Equinox Eclipse

[oloriel]

BRITISH MEDIA: Friday will bring Europe the most exciting astronomical event of the millennium so far! Celebrate with us and SEE THE SUN SMILE!

GERMAN MEDIA: Kids might look into the sun without protection and GO BLIND FOREVER! Schools should cancel recess and pull down blinds until DANGER HAS PASSED! Also, we have actually no idea whether our electric grid can handle the extreme voltage swings of sudden nationwide sunlessness/ sudden nationwide sun-back-ness! There might be blackouts! ALL IN ALL LET'S JUST HOPE FRIDAY'S GOING TO BE REALLY CLOUDY!

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you: The NEW German angst. Taking the joy out of everything since, oh, I don't actually know, but back when we had our last major eclipse, it was still considered a reason for party. And us kids were just told NOT TO LOOK INTO THE SUN WITHOUT SPECIAL ECLIPSE GLASSES, and we sort of listened? But clearly, that was so 1999 and would never work today.

Mind you, back in 1999 the eclipse was hyped for several months before the event, so everybody and their dog had plenty of time to get eclipse glasses and to grasp the idea that even a partially covered sun can still make you blind. This year, the first little notes trickled in on Monday. So clearly, there was NO TIME TO PREPARE! (~This morning's unprecedented solar eclipse is no cause for alarm!~)

(I still have my eclipse glasses from 1999. I WANT TO SEE THE SUN SMILE, DAMNIT.)

Comments

[ysilme]

I couldn't say it better. It is a bit frustrating, though, that it had been near to impossible to get glasses, they were sold out horribly quick or hadn't been in stock at the first place, and I don't own one already. In 1999 I hadn't managed to get one but could borrow one for a quick peek - only then it was too cloudy to see the sun proper. Still, we had a party, complete with my grandmother making potato salad and meatballs for my colleagues and me because we were on her balcony. *g*

I wonder if there is any Tolkien fic dealing with a solar eclipse. Hmmm... off to leave a prompt at B2MeM... *g*

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

I think even those who had glasses in 1999 mostly threw them away after the event. I remember that my mom wondered whether she should keep them or throw them out, because "the next major eclipse is going to be in 2015 and that's ages away". But then, apparently, she stashed them in the cupboard where she keeps all her sunglasses (including some hideous 1970s ones!), and when I asked whether she still had our eclipse glasses last weekend... there they were!

Heee, nice idea... Árien and Tilion are gonna have fun times!

[independence1776]

Welders' glass #14 (though I don't know what the German equivalent is) works as a safe filter, too. And NASA has an article about safe viewing.

I hope you're able to find a way to see it!

[ysilme]

Thanks for the info! It's too late to get such an item - the eclipse is tomorrow morning - but I hope my father might have some glasses.
It's worse for my husband: some colleagues of him are setting up some special telescopes on the parking lot (most of his IT colleagues are former physicists) but he can't even look out of the window, as he is scheduled for meetings during the whole duration! I'll be at least in the garden, not-watching, but observing how our felines react. Might be interesting, too. ;o)
When I first heard about the eclipse I knew we wouldn't be able to watch, as my husband was scheduled for dentist surgery tomorrow morning and I needed to drive him, so I didn't try to get glasses. Then he got these meetings, the surgery was rescheduled.. and the glasses sold out. *g*

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

You could try an indirect set-up! In 1999, one of our Physics teachers organised that and made a great fuss about it, but it's not actually rocket science (https://www.spektrum.de/fm/912/sonnenprojektion.jpg). The most difficult part is adjusting the binoculars/telescope without actually looking through them (which, of course, would destroy your eyes at once)...

[ysilme]

That would be worth a try, if I had mountable binoculars... our only (bird-watching) pair is very small and impossible to fix to a tripod, and also difficult to adjust. My father suggested going up to the castle where certainly some hobby astronomers are going to be and watch, and see if somebody lets me take a peek. He also told my why it was impossible to get glasses in our town: the Gymnasium forgot to order for themselves, so they bought all available from the opticians.

Edit: I forgot to mention that while my uncle has a welder glass sheet, he's not sure if it's the right kind. But as I'm already having an unknown cornea disease I'm not going to risk anything with watching the eclipse without protection I know is safe. But I'm going to get protection glasses afterwards, just in case the occasion arises again. :o)

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

the Gymnasium forgot to order for themselves, so they bought all available from the opticians.

