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.
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+.
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Original article on Space.com.
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