Solar Eclipse
In case you’ve been living in a cave for the last month or so, there was a total solar eclipse across the middle of the lower 48 states today. The area of totality was far enough south of us that I didn’t feel any great need to visit Dana or Alan, cousins in Nashville, TN and Columbia, SC respectively. We would have something to watch here, even if it wasn’t as spectacular as what they’d get. I made two pinhole cameras, one to leave with Dorothy and the other to take with me to work. Cathy and I went out and watched with a lot of other folk from work, some with eclipse glasses, others with their own pinhole box cameras, and some looking at the image in my box, which was rigged up on the ground and was easily viewed. That made it easy to track the progress of the eclipse.
Nature’s Pinhole Camera
The first image here was taken at 2:38, about four minutes before it reached its maximum obscuration of just over 80%. There were clouds moving past for the next six or seven minutes, so this was the best I got. I know it isn’t anywhere near as good as what some folks will get, but I’m pretty pleased with it.
The second picture is the shade thrown by a walnut tree by the side of the parking lot. As you can see, each place where light comes through the leaves acts like a pinhole camera, projecting a crescent image on the ground.