Nice style. :P
Yeah, keeping close to the hobby astronomers sounds like a good idea! And of course you can observe the "side effects" like weirdly behaving critters and changing shadows!

just in case the occasion arises again. :o)

Next partial eclipse that's going to be visible here at all is going to be in June 2021 (a whopping 4,5 - 13 %), next total eclipse where we can actually see totality is going to be in September 2081. So you've got some time to order those glasses. ;)

[ysilme]

2081? Mmh, to experience that I need to see if I have elven genes after all... *g* I'm rather going for the moon eclipse in September. I can watch without problems, and have actually a chance of taking good pictures - I got a good, stable tripod for my camera for my birthday and am in the process of acquiring a remote release to not blur anything.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

I'd be 98. So I'm not counting on seeing that one, either, although I suppose it's not impossible.
Plenty of eclipses before that, of course - just not over Central Europe!

Lunar eclipses are so much more frequent, but I seem to miss most of them! The last one I remember observing was while I was still living at my parents' house (over ten years ago)...
That's good about the camera equipment! I always end up with blurred moon shots so I should probably invest in a remote release, too...

[independence1776]

You're welcome! If you don't feel like going to the castle to look through telescopes there, there's also the pinhole method that requires just two sheets of white paper.

I'm sorry your husband won't be able to see it.

[independence1776]

Wha…? Even the American media for the partial solar eclipse we had last year wasn't like that, and I would have expected our media to be worse than Europe's.

I hope you're able to see it!

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

I'd normally expect that, too! *ducks*

It's probably not Europe; I suspect it's really specifically Germany. I think part of it is that it's not a total eclipse where we are (depending on where in Germany you are, you'll get 77 - 82%, which IMO really isn't too shabby!), and part of it is that we genuinely don't know whether our energy grid can handle it. Germany is relying pretty heavily on solar power on sunny days, and due to a variety of circumstances, that might lead to massive power surges that, if not balanced ideally, could blow all fuses and lead to blackouts ranging from half an hour to four days. So if tomorrow is sunny, we'll find out just how well-suited the current electric set-up is to abnormal events.
One should think that something predictable, like a solar eclipse, can be prepared for & dealt with... but apparently, that isn't guaranteed.

I hope so, too! Even at the risk of blackouts.

[ysilme]

I keep my fingers crossed for you! You're getting more to see than we down here anyway. ;o) We have a perfect weather forecast, so I'm curious about the power grid issue, too.
I thought one of the reason for the heavy public warning of protection is the smartphone-photographing-mania that is so omnipresent these days, and that too many clueless people would try to take a picture in this way, and endanger themselves.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Interesting point! Though there was no word about photographing in our newspaper, only blah about how some schools and kindergartens are reassuring parents that kids will be kept in darkened rooms throughout the eclipse. Also, I wonder if the depiction of the sun on a smart phone screen is still dangerous? People could probably point their smart phones in the sun's general direction and take pictures safely, as long as they don't look at the sun with their own eyes...

In general, I think advice on how to observe the eclipse safely would've been so much smarter than just going OH NO DANGER DANGER LET'S HOPE IT'S CLOUDY. What if it isn't cloudy?

[ysilme]

Ha, I'm partly lucky, I'm watching the livestream of spiegel.de, fun comments by passers-by inclusive. *g*

[ysilme]

I was unprecise with my handy camera argument; I meant mostly that people who would try to shoot the sun with their phone would get too much radiation while looking in that direction, because, as it seems, nowadays so many people are stupid that way. I wasn't sure if the photographing itself was safe for the camera, but know by now that it is.

[independence1776]

:P

That's not too shabby a percentage at all. The partial we had last year was maybe 10% from my area (and then it went behind the clouds before the sun set, so I was fortunate to even see that much). I used the telescope set-up you linked Winterwitch to-- really, really cool.

