Comments on: Ring of fire eclipse on May 20

By: Neil Haggath

Neil Haggath — Wed, 23 May 2012 11:58:21 +0000

#36 Nigel:
You are correct; partial eclipses are indeed the commonest kind. But my comment was referring specifically to “central” eclipses, i.e. I said that annular ones are slightly more common than total, not that they are the commonest kind of all.
Sorry for the ambiguity.

By: Nigel Depledge

Nigel Depledge — Mon, 21 May 2012 09:01:42 +0000

Katwagner (39) siad:

Nigel @34. No it doesn’t overexpose. I shoot with a wide angle mostly, and if it’s not cloudy, I’ll do that Sunday.

Eh? You mean the sun’s disc itself is not over-exposed? Does that mean you see actual sunspots on it and everything? But does it not also mean that the rest of your shot is a bit dark?

By: Gary Miles

Gary Miles — Sun, 20 May 2012 16:00:16 +0000

Phil, looking forward to solar eclipse. On a different subject was wondering if you had any commnet on recent NASA Report: NASA Survey Counts Potentially Hazardous Asteroids from JPL?

By: T-Sun

T-Sun — Sun, 20 May 2012 08:37:21 +0000

The start time according to NASA’s table for Albuquerque, NM eclipse starts at 00:28 UTC
Link:
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/OH/OHtables/OH2012-Tab03.pdf

According to your timing in the main article, the eclipse will last for 5 hours 53 minutes (20:56 to 02:49).

Did I miss something?

May be it is a good thing to be prepared early, rather than late. Four hours waiting may be too long a wait for my young grandkids…

By: Android Astronomy » Annular Solar Eclipse – May 20, 2012

Android Astronomy » Annular Solar Eclipse – May 20, 2012 — Sat, 19 May 2012 22:20:30 +0000

[...] May 20, 2012. For a REAL astronomer’s take on it, I recommend going to Dr. Plait’s blog HERE and HERE. And, of course, the most thorough rundown can be found at the NASA Eclipse [...]

By: Bramblyspam

Bramblyspam — Sat, 19 May 2012 14:29:17 +0000

Just got hotel reservations! The wife and I will be driving from Portland (which will get an 81% eclipse but we want the full thing) to Shasta Lake in California. Driving down today (Saturday), staying by Shasta Lake two nights. We checked weather reports, of course – the California coast is due to be cloudy while Redding area is sunny, so we planned accordingly.

This will be my first solar eclipse, my wife saw a partial one as a kid in the late 60′s – probably the same one others recall seeing.

By: kat wagner

kat wagner — Sat, 19 May 2012 07:02:13 +0000

Nigel @34. No it doesn’t overexpose. I shoot with a wide angle mostly, and if it’s not cloudy, I’ll do that Sunday.

By: Arek W.

Arek W. — Fri, 18 May 2012 18:59:10 +0000

Just for record.
I just realized that I totally missed Joeshmoe’s comment (#1) ! :/
Forget my earlier comment.

By: Friday Links

Friday Links — Fri, 18 May 2012 13:33:42 +0000

[...] Don’t forget to look for the annular solar eclipse on Sunday! [...]

By: Nigel Depledge

Nigel Depledge — Fri, 18 May 2012 12:00:49 +0000

@ Neil Haggath (20) and Tometheus (2) -
Surely there are more than just the two types of eclipse?

I thought we most commonly got partial eclipses, where the geometry means that Earth, moon and sun do not fall on a straight line, so no viewer on Earth’s surface gets to see either a total or an annular.

Is it, or not really?