Total Solar Eclipse Sunday 5-12-12

[KC9Q]

You luck West Coast guys get to see the whole show.

SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids


SOLAR ECLIPSE THIS WEEKEND: On Sunday, May 20th, the Moon will pass in front of the Sun, producing an annular solar eclipse visible across the Pacific side of Earth. The path of annularity, where the sun will appear to be a "ring of fire," stretches from China and Japan to the middle of North America:

An animated eclipse map prepared by Larry Koehn of ShadowandSubstance.com shows the best times to look. In the United States, the eclipse begins at 5:30 pm PDT and lasts for two hours. Around 6:30 pm PDT, the afternoon sun will become a luminous ring in places such as Medford, Oregon; Chico, California; Reno, Nevada; St. George, Utah; Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Lubbock, Texas. Outside the narrow center line, the eclipse will be partial. Observers almost everywhere west of the Mississippi will see a crescent-shaped sun as the Moon passes by off-center.
Because this is not a total eclipse, some portion of the sun will always be exposed. To prevent eye damage, use eclipse glasses, a safely-filtered telescope, or a solar projector to observe the eclipse. You can make a handy solar projector by criss-crossing your fingers waffle-style. Rays of light beaming through the gaps will have the same shape as the eclipsed sun. Or look on the ground beneath leafy trees for crescent-shaped sunbeams and rings of light.

 

[Mudfoot]

I sure would like to see some pics and videos posted.

Us Easterners aren't gonna see much, so I've been told.

I have only witnessed a few celestial events in my life. Usually the clouds always ruin my view. Made one of them pinhole cameras in grade school.

A link to a live webcam feed would be awesome to watch.

 

[KC9Q]

The best I can hope for is videos of the results posted on spaceweather.com. Here in the Chicago area we will only be able see a partial solar eclipse right at sunset. I wish I knew how to transfer some of the videos from the spaceweather site to the forum response boxes. But for now all I can do is provide the link to the web site.

The planet Venus is suppose to pass in front of the sun too this weekend, so it's a double solar show.

I see 6 Meters was wide open this afternoon. I don't know if that had anything to do with the solar activity, or if it was a tropo event. I talked with a station near Sarasota, FL and his outside temp was 81 while it was 90 degrees in Chicago. Imagine that, warmer here than Florida.

 

[Beetle]

Tomorrow's eclipse won't be "total" anywhere on this planet. It's an "annular" eclipse, meaning the moon is a bit too far away to completely cover the sun's disc. This results in a ring (annulus in Latin) of the sun's disc showing around the silhouette of the moon's disc. It will get darker than normal, but not as dark as in an actual TOTAL eclipse.

 

[FatHam]

Am I the only one that did a double take and checked the calendar?

 

[gamegetter]

Am I the only one that did a double take and checked the calendar?

:w00t:
Apparently so!!!

I finally listened to the weather channel this morning and got the details on the annular eclipse happening today 5/20/2012!!!

I will likely have cloudy conditions and light rain all day here in the midwest but if it clears up any by this evening I'll see what I can view.

 

[KC9Q]

Sorry guys, I meant 5-20-12. I won't see much here anyway: They're predicting strong thunderstorms late afternoon/evening time period.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

I wont see any of it here. I am too far east. The sun will likey have set by then.

 

[Robb]

Just a quick heads up here.
1 1/2 hours before the Eclipse.
Get your observing gear ready.