Wow! I didn't know Germany relied on solar power that much (wish the US did). But you'd really think that a predictable occurance would be planned for…

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

It sounds better than it is. When it's nice and sunny, half or more of our power is solar. That is the top priority in the grid so if it's really sunny and other power sources can't go down fast enough, we actually have to pay Belgium to take our excess power until it's balanced out again. When it's cloudy or night, we rely on conventional and nuclear power plants. Or we buy nuclear power from France. We also buy expensive Norwegian water power (which is made possible by Swedish nuclear power). And we have some biomass, and some wind parcs. But the grid was never designed for this mix, and whenever some necessary renewal is plant, you'll have local people protesting that they don't want electric lines through their village! Renewable energies, yes, but not here! Somewhere else! Except that we're a pretty densely settled country, so "somewhere else" will always have people living there. Unfortunately, it's really rather a mess.
Today was no problem, though. It was planned for, too - there were several emergency plans, in fact - but nobody knew whether these plans would really work, and this being a nation that just loves to be pessimist, there naturally was much panic-mongering.

The US probably has more than enough room - and enough sunlight! - to rely more heavily on solar power. But I suspect you may be smarter to wait until we've sorted out the bugs and kinks before installing a comparable system. ;)

[independence1776]

That does sound rather like a mess. At least there were plans. (I wouldn't put it past my government-- local, state, or national-- to give lipservice to planning and not actually doing it.)

Heh. We may have the land and sunlight but I really doubt it'll happen anytime soon. Electric power here is state by state, and maybe city by city and county by county, and I think they're privately owned (maybe). I'm not quite sure how it works, but there's a lot of companies around here. It's not a federal level thing at all. And what makes a well-functioning and balanced system even less likely is that there's the large number of people who appear to think that "going green" is surrendering to the Liberal Environmentalist Agenda. Add in that my state is one of the largest producers of coal for the US, and anything that even hints at taking away those jobs is a political minefield.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

Don't you do that old thing (https://www.google.com/search?q=view+solar+eclipse+cardboard&rlz) of making a pinhole in one piece of cardboard and projecting the eclipsing Sun's image onto another? One of the coolest thing about eclipses is seeing all the speckles of light coming down through the leaves of the forest turn into 'smiles' through the same principle.

Surely schoolchildren are old enough to comprehend "Don't look at the sun; it can burn your eyes," and an eclipse is the perfect time to explain that to them.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

One should think so! The perfect physics class. But noooo, it's all "panic panic" and close the curtains.

(To be fair, it's hardly the schools' fault. If just one kid with lawsuit-happy parents complains that "my eyes feel weird", they'll get into enough trouble to put them off teaching forever. >_>)

[http://users.livejournal.com/macalla_/]

Ungeteilte Zustimmung!

Bei uns ist es ganz ähnlich. ALLE WERDEN BLIND! STROMAUSFÄLLE!

Warum kann man ein Naturschauspiel nicht einfach ein Naturschauspiel sein lassen?
Etwas, das man auf sich wirken lässt. Die letzte fand ich verzaubert, magisch. Das Licht war violett-braun und die Vögel haben aufgehört zu singen.

Diesmal wird es nicht ganz so ausgeprägt sein aber ich freue mich trotzdem darauf.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Es ist so traurig. Da haben wir heute das Wissen und die Mittel, um so ein Ereignis sicher und entspannt bewundern zu können. Aber offensichtlich macht es uns ganz mittelalterlich mehr Spaß, uns in Katastrophenszenarien zu suhlen. BEKENNT EURE SÜNDEN! DAS ENDE IST NAH!

Na, hier haben die Miesmacher ihren Wunsch gekriegt. Es war so dicht bewölkt, dass man nicht nur die Sonne gar nicht sehen konnte, selbst die maximale Verdunkelung wurde so stark gestreut, dass es allenfalls ein bisschen dämmeriger war - wie kurz vor starkem Regen oder einem Sturm. Ich hab mir die BBC-Übertragung im Fernsehen anschauen müssen. Wirklich beeindruckend, aber einfach nicht das Gleiche. :(

[chili-das-schaf.livejournal.com]

The daycare lady was forbidden, FORBIDDEN by the Powers That Be to go out with the children. Official email and all (quote: "That guy should have written me seven important emails by now and could not be bothered, but THAT one he wrote in a day."). Sky was cloudy and not one of the kids would have bothered with looking at the sky, what with more interesting things like trashcans and dogs around. She did the best she could and baked Easter baskets with them.

[chili-das-schaf.livejournal.com]

(oh, and I did not have my 1999 glasses anymore but we got one at the observatory - it was from the 2004 Venus viewing :D we didn't need it of course but bought one for nostalgic reasons and to support a good scientific cause)