Black Hole Sun

[The Mad Monk]

The Great Eclipse of 2017 -- Who's Coming?

Check the link and report back.

[Lorizael]

Yup. One way or the other, I'll be watching it. Last time I had a good view of a solar eclipse was 1994.

[Aeson]

I saw one earlier this year here, not total but close to it.

[The Mad Monk]

Close is very much no cigar in this case.

I have never had the pleasure, but I intend to. And with the southern boundary of the eclipse less than ten miles from my house, it is well within my capabilities.

How about the rest of you mooks? The last total eclipse to cross the contiguous United States was about thirty-seven years ago; the next will be seven years hence, and after that, a drought of twenty years.

Neither will be as long or as convenient as this one.

[Aeson]

partial eclipse > full eclipse - expenses

[The Mad Monk]

Did you see stars?

[Aeson]

Most nights I do ...

[The Mad Monk]

Other than when you get hit with a hammer, I mean...

[Aeson]

Don't get me wrong, seeing a full eclipse would be neat. It's just not $1000 neat, which is about the minimum I could have paid to go see the full eclipse in Indonesia or Malaysia. (This one would be closer to $2k).

Maybe $50 neat.

[Bereta_Eder]

I saw one a couple of years ago. They said you need special glasses to gaze at the sun but I thought I'd just take a quick glimpse.
Which I did while waiting for the bus to work. Not the most exciting setting.
I took a quick look but it was so nice I took a second and third.
Then I boarded the bus and I had a blue spot in my eyesight wether my eyes were open or closed. And I said fuuuuuck I burned my retinal.
But it went away after (quite a long) time

[Lorizael]

There's nothing in particular about an eclipse that requires you to wear special glasses. You should never look directly at the sun for any extended period of time. Eclipses are just when people are most often tempted to. Unless you're one of these people.

[Bereta_Eder]

I know.

There was also a statue in my square.
Beside the bus stop.

Some form of angel depicting something.

Someone had painted a huge anarchistic symbol under it.

And some other had painted a huge penis underneath the anarchistic symbol.

The eclipse is now gone and I looked at the square. There are four angels in perfect shape looking up to the fountain.

[The Mad Monk]

There's nothing in particular about an eclipse that requires you to wear special glasses. You should never look directly at the sun for any extended period of time. Eclipses are just when people are most often tempted to. Unless you're one of these people.

I think that's a little off. At full eclipse, it's dark. Your eyes are getting dark adjusted, then, ZAP! a that first shot of the sun's disc comes out, into you fully dilated, dark adjusted eyes!

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

one of these people.

No mention of Valeria Lukyanova...

[Lorizael]

I think that's a little off. At full eclipse, it's dark. Your eyes are getting dark adjusted, then, ZAP! a that first shot of the sun's disc comes out, into you fully dilated, dark adjusted eyes!

That's a good point, but my guess is your eyes won't be completely dark adapted during an eclipse. Most dark adaptation is not a result of pupil dilation but changes in chemical compounds in the eye. The light-sensitive pigment rhodopsin, for example, bleaches with even a little light exposure and takes something like half an hour to regenerate completely. Other parts of the eye take somewhere in the range of 5-10 minutes to become fully dark adapted.