Staff Writer OCTOBER 21, 2014

A potentially amazing partial solar eclipse is due to darken skies aboveNorth America Thursday (Oct. 23), and you can build and easy tool to help you view it safely.

It isn't safe to look directly at the sun during any eclipse of the sun, and the partial solar eclipse on Thursday  is no exception. Even though the moon is passing in front of the start from Earth's perspective, the sun is still incredibly bright and looking directly at it can damage any skywatcher's eyesight. Instead of looking straight at Earth's closest star, observers still interested in seeing the partial eclipse can use a pinhole camera— an easy tool made with household items.

A pinhole camera projects sunlight through a small hole in a box onto the other side of the box, allowing you to see a view of the sun safely without risking your eyesight. To create a pinhole camera, all you need is a shoebox, some white paper and foil. Once your creation is ready, you can see the progression of the partial eclipse with ease. [See Our Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Pinhole Eclipse Viewer]

Recommended: Are you scientifically literate? Take our quiz

You can also use some crafty skills and a pair of binoculars to create a solar eclipse projector for Thursday's event. To do that you'll need: a air of binoculars; a tripod or stack of books, duct tape; scissors; and two pieces of cardboard. You can use our video guide to build a solar eclipse projector with binoculars.

Thursday's partial solar eclipse should be visible, weather permitting, to people across a wide swath of North America, and even if you can't catch the eclipse from your part of the world, you can see it live online. The online Slooh Community Observatory will host a live webcast with expert commentary on its websitewww.slooh.com starting at 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT) on Thursday. Another webcast will be hosted by the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, California. 

You can also watch the solar eclipse webcasts live on Space.com.

Thursday's solar eclipse could act as a preview for another eclipse that should be visible to people around the United States in 2017, according to one eclipse expert.

"This partial eclipse visible to people looking through sun-safe filters on Thursday is a coming attraction for the August 21, 2017, eclipse that will have the moon entirely covering the sun in a 60-mile-wide band across the U.S. from Oregon to South Carolina, with 80 percent or more of the sun covered from most of the continental U.S.," Jay Pasachoff said in a statement.

WARNING: Never stare directly at the sun through binoculars, an unprotected telescope or your unaided eye. Serious eye damage can result. Astronomers use protective filters or solar eclipse glasses to safely observe the sun. 

"The sun is so bright that even through ordinary sunglasses you can damage your eyes if you stare at it," Pasachoff added. "The special solar filters that are available, which are made of a black polymer, block out all but about a thousandth of a percent of the sun's brightness, while ordinary sunglasses would dim the Sun by only a relatively small bit even in the visible while allowing almost all the hazardous infrared to come through."

Editor's Note: If you take an amazing skywatching photo of the solar eclipse or any other night sky view you'd like to share for a possible story or image gallery, please contact managingeditor Tariq Malik atspacephotos@space.com.

Follow Miriam Kramer @mirikramer and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

Chicken Mummies

We've been having a great time with our Chicken Mummies project.  Thank you so much for all of the donations to make this happen.  We should be taking our pharaohs home in a few weeks.  We still will need salt, thanks!

Cool Interactive Mongol Map

Time to start looking at the exception (don't worry the students will get that joke)
Interactive Mongol Map

Egyptian Mythology Webquest

Students, please click here to access your webquest.

Google Maps, behind the scenes of the pyramids

Super cool website found by the Somani family, thanks for sharing.  I think you all will find it pretty neat.

Pyramids of Giza

6th Grade Test!

All the kids have their study guides are well on their way of finishing them up.
Jeopardy


P.S. Don't forget your permission slips at activity fee!

Very cool!

How Did They Build The Pyramids? With Water!

 PLAY VIDEO

October 1, 2014

“Dracula’s Dungeon” Unearthed in Turkey

By Christopher Klein

1

Turkish archaeologists say they have discovered the dungeons that once held the 15th-century Romanian ruler Vlad the Impaler, credited as being the real-life inspiration for Bram Stoker’s classic horror tale “Dracula.”

