Space & Science News

if you are clouded out across Ireland this morning watch the solar Eclipse below on our website. If you manage to catch a glimpse our get a photo or video send it on to Donegal Weather Channel.

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TIPS ON VIEWING THE ECLIPSE

Do NOT use these techniques

Whatever you do, never look at the sun directly without a safe filter in place to protect your eyes. Besides your unprotected eyeballs, here are some other things you should not use. Do NOT use sunglasses, polaroid filters, smoked glass, exposed color film, X-ray film, or photographic neutral density filters.

techniques TO use

Turn away from the sun and use your hands. Cross the outstretched, slightly open fingers of one hand over the outstretched, slightly open fingers of the other. Then, with your back to the sun, look at your hands’ shadow on the ground. The little spaces between your fingers will project a grid of small images on the ground. During the partial phases of the solar eclipse, these images will reveal the sun's crescent shape.

• Let nature be your viewer. If your observing site has trees, look at the shadows of leaves on the ground. During the partial solar eclipse, the tiny spaces between the leaves will act as pinhole projectors, dappling the ground with images of the crescent sun.

• Get crafty and make a pinhole projector. You can do this! Just punch a hole into an index card and project the sun’s image onto another card, the wall, or the ground. Note: this is called a pinhole projector for a reason. Don’t hold it up to the sun as if it were a viewer.

• Local viewing at an astronomy club, park or nature center. We highly recommend this route for any kind of eclipse, any daytime solar viewing, or any nighttime astronomical event. If you watch among other amateur astronomers and casual sky gazers, you’ll have fun, learn about astronomy and get a great view of the objects and events going on in the sky.

• Commercial solar eclipse glasses. You might find these online or at a local nature center, or museum. Solar eclipse glasses are super easy to use, and they’re sort of cool-looking.

• Welder’s glass, #14 or darker. Be sure it is #14 or darker. The great thing about welder’s glass is that it allows you to view the sun directly. Plus welder’s glass is a bit more durable than commercial eclipse glasses. If you’re like me, between solar eclipses you’ll forget where you put your commercial eclipse glasses. With the welder’s glass, you can always add it to your rock collection. Search for a local “welding supply” company.

I myself will be viewing the eclipse using a telescope and a DSLR Camera but I will have special solar filters on both to make it safe for myself. Below you can see some of my own equipment.

Telescopes, binoculars, and cameras need solar filters for two reasons: to protect them from intense sunlight and to ensure that you don't accidentally look at the Sun through an unfiltered instrument. In every case, the solar filter must be attached to the front of your telescope, binoculars, or camera lens.

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