Less than a month until The Big Event! The Big Event = first total solar eclipse in Erie County, PA in over 150 years! (Last ‘ring of fire’/partial solar eclipse was in 1994.) Here at BirdingPI.com, we’re stocking up on essential gear, in no particular order: (i) eclipse glasses [WARNING: do not look at the sun!]; (ii) orange GorillaTM tape or duct tape for quick fabrication of telescope light filter boxes, etc.; & (iii) lens filters, e.g., a ‘solar filter’ a.k.a. neutral density filter:
Preview, a nice shot yesterday on a sunny Monday of… the sun @ 1200mm handheld w/ sunspots:
More sun w/ sunspots on Tuesday:
Same pixel dimensions, but @ 600mm handheld:
It being Erie, always a potential for bad weather. With that in mind, to avoid complete disappointment, here are BirdingPI.com’s ‘helpful’ instructions for “Do It Yourself Solar Eclipse Photograph:”
1) On a sunny day, take a picture of the sun. To avoid blindness, utilize safe methodology!
2) Copy the picture to desktop, then open with Microsoft Paint or another drawing program, e.g., right click on the file and “Open with” Paint.
3) Expand the work area to 2x size:
4) Using the circle tool, draw a circle slightly larger than the sun and move to the ‘blank’ part of the work area:
5) Fill the circle with black:
6) Using the rectangular selection tool, move the circle to artistically partially cover the sun, then resize to remove the unneeded workspace. Voila! Eclipse photos!
On tomorrow’s post, the only thing more amazing than ‘forthcoming total solar eclipse:” Canada Geese!
On a serious note, thanks to the Team Leader for making it easy to see the eclipse! Even in Aridzona!
One last thing: on the opening remarks the Team Leader showed a box of eclipse glasses, with the note “do not look at the sun!” So why have the eclipse glasses if you shouldn’t look at the sun???