Credit: DeAgostini/Getty Images

In 1442, the ruler of Wallachia (now part of present-day Romania) embarked on a diplomatic mission into the heart of the Ottoman Empire. It was a leap of faith for Vlad II, who had pledged to defend Christianity in Eastern Europe against the Ottomans 11 years earlier when he joined the fellowship of knights known as the Order of the Dragon. Now, however, the man who had been given the surname Dracul (which means “dragon” in Romanian) by his fellow knights needed the help of the Ottoman Sultan Murad II to fight a rival from the neighboring territory of Transylvania, and he journeyed to make his plea in person along with his two princes—7-year-old Radu and 11-year-old Vlad III, also known by the patronymic name Dracula (“son of Dracul”).

Vlad II ultimately received the military support he sought from the Ottomans, but it came at a price. In addition to an annual tribute, the Wallachian ruler agreed to leave his two sons behind as political prisoners to ensure his loyalty. The boys were held hostage in a picturesque citadel high atop a rocky precipice lording over the town of Tokat, which had been conquered by the Seljuk Turks at the end of the 12th century and incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1392. During his five years of captivity inside the fortress, the bile festered inside young Vlad III and his hatred of the Ottomans surged. After his release and eventual succession to the Wallachian throne, the older prince’s venom against the Ottoman Empire would be unleashed in such a brutal fashion that centuries later he is known simply as Vlad the Impaler and the real-life inspiration for a classic horror tale.

Now, according to Turkish newspaper Hurriyet Daily News, archaeologists working on the restoration of Tokat Castle in northern Turkey have discovered two dungeons where the Ottomans held Vlad the Impaler hostage. The dungeons inside the ancient fortress were “built like a prison,” archaeologist Ibrahim Cetin told the Turkish newspaper. “It is hard to estimate in which room Dracula was kept,” Cetin admitted, “but he was around here.”

In addition to the two dungeons that held Dracula, archaeologists have also unearthed a military shelter and a secret tunnel believed to have been used to access a nearby Roman bath. “The castle is completely surrounded by secret tunnels,” Cetin said. “It is very mysterious.”

What isn’t as mysterious is what happened to the Transylvania-born Vlad III after his release from Tokat Castle around the time his father and older brother Mircea were brutally killed in 1447. He ascended to the throne in 1456 and maintained his barbaric rule through torture, mutilation and mass murder. Victims were disemboweled, beheaded and skinned or boiled alive.

By 1462 he was at war with the Ottomans. With the enemy on the advance with a force three times the size of his own, Vlad III hid in the Romanian forests and relied on savage guerilla tactics. His forces poisoned wells, burned crops and paid diseased men to infiltrate Ottoman ranks and pass along their pestilence. It was a gruesome mass killing, however, that led to his posthumous nickname when he ordered 20,000 defeated Ottomans to be impaled on wooden stakes outside the city of Targoviste. When a horrified Sultan Mehmed II came upon the forest of the dead being picked apart by crows, he retreated to Constantinople.

Hungarian forces captured Vlad the Impaler later that year, and he was imprisoned for the second time in his life. Most historians believe his later captivity occurred in Romania and lasted more than a decade, although the exact location and length have been disputed. Vlad the Impaler reclaimed the Wallachian throne after the death of his younger brother Radu in 1475, but it was a short-lived reign as he was believed to have been killed in battle against the Ottomans in 1476.

The legend of Vlad the Impaler’s brutality grew after his death as stories spread that he dined on the impaled bodies of his victims and even dipped his bread into their blood. The dark tales apparently served as inspiration for Irish novelist Bram Stoker who in 1897 penned a Gothic novel about a vampire who shared a Transylvanian birthplace and nickname with Vlad the Impaler—Dracula.

Walters Art Gallery Fieldtrip

Hello everyone, permission slips went out today for the Walters Art Gallery Field trip.  Please check your child's take home folders today.

Unfortunately, the bulk email functionality of our grading software is still not working.  They tell me they are working on it!

Don't forget, 5th grade test on Wednesday!