Solar Eclipse 2017

It didn't seem all too long ago we were blogging about the last solar eclipse that was visible in our area. Five years flies by!! My then 3-year-old is now 8, and the newbie is now 3!

A solar eclipse is where the sun is blocked by the moon. A total solar eclipse is where the sun is completely blocked by the moon. A total solar eclipse in a particular area is fairly rare. The last one in the US was 1979. There's another one in 2024 crossing over Texas. Always take proper precaution when viewing eclipses, especially when viewing them with children.

We knew the eclipse was coming. We even have family in the Salem, Oregon area. We also knew that 1. Oregon isn't 100% predictable for August weather (I moved into college in Portland on a super rainy day somewhere around the 20th of August many moons ago). 2. School would already be in session for J (and missing a few days during the second week of school for something that didn't seem to be a guarantee of a good view seemed a little irresponsible). 3. We hate crowds and traffic.

Anyways, ~75% seemed good enough for me. The elementary school bought each student a pair of eclipse glasses and took the kids out during extremely well supervised (by parents/adults) increments to view the different stages, and they had a fun coloring/maker-type activity displaying the different phases of the total solar eclipse. At my daughter's preschool, the younger classes (of which my daughter is in) did not participate in the special event though they did talk about it.

There was an impromptu viewing party at my work. I even made my company's social media page while viewing the eclipse. That's pretty fun. Here are my personal pictures from the event.

The glasses were on, but the sun was hiding behind the clouds over my left shoulder (As it started, the sky was foggy in our area and super clear in Oregon, go figure).

Finally a part in the clouds as the eclipse just started (cell phone picture taken through the solar eclipse glasses):

Our maximum coverage from the Bay Area, CA. Since it was cloudy/foggy to begin with and only ~75% coverage, we didn't see too much noticeable change in light.

Yes, I work at a pretty nerdy place. Someone grabbed a colander (lazy or not, this is a great substitute for a pinhole projector), and I suggested propping up the glasses in the picture.

Explore more:
NASA has a great rundown of the Total Solar Eclipse and what you can do the next time one is in your area.

Renewed interest in space

Last night, J pulled out his space pajamas that had found their way to the bottom of his drawer.

J: I'm going to jump out of the spaceship!
Me: Mommy will not let you jump out of the spaceship.
J: Why?
Big J: Mommy was pretty nervous about watching someone she didn't even know jump out of the spaceship.
 
I'm thankful that my son is excited about space and science.  I'm sure we'll be watching Youtube videos of the jump over and over again for the next few weeks, and maybe find something else in the process.

Check out the information from the Red Bull Stratos page to learn more about this mission and the cool things that went down.  The gallery offers some valuable, easy to understand explanation of the science.

Venus Transit

Wow, two sun blocking events within a month!  This time Venus was between the earth and the sun, officially called the transit of Venus.

This one I didn't even hear about until I saw some guy trying to view it on his house wall as I was passing by on my bike commute home yesterday afternoon, so I apologize for the lack of warning on this one.

Our neighbors (also big science/engineering people), invited us over yesterday (6/5/12) around dinner time, which happened to be the best viewing time (6:30p) to see their contraption to view it.  They actually held binoculars backwards and focused it on a piece of white paper that they had shadowed.

See the small spot in the bottom of the circles?  I think this method to view the transit was really cool and it kind of looks like an owl with "googly eyes".

Since this is a last in a lifetime opportunity, I took J's picture next to it.  Maybe he'll appreciate it one day.

If you missed it, you'd have to wait till 2117 for such an event to happen again.  Maybe there will be some good pictures at the Exploratorium site.  They were streaming live through the whole event from Hawaii.  If all else fails, there's always Google.

Solar Eclipse 2012

One benefit about being on the West Coast is that we got a good show last night!  It was supposed to be really good in Oregon, if it wasn't cloudy (haha, yeah).  Luckily, J's Uncle Nick and Aunt Ashley got this pic from the Oregon Coast.

Photo Credit: Uncle Nick

We were a little low in latitude for the full eclipse, but we still got a good portion.  Here's what you missed (or didn't depending on where you were).

Between 6 and 7p, we were having a solar eclipse, where the moon is positioned between earth and the sun.  It started getting dark at 6p, and I thought, "Wow, I didn't realize it was that late already."  Then I remembered that I had forgotten about the solar eclipse.  I went out immediately to our apartment's wall of sun and started doing science.

It's hard to explain what's going on and expect kids not to want to stare at the sun with their bare eyes (please don't ever stare into the sun unless you have special filters).

What we did was collected to pieces of scrap paper and made a small pinhole in one.  We held the paper with a pinhole so it casted a shadow on the other piece of paper that we held down with our feet.  On the piece of paper we shadowed, we saw a sliver of light, which eventually grew into about 3/4 of a circle (see picture below).

If the sun wasn't being blocked by the moon, we'd see a full circle of light.  At different stages of the eclipse, we'd see variation in the slivers of light.

Sorry, we were caught unprepared leading up to the full-ish eclipse (ie. more pictures of various sized crescents). It happened between dinner and getting ready for bed, which is usually not the best time for our family, on a pretty busy weekend.