Total Eclipse of the...Sun

On Sunday the 20th a solar eclipse happened. It wasn’t a total eclipse anywhere in the world, it was an annular eclipse. The difference between the two is that for a total eclipse, the sun is completely blocked out somewhere in the world. With an annular eclipse, the moon is a little further away from the earth and isn’t quite big enough to block out the whole sun, so a “ring of fire” appears if you’re lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time.

Here in LA, we weren’t in quite the right place. We only got about 80% of a total eclipse (in the best spots, they got around 90% or so) but it still looked impressive! The lighting outside seemed “off” since the sun was being mostly blocked. To make sure we had a good view of the eclipse, we headed to my office because some of the rooms have a great view of the setting sun (the eclipse happened in the early evening). During the time it was mostly covered, we used a cardboard “projector” to look at it since you don’t look directly at the sun, even during an eclipse. It was pretty cool!

As we were driving home (the eclipse was receding, but still going on) the marine layer started coming in and fog started to develop. Between the fog and the blue shading on the top of the windshield, we were able to safely look directly at the sun and see the last little bit of eclipse.

We took pictures of our projections, but none of them turned out that great, so here's a really cool one I found online:


Image credit: jimnista from www.flickr.com