Solar Eclipse Day Is Finally Here!

Monday, Aug. 21, 2017 is finally here!  My special eclipse glasses and I are ready for the very rare astronomical event.

The long anticipated solar eclipse is this afternoon and we are fortunate in America to have the path of the eclipse going through our country from Oregon to South Carolina, ending at Charleston.

SC State is having a big gathering at Oliver C. Dawson Stadium beginning at 11 a.m. I will soon be heading over. What an exciting atmosphere it should be!

"Totality"- when the moon is fully in front of the sun- will be from 2:43:02 until 2:45:24, lasting just more than 2 minutes.  When this occurs, the sun's bright corona will be seen around the moon.  Camera filters are not needed during this brief phase.

Over the weekend I practiced shooting with the eclipse glasses filter covering my iPad (right) and also with my iPhone 7.

The special filtered glasses and filters for cameras are needed during the partial eclipse phase, expected to start at 1:14 this afternoon, and then go one for a while after totality.

The concern is the sun's intensity can hurt our eyes if we stare to look at it too long (which, of course, is not a good idea anytime!).

A camera's sensors can also be damaged, potentially, so that's why many shutterbugs will be using filters of all kinds when shooting the partial eclipse.

In my sun shooting Saturday, using the taped filter technique shown above, the iPhone photo (left) came out a little better than the iPad one.

I will post more on the eclipse later after this afternoon's activities here on campus.