Partial Solar Eclipse March 2015

The eclipse coverage from Israel was only 6%. while such a small eclipse seems to be an uninteresting even, an eclipse is an eclipse and you have to observe what geography gives you!

The total solar eclipse was total only at the north arctic ocean. The entire Europe saw a partial eclipse, and Israel was at the edge with only 2.5-8% depending on your location in the country.

Nevertheless I used this opportunity to have a street astronomy and setup my telescope at the local mall where it was very busy on Friday noon. The weather was cloudy but I was sure that during the 90 minutes of the eclipse there will be enough time with clear skies.

Here is the setup just a few minutes before the beginning of the eclipse. The sun is out of the clouds. Notice the special sun filter in front of he telescope. Direct view of the sun is dangerous.

My setup for the solar eclipse

When the eclipse started I called the passenger to come and look. Some of them knew about the eclipse, some came especially to see it (I published it on Facebook) but most of them were just lucky enough to be in the area. Most people came gladly but other where a bit suspicious probably thinking I want to sell them something....

The beginning of the eclipse 20/03/2015 Israel

It is always a pleasure to hear the WOW calls from children and adults.

Observing the solar eclipse

The eclipse was short and just in 40 minutes we reached the greatest eclipse. 6% is not much but it is easily visible and definitely better than no eclipse.

6% eclipse 20/3/02105 Israel

And this is me with my little 70mm refractor (William Optics 70mm Doublet APO). This scope is very useful for such observatory and it takes 2 minute to operate. It is a high quality grab and go scope and essential for such observations.

Me and my telescope

The eclipse is about to end and I watched the last seconds of it as the sun got whole again through the scope.

The end of the eclipse

To summarize it was a great experience, especially to be able to show the wonders of nature to dozens of people!

How to view a solar eclipse safely

Solar eclipse is a wonder - partial and definitely a total. Many people wants to observe this marvelous celestial event and some will go great distance to a place of totality. Here are some tips and rule which will enable you to view the event safely. Remember that direct viewing of the sun with the eyes is dangerous and doing it with an optical aid such as binoculars or a telescope may cause permanent damage and blindness. Do not use improvisations such as old floppy disks, old films etc.
This warning is true even if the eclipse is 98%. Never look at the sun directly. If you are so fur tune to have a full solar eclipse you can look at the sun halo during the short period of totatily.
The instructions are also suitable for a Solar eclipse observations. 

After this warning here are some options to view a solar Eclipse.

Solar Eclipse Glasses

1. Get special solar eclipse glasses. These are special glasses, with special filters which block almost 99.99% of the sun light. Such glasses are not expensive, and will be very useful for future solar eclipses (there will be a full solar eclipse in 2017 in the USA). However, such glasses are to be used with the eyes only, and not through a telescope or binoculars!
2. If you have a telescope you might want to consider to purchase a Solar Telescope Filter for it. There are generic filters which are suitable for many telescopes and there are vendor specifics filters for the vendor brands. You can buy at Amazon or at your local dealer. These filters are attached to the telescope, in front of it and block the light BEFORE it enters the telescope. Such filters MUST NOT be used instead of an eyepiece. The light from the sun must be blocked before it is concentrated by the telescope (the filter is not strong enough to block the light after the telescope concentrates it). During the observations make sure that the filter is strongly attached and that no one removes it by mistake (especially when you are doing an observation with a group of people).
3. If you are really into solar viewing, you should consider purchasing a dedicated solar telescope. Such telescopes as the Coronado PST are dedicated and safe for solar viewing and are useful to observe other interesting solar phenomena such as the sun prominence.
      
4. If you have a telescope and you want to project the image to a large audience you can use the projection method. Basically you project the image of the Sun to a dark surface (make it in the shade) and focus. Sunspots are very visible this way. This method is appropriate for small refractors and Newtonian telescopes, but not for SCT telescopes. If you are not sure how to do it or if it is suitable for your telescope do not do it! Personally, I do not like this method very much since I think that if you already have a telescope, it is a very little investment to buy the filter. Take note that the intensity of the sun light may harm the telescope as it creates heat which can harm the plastic and the optics so do it at your own risk. Also make sure that no-one ever tries to look through the telescope at the sun. Full instructions are here
5. You actually don't have to own a telescope to project the sun. You can build a great homemade pinhole projector from simple boxes. You will get a small image of the sun and you will be able to see a dark spot on it. Watch the below video to see how (It is recommended to watch in on full screen)
7. If you do not have the solar glasses nor a telescope, join your local astronomy club. Any eclipse is a major event and professional observatory and local amateur groups will provide the means for the public to view the eclipse properly and safely.
8. Join a live web cast of the event. Many observatories from around the globe will host live cover of the eclipse. You will be able to view it safely from your home. However, I think that this is the less preferred option to view an eclipse (just one step away from not viewing it at all) as there is no replacement for viewing with your own eye.

Projecting the sun through a telescope - a bit risky but possible

Some examples:
How to view and photograph sunspots
Partial solar eclipse

Partial Solar Eclipse

Today, 3-Nov-2013 there was a total solar eclipse visible from central Africa. From Israel about 20% of the sun was covered by the moon at most, but still it was a great experience to observe and photographed. Please notice a band of sunspots in three regions at the lower part of the sun.
Needless to say, I used special filters for my eyes, camera and binoculars for the observation.
Here are some photos of the event.

