Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Eclipse

My favourite was Wyoming ... just short of 3 mins of Totality ..... camped out in the Gros Ventre Wilderness then hiked further to a hollow in the hills on the day ... Me and Mrs Image and our mad Neice ... not another soul for miles and a view of the Grand Tetons ... crystal clear blue sky and the the Total Eclipse ... one of my lifetime memories.

Pics don't even come close to catching it* ( having seen a couple before we just put our cameras and phones away ... even parted the young'un from her phone! And just immersed in it) .... out in the wild it's a strange/ uncanny/ moving experience ... birds go quiet and the wildlife is unsettled ... in spite of our logic, us Human animals aren't immune to the instinctive 'oddness' of it .... almost impossible to remain sitting down (guess some deep 'fight or flight' rssponse to the weirdness).

Anyone who hasn't seen one and gets the chance should definitely take the opportunity!

K

* there's plenty of pro eclipse photographers who use mega-equipment to take wonderful images to jog your memory if needed ... anything us mere mortals can snap does it no justice 🙂

Ps ... will get googling ... wound myself up to want to see another one now 🙂

Fully agree. It is close to that feeling when your first born is born. Pure magic and joy.

I shall watch the next eclipse with my remaining good eye.

Funny you should say that because that is what I used as well - two panes, held together, and it worked a treat. However, there was a chap also trying a modern mask and it would work for less than a second before it reverted back to the 'light' setting; thus, for awhile the eclipse was accompanied by a soundtrack of a lot of cursing and "dammit"

I was in a field with a perfect view and found it fascinating to watch because other than the light dimming a little, and a somewhat eerie tone of light covering everything near the 90% mark, you wouldn't have known it was happening without glasses.

I was just disappointed because my solar generation dropped

I used my old furnace glasses. Given to me when I started as a Metallurgist in the steelworks. You got used to the colours they showed so with experience you could judge the temperature of the molten slag on the steel surface. It's surprising how accurate you could be versus the thermocouple used. You did repairs to the simple stainless wire frame so you kept the lens. Small, circular lenses approx 30-35mm dia.
Basically welding glass spec.
I watched but the lack of dimmed light was disappointing. I was hoping birds etc would have gone silent but they didn't. There was a subdued light but a bit like the start of evening level. I think it was over hyped in the media. No Triffids seen.....yet.
I did enjoy satellite spotting during Covid and took a photo of the ISS. Long expisure so it showed as a line of light. Also the SpaceX satellites. Groups formation. Also other satellites .

Simon ... you can revert to naked-eye during the totality but as soon as the tiny 'diamond' of the returning sun arrives it's back to the glass unless you have a thing for guide-dogs! 🙂

Considering how rare they are, I was astounded to find out how early they could be forecast ... the Babylonians in 500BC working on clay tablets could mostly forecast them ... and by 150BC the Greeks had true calculations to predict eclipses! .... smart buggers the lot of them! 🙂 .... goes to show that we're no smarter than our ancient forebears .... we've just had the time to learn more stuff and use more stuff.

K

That make the calculations somewhat faster

Indeed Graham .... we have the gadgets that make us look impressive ... but in terms of raw intellect our ancestors give nothing away to us! 🙂

K

Your referring to the Antikythera mechanism (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism). An outstanding mechanism that was handmade. No CAD in those days.