Today Mercury will be at inferior conjunction. After today the planet will reappear in the dawn, rising high enough from the Sun’s glow to be seen in mid September.
Category: Sky Events
Sky events
Totality Achieved
Just a photo downloaded from the camera and minimally processed on the iPad…
New Moon
A total solar eclipse will sweep across the mainland United States today. For viewers here in the islands this eclipse will be visible as a minor partial eclipse with between 15-20% of the Sun’s disk covered by the Moon. The eclipse will occur right at sunrise.
Given the path and the probability of good weather this eclipse is likely to be heavily watched. Expect thousands of photos available on social media shortly!
Solar Eclipse Blog
Yes, DarkerView has been a solar eclipse blog over the last couple weeks. No worries, it will soon be over and regular programming will resume… After the obligatory photos from the eclipse expedition!
Total Solar Eclipse 2017
Eclipse Observing Checklist
The Eclipse Plan
Safe Eclipse Viewing
Two Solar Film Filters
Countdown to the Eclipse
The Sun on Eclipse Day
The Solar Corona on Eclipse Day
Correcting a Baader Solar Film Solar Image
The Eclipse Petroglyph
Hodgepodge
Miss any?
A Crescent Moon Rises
Ahead of our aircraft a crescent Moon is rising. Outside the window it is completely dark, a blackness broken only by the strobing anticollision lights across the wing and the rising Moon. Seattle is still hours away as we cross the Pacific, there are no city lights below to break the darkness.
Somewhere below me in the cargo hold is the telescope mount, assembled from restored and hand made parts. In the luggage bin overhead is the telescope, the little refractor that is a prized posession. Through it I have watched and photographed eagles and whales, volcanic eruptions, and distant galaxies. At my feet is a pack with a few cameras in it, only five.
For over a decade I have awaited the coming of this event. A day that once seemed so remote draws swiftly near as a rising crescent Moon portends.
The Eclipse Plan
With a little short of two minutes of totality I need to go into this with a plan. I do want a few photos, but I also want to experience the eclipse. How do I balance that?
The plan calls for three cameras… A single camera on a solar telescope, this will be primarily run on automatic with an intervalometer. I just need to check focus and centering of the solar image periodically during the long partial phases. I will use part of totality to attend to this camera and take a deep corona photo.
The Sun on Eclipse Day
A few days ago I looked at the solar imagery from the spacecraft and ground observatories and feared that our Sun would be completely spotless for next week’s solar eclipse. The one sunspot visible had just rotated out of view, not to return until well after the eclipse. There were no other sunspots apparent.
Sunspot group AR2671 formed on the eastern limb of the Sun over the last couple days. It has even produced a few c-class solar flares to show it has some vigor.
Better yet… This sunspot group will be a boon to eclipse photographers across the US. The pattern of dark spots will make the difficult task of focusing a telescope on the Sun far easier. These spots will provide a focus target to untold telescopes.
The only question now is will the group last for five more days? Will is grow or shrink.
The Eclipse Petroglyph
Among the petroglyphs at Horsethief Lake is one that has always caused me to wonder. Of course the site is home to the famous Tsagaglalal or She-Who-Watches image. This is not the one I refer to, rather a somewhat smaller and usually overlooked image.
To my eye the image is clearly that of the solar corona surrounding the black shadow of the Moon against the Sun. The image is all the more striking to me personally… In 1979 I witnessed a total solar eclipse, my first, just a short distance from here, from the bluffs above Maryhill.
The Solar Corona on Eclipse Day
With a quiet Sun, no active sunspot regions on the face or limb of the visible disk, one wonders what the solar corona will look like. What will we see when the Moon blots out the Sun and the corona is revealed.
Just up the hill from me is the Mauna Loa Solar Observatory. I know a couple folks that work there and have toured the facility. MLSO is a fairly modest telescope equipped with some very specialized instruments. This telescope stares at the Sun all day, every day, monitoring our star as part of a worldwide network of solar observatories.
The Sun on Eclipse Day
What will the Sun look like when eclipse day arrives on August 21st?
Very quiet!
I observed this spot several times while training some folks at the observatory to use a solar setup and while testing my eclipse telescope.
AR2670 is now disappearing from sight as it rotates over the limb, maybe it will be back in another couple weeks for a third appearance.
Checking the SOHO image archive and the GONG farside maps shows there is nothing else, no significant solar activity that will appear before the total eclipse in eight days. Nothing hiding on the farside to rotate into sight.
There is a slim chance of something new developing over the next week. However, we are approaching solar minimum, a quiet Sun is to be expected. Indeed, I expect we will have an almost featureless solar disk on eclipse day.
Update 14 Aug 2017: With one week to go a new spot has appeared! I do not see that is has an AR designation yet, but this new spot should be in the middle of the Sun on eclipse day if it lasts for the week. It may not be big or pretty, but it will at least give everyone something to focus cameras on in preparation for the main event.
Update 15 Aug 2017: The new sunspot has been designated AR2671 and has already produced some C class flares. Looks like has the energy to develop a bit more. At least one small sunspot for the eclipse?