Beginning of the eclispe

Getting better

The eclipse progress

The moon bites the sun

A pac-man like sun

Greatest partial eclipse

What a view

Some minutes before the end of the eclipse

The sun is almost whole again

Notice the sun color shift

And another atmospheric view

The whole sun after the eclipse

sunset

Partial Lunar eclipse 25-Apr-2013

Truth is, I had no expectations from yesterday partial lunar eclipse. It was as partial as partial can be and only 1.5% of the moon surface was in the earth full shade (Umbra). The rest was in the Penumbra and 1.5% was not even in any shade... Anyway, an eclipse is an eclipse and I was curious to see how such a partial eclipse will look like. It turned out to look very good even to the naked eye, the shaded moon was obvious even in the penumbral phase. After the eclipse I observed Saturn which was near the moon.
First a photo of my tools of the trade:

Astronomy - tools of the trade

Here are some photos from the eclipse

Partial lunar eclipse - Penumbarl phase

Partial lunar eclipse - Beginning

Partial lunar eclipse - getting better

Partial lunar eclipse - noticeable

Partial lunar eclipse - Greatest

Partial lunar eclipse - fading

Partial lunar eclipse - little bit less

Partial lunar eclipse - the end

And here is tiny photo of Saturn from the same evening

Lunar eclipse 2011

The next and last Lunar Eclipse 2011 will be on December 10.

The eclipse will be visible from Most of the world but the whole vent will be visible from Asia and Australia. Europe will miss the beginning of the Eclipse while North America will see just the beginning of it. South America and Africa are left out this time. Sorry. The total time of full eclipse is 51 minutes and since it is not very centric eclipse (The moon does not pass through the center of earth shadow) there are high chances of a lovely red moon.

Time table of the Eclipses

• Penumbral Eclipse Begins: 11:33:32 UT 
• Partial Eclipse Begins:   12:45:42 UT 
• Total Eclipse Begins:     14:06:16 UT 
• Greatest Eclipse:         14:31:49 UT 
• Total Eclipse Ends:       14:57:24 UT 
• Partial Eclipse Ends:     16:17:58 UT 
• Penumbral Eclipse Ends:   17:30:00 UT

 The map of the eclipse:

Lunar Eclipse 2011

Partial Solar Eclipse

Last Friday (15/01) there was a partial solar eclipse. The moon passed between the earth and the sun, partially hiding it.
Warning: Observing the Sun requires special equipment. It is dangerous to observe the Sun directly. Read the safety instructions from NASA.

There are three types of eclipse:

• Total eclipse - occurs when the Sun is completely obscured by the Moon. During any one eclipse, totality is visible only from, at most, a narrow route on the surface of the Earth, while all other observers will see a partial eclipse.
• Annular eclipse - occurs when the Sun and Moon are exactly in line, but the apparent size of the Moon is smaller than that of the Sun. Hence the Sun appears as a very bright ring, or annulus, surrounding the outline of the Moon. Also in this type of eclipse, the Annular eclipse can be seen from a very narrow strip on Earth.
• Partial eclipse - occurs when the Sun and Moon are not exactly in line and the Moon only partially obscures the Sun. This phenomenon can usually be seen from a large part of the Earth outside of the track of an annular or total eclipse

Friday morning started with lots of clouds which made me worried that we would not see anything. The older children went to school equipped with special filters suitable for safe solar viewing and instructions how to use them and show the eclipse to others. Me and another kid stayed and waited on our roof.
About 7:50am we were able to see the sun through some cracks in the clouds. We saw the sun for about a minute and even took some pictures of it which came out surrealistic. We were very happy that we managed to see the eclipse at all.


Then the clouds got thicker so I sent my kid to kindergarten and I continued to wait. At some point I managed to steal another peek through the clouds but it was hard to maintain and was for a very short amount of time.

At 8:30am the sky suddenly became completely clean of clouds and we could finally watch the eclipse properly. The eclipse was at its end and well after the peak (Which was very small, about 20% of the sun was covered. Such low coverage will not cause any noticeable reduction in brightness or temperature. Coverage of over 60 percent will make us feel a drop of several degrees and less brightness).
We took better pictures, too. Pay attention to the sun spots in the top of the picture. Sunspots are colder regions (500 degrees less than normal) on the surface of the sun and radiate less light, and in relation to their surroundings they look black. Actually, the light they radiate is 50 times stronger than the light of the full moon, which reminds us again how in life and especially in the universe, everything is relative.

A better eclipse (with 60% Sun coverage at the peak), will occur in the next Hebrew year (4-Jan-11),on 28 Tevet 5761 (Notice that it will be two days before the new moon of Sh'vat due to the rules of the Hebrew Calendar).

Partial Lunar Eclipse 2010

Lunar eclipse occurs when the moon passes through the Earth's shadow. Like anything, Earth has a shadow and anything in the shadow of the earth (Including all of us during the night), does not receive sunlight. When the moon is in shadow, it does not get the sunlight, so part of it disappears. Two weeks ago, the fourteenth of Tevet, was a partial lunar eclipse. In a partial eclipse, Not the entire moon is in the shadow area, so only a small part of it disappears (even in full eclipse, the moon will still be visible due to some refracted light).

The following video is a set of about 90 movies which show how the moon pass through he shade. The eclipse was very small, only 8% of the moon surface were in the shade area, but still it was very enjoyable to observe.

Taking such picture is easy. Simply photograph the moon just like any other night. The full moon is very bright so make sure not to over-expose. Only in the final stages of an eclipse (A full eclipse) the moon will become dim and require longer exposure.
Making the photos into a movie is also easy. Picasa and tons of other software can do it for you. Aligning the photos is a more difficult task which I use hugin for. Hugin is a freeware tool used to create panorama from many photos but can be used for other tasks as well.
The next full eclipse will be at 14 Sivan 5771 (15/6/2011). It is worth to wait for it.