Monday was the 2017 Great Solar Eclipse. Obviously I really wasn’t paying enough attention prior to
the event because I didn’t manage to acquire appropriate eyewear ahead of time.
Been too busy I guess. Also, I really thought I was already well equipped as I
have a welding shield that I was planning to use. Little did I know that welding
filters vary in degrees of eye protection. I learned last weekend most welding
helmets are constructed with a #12 filter; however, number 14 is the lowest
grade recommended for viewing the sun. Doh!
Sunday
evening found me searching for a box and a Youtube instruction video to
construct a pinhole viewing box; basically a pinhole camera without
photo-sensitive paper inside. I built one, and it worked, but boy, was it ever
inferior to viewing the event directly through a safe filter!
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| Here's Shauna modeling my home-made pinhole viewer. |
On Monday morning we traveled to
Science World to at least view the spectacle with hundreds of other people. As
luck would have it, some generous people were letting others less fortunate
(like us) borrow their viewing glasses for quick glimpses of the slowly
unfolding event.
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| It really wasn't as hard as I make it look to find the tiny reflected image of the sun inside my viewer. |
I think what surprised me most is how much the
air temperature dropped as more of the sun disappeared from view. Officially it
was only a degree or so, but on our skin it felt like quite a few more.
Officially in Vancouver about 86% of the sun was covered by the moon at peak
eclipse. It’s also surprising how light it remained with only 14% of normal
sunlight striking the ground. I’ve since watched videos of how the daylight
diminished approaching the full eclipse, essentially producing night during the
day. It looks like it would have been a bit of a creepy experience, but none-the-less one I’d
like to experience. Maybe next time in eastern Canada in 2024.
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| This is about as good a view as was possible inside my home-made pinhole viewer. |
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| Unfortunately this quality of image is unattainable from a simple pinhole viewer. |
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| Eclipse aftermath; pinhole viewer recycling. |
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