Solar Eclipse Workshop

By Darren Bellingham

A simulated view during totality

Detail of the Path on the Cape York Peninsula

The Eclipse Path across Australia

View from Melbourne

What will you see

Corona - once the sun is completely hidden, you can see the full glory of the solar corona. The corona is about the same brightness as the full moon. For the best chance of seeing the corona you will need to wear an eye patch over one eye, the dark adapted eye is exposed as totality commences and you will see more detail of this phenomenon.

What will you see cont’d.

Baily’s Beads - arc of bright spots seen during a total eclipse of the Sun. Just before the Moon’s disk completely covers the Sun, the narrow crescent of sunlight may be broken in several places by irregularities (mountains and valleys) on the edge of the Moon’s disk; the resulting array of spots roughly resembles a string of beads.

Diamond Ring - as the last bit of photosphere disappears, you see something called the "diamond ring effect"—the beautiful inner corona forming a ring around the moon with a brilliant white jewel of light.

What will you see cont’d

Chromosphere - after the diamond ring disappears, you only have a couple seconds to notice the crimson-colored chromosphere before it too is eclipsed.

What will you see

Prominences - the 2nd striking thing you may see during totality are the beautiful prominences. These gigantic jets and loops of gas around the edge of the sun follow local magnetic fields usually emanating from sunspots. They are the beautiful crimson color of glowing hydrogen gas.

Totality

Shadow bands - are thin wavy lines of alternating light and dark that can be seen moving and undulating in parallel on plain-coloured surfaces immediately before and after a total solar eclipse. Shadow bands are caused by the thin slot-like solar crescent illuminating the Earth's atmosphere moments before and after totality, and their movement is caused by winds.

What will you see cont’d

What will you see cont’d

Crescent Suns, these natural pinhole camera images are created by trees, vegetation and sometimes through windows, so keep an eye out for a photo opportunity.

• At Ceduna we saw seabirds return to land as the air cooled and it started to darken.

• In Victoria in 1976 roosters crowed as the Eclipse ended and cows began to moo loudly during totality.

• At Woomera in 2002 ants were observed to return to their nests as the light dimmed They use the Sun to Navigate so this is not surprising but definitely something to watch for.

Animal Behavior

How to view the Eclipse

The Pinhole Projection MethodA perfectly adequate (and portable) version can be made out of two thin but stiff pieces of white cardboard. Punch a small clean pinhole in one piece of cardboard and let the sunlight fall through that hole onto the second piece of cardboard, which serves as a screen, held below it. To make the image larger, move the screen farther from the pinhole. Do not look through the pinhole at the Sun.

Welders' GogglesWelders' goggles or the filters for welder's goggles with a rating of 13 or higher are safe to use for looking directly at the Sun. Warning! Should not be used with binoculars or telescope. If you wish to observe the eclipse with binoculars or a telescope, you must use a specially designed solar filter on the front end (or Sun-side) of the instrument.

How to view the Eclipse cont’d.

How to view the Eclipse cont’d.

Telescope Solar Filters and Eclipse glassesMany telescope and camera companies provide metal-coated filters that are safe for viewing the Sun in white light. Pieces of this material are often fashioned in to eclipse glasses for direct viewing without a telescope. You can look directly at the Sun through these filters. Filters that attach to eyepieces are totally unsafe and must not be used.

Eclipse glassesTelescope & baader filter

Observing with Binoculars Metal coated mylar filters can also be used on binoculars. Once totality has begun it can and should be observed without a filter, whether with the eyes alone or with binoculars or telescopes. As soon as totality ends filters must again be used.

How to view the Eclipse cont’d.

One method of attaching Mylar filters to binoculars

Tips for photographing the Eclipse

1) Setup your equipment early (e.g. Tripod)

2) Get a good solar filter that can be attached in front of your

lens.

3) Use a lens with a focal length of 200mm to 500mm. If you

are using a compact camera, set it to the maximum optical

zoom level that is available.

4) Use an ISO value of 50 or 100, aperture size of 8-16 and

focus on infinity. Take a series of photos at every shutter

speed ranging from 1/1000 sec to 1 sec.

5) Take a few long exposure shots to further capture the

coronal feature better.

Some useful websites:-

NASA Website: http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse.html

Solar FX: http://www.solareclipse2012.com/

Astronomical Society Queensland has a great fact sheet about the eclipse:http://www.aaq.org.au/cms/index.php

Eclipse2012 has information exclusively about the eclipse:http://www.eclipse2012.org.au/

Cairns tourism:http://www.visitcairns.com.au/cairns_eclipse_2012.htm

Port Douglas tourism:http://www.tourismportdouglas.com.au/Port-Douglas-Solar-Eclipse-2012.2496.0.html

Eclipser – Climatology and Maps for Eclipseshttp://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~jander/tot2012/tse12intro.htm