Most of the news I consume is tech news. This is primarily because it interests me, but also because the scope of this news type tends to overlap social/political events, and therefore still exposes me to the more standard news that everyone else consumes, while remaining more esoteric and as a result–averse to the more repugnant predilections of other news (I’m looking at you, Fox).
But there’s still a gap, and I was oddly ignorant of the impending solar eclipse until just before the event. We as a people seem very divided on how much popular interest celestial events should garner. There’s people who don’t seem to care at all, and people who care a lot. Me? When I found out, I leaned towards caring a lot, though not enough to make travel plans.
I had never seen a solar eclipse before. The last one I recall was in the 90s, but it was far to the north and not visible where I was at the time (Texas). I assume this was the same event Liz recounted, and while in grade school she was far enough north to view it, but for the anti-litigatory reasons of school systems, she was not allowed to watch. However, she advised me that she defied authority and snuck a peek through the window, thus watching without protective eyewear and potentially causing the problem her school was seeking to avoid–and something that would have been easy to mitigate with cheap filters, had they just let the kids watch in the first place.
And so it was that my own daughter would have been prevented from partaking, had I not already scheduled the day off for unrelated reasons. And as she is AM kindergarten, I was able to bring her home and offer her this experience.
But, there was a problem. How was I to record this event without any specialized photographic equipment? We had a pair of filters, which made for a really good first-person viewing, demonstrated as follows:
Naturally, the thought progression led to taking a photo through the filters. That didn’t turn out so well:
Option 2: projection. Following some instructions for the pinhole in box method, I got a decent solar projection onto white paper, which I was then able to capture:
As the eclipse began, I took a second photo:
Later, I tried again:
It worked, but left something to be desired. So, I considered lens magnification. I had a pair of compact binoculars. I angled them, which in itself was difficult, and eventually I managed to get a decent image:
The image was much sharper, but still I wanted something better. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a telescope. But, I did have one more optic device, and it had much bigger lenses–a rifle scope!
The trouble with this method is that it’s attached to a rifle (and rather unwieldy when the objective is to point it skyward with one hand). The scope comes off, of course, but it’s been sighted, and I wasn’t willing to have to re-sight it just for this day’s project. No, I would simply take the entire weapon outside. Of course, it is my own damn yard and I’ll walk around it with a high-powered rifle if I damn well feel like it, but I’m also trying to be a decent neighbor, so I did feel a little guilty about brandishing a gun, but oh well. Maybe it’ll keep the neighbor’s kids off my lawn for all of 5 minutes.
It was difficult to hold the rifle (it’s heavy) while trying to get a photo, but eventually I was rewarded for my efforts:
Again the image was a little sharper, and after numerous attempts I was satisfied that it was as good as I was going to get. Then the moment of maximum coverage arrived and we simply watched with our own eyes. Despite waning attention spans, I hope the experience will make lasting memories.
Then the neighbors starting lighting firecrackers to celebrate, and I became cognizant of the fact that I was waving a gun around while explosions which sounded a lot like gunshots were echoing across the neighborhood. I put the weapon away. It will certainly be a memorable experience to me.
–Simon