Solar Eclipse

April 8, 2024

There was much anticipation of the solar eclipse with its band of totality stretching across the middle of the United States. It was about 85% of totality in the Atlanta area, but still enough to be worth spending some time observing it. A clear view of the sun in the sky was needed so we chose the parking lot of Mableton First Baptist Church. Fortunately the afternoon was very clear for the observation.

In preparation for observation, Rod made a pinhole camera by drilling about a 1/16" hole in an old dvd disk and mounted it on the side of a large cardboard box. He took along a welding helmet which allowed us to safely look at the sun. But most effective wa a pair of binoculars which he and Mark taped to the big end of a portable vacuum cleaner! Sounds weird, but that worked well when we observed the total eclipse in Nashville in 2017. It allowed him to hold the binoculars with eyepiece toward the ground to project an image of the sun.

In the early afternoon, Rod and Brenda headed over to the church and set up about 45 minutes before maximum occlusion. Rod held the binoculars and Brenda did the photography with our cell phones. A sheet of white paper was taped down to a piece of paneling - and a good thing because the wind got fairly strong. The shadow of the binoculars was minimized to get the sun through the binoculars, and Rod used the shadow of his finger on the input to the big end of the binoculars to get things lined up. It was still tricky and Brenda was very patient to wait on the sun image to take the pictures. The nearest approach to totality in Atlanta was at about 3:05pm. This projection is at 2:54pm or about 10 minutes before maximum occlusion.

But before we set up for viewing, we drove by the Mableton Library where they were staging a major eclipse party. All the local schools had dismissed early for the eclipse and there was a line of people down two sides of the library to sign in and get eclipse glasses. When we drove back by a few minutes later we found the views shown below of people settling in for the viewing. The parking lot was full and the number of viewers must have been in the hundreds.

When we got our equipment set up in the parking lot, it was about 2:30. Brenda took this picture at 2:37pm, close to 30 minutes before maximum occlusion.

This is our closest shot to the time of maximum occlusion of the sun. It was taken at 3:06pm. The eclipse in Atlanta was described as about an 85% occlusion, but it was also described as not appearing to be much darkening of the sky and surroundings. That sounded strange to me and I was a bit skeptical - but our experience was consistent with that. We saw very little apparent darkening of the area as we went through the maximum.

More about the apparent darkening with the eclipse. One reason the darkening of the environment is not so noticeable is that the marvelous eyes the Lord has given us have variable pupils that can quickly adjust to the light level so that it does not drastically change. And of course the photo above is subject to adjustment of brightness and contrast, so that you can't judge by the photo that is displayed.

As we approached the time of maximum the wind got quite strong, as you can see by Rod's hair blowing in the photo.

This traces our last 30 minutes of viewing up to the point of maximum eclipse.