Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Annular Solar Eclipse, Cedar City, UT

Didn't do any hiking the past week. This last weekend, I had a busy one, full of driving and astronomy, but no hiking.

I've got a picture of the annular phase, taken with my "point and shoot" through the eyepiece of one of my telescopes. Because of the picture approach, you can see a lot of reflections off the glass of the telescope's eyepiece. You can also see the "ring of fire" that was visible by looking through the telescope.

A link to my sidewalk astronomy blog write-up is linked here.

My hiking schedule for the coming week is starting to look pretty compacted, too. Still, I'll definitely get something in over Memorial Day weekend, if not before.

4 comments:

  1. In case you're wondering what you're looking at in the picture, that's a picture of the top of my eyepiece, taken with a point and shoot. You can see the top of the eyepiece. That's the rubber circular thing. Inside the solid round thing is the glass of my eyepiece. It's multi-coated, so you see multiple reflections off the glass surfaces coming up at you. The bluish-green color tells you it's coated glass.

    Then, the round yellow thing is, of course, the eclipsed sun. You're looking through the telescope at that. If your eye and head were where the camera is, and you used your hand to shield the sun coming around the outside of the telescope, the reflections would disappear and you'd just see the eclipsed sun.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great photo! One of the most interesting I've seen of the eclipse. Love the surrounding blues and greens you captured around the edge of the sun.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Skyhiker,

    I tried to reply to your Rosemead Sidewalk Astronomy site but I don't think it worked. Glad you got to see the eclipse. Your photo above of the ring-of-fire turned out great. The eclipse was only partial here in western Tennessee but we didn't even get to see that since it clouded up about an hour beforehand. Oh well. Looking forward to the Venus transit.

    Best regards,
    Bob Vickers

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I guess I had the comment permissions set wrong over there. That could explain why no one ever comments there. ;D

      Cedar City was a great location. Nary a cloud in the sky above us, although we could see some gathering to the north. I understand Salt Lake City got clouded out.

      Venus transit will be tough. It's during work hours, starting a little after 3pm out here. It's also on election day. I'm debating if I will have to take a couple of "sick-personal" hours, or possibly see if they'll let me take my "up to two hours at the beginning or end of your shift" to vote, and also see the transit.

      I really want to see the first and second contact. Weather-permitting, of course!

      Delete