Partial Solar Eclispe Friday March 20th

Pat Dunne

Looking forward to the partial solar eclispe which will occur over Ireland on Friday 20th March. Dublin area at 9:29am

http://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/in/ireland/dublin

However as with all such astronomical events in this part of the world, which are normally served with a extra large helping of weather related trepidation on the observers part. :eek: What are the chances for a couple of hours of clear sky either side of the event?

RobertKK

Who knows at this stage, but it will get fairly dark like it did on 11th August 1999.

Eugene Norman

It's 94% isnt it. Not quite "see the stars" but the sky will darken.

Eugene Norman

Surprised there isn't more excitement about this, as it won't be this complete again until 2090.

Looks like it will be spectacular enough.

http://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/in/ireland/dublin

Totofan99

Eugene Norman wrote: »

Surprised there isn't more excitement about this, as it won't be this complete again until 2090.

Looks like it will be spectacular enough.

http://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/in/ireland/dublin

I imagine there'll be more about it when we're closer to the day.

There'll be another partial eclipse in 2026. Around 95% in the west of Ireland. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_August_12,_2026

shedweller

I might have a chat with my kids school principal. And get some solar filters...

maquiladora

The 1999 eclipse was closer



And I remember it being partly cloudy and fairly unimpressive here, it just got slightly darker, like in advance of a heavy rain shower. You really need to be in the total eclipse zone to get the really impressive darkening.

Fingers crossed for clear weather but its far too early to know about that yet.

shedweller

maquiladora wrote: »

The 1999 eclipse was closer



And I remember it being partly cloudy and fairly unimpressive here, it just got slightly darker, like in advance of a heavy rain shower. You really need to be in the total eclipse zone to get the really impressive darkening.

Fingers crossed for clear weather but its far too early to know about that yet.

I was on a ferry to Cherbourg for that. That morning was cloudy as hell and yer man that travelled with me looked gutted over brekfast. But the captain was on his game that day and steered the ship this way and that until he got a place in the sea that had minimum cloud cover and boy did we see that eclipse! I thought the ship would topple over! Im raging now that i didnt take pics of the ship itself during the eclipse. Young dumb and full of .....
We live and learn eh??!!

RobertKK

Hopefully a clear morning, will get the telescope out and look at it close up. I have a solar filter so I won't go blind.

RobertKK

maquiladora wrote: »

The 1999 eclipse was closer



And I remember it being partly cloudy and fairly unimpressive here, it just got slightly darker, like in advance of a heavy rain shower. You really need to be in the total eclipse zone to get the really impressive darkening.

Fingers crossed for clear weather but its far too early to know about that yet.

North Kilkenny and the sky was clear, I remember it got colder during it and the birds stopped singing when it got near the peak for here.

Rikand

Was in south kerry for it. The cloud cover was very disappointing

Looking at the links above, I may try and book flghts to the states for Mid August 2017

Eugene Norman

RobertKK wrote: »

North Kilkenny and the sky was clear, I remember it got colder during it and the birds stopped singing when it got near the peak for here.

I was in the US. So on a clear day what was 95% totality like? Did it feel like the Sun was gone or just a dark cloud passed over.

Rebelbrowser

"A Solar Eclipse. The Cosmic ballet goes on".

www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmoW-gNjjXA

Alexis Sanchez

Where would be the best place in Ireland to view this?

smellslikeshoes

Alexis Sanchez wrote: »

Where would be the best place in Ireland to view this?

The North coast but the difference would be negligible. If you are dead set on driving to make sure you get a good view you should wait for the weather forecast the day before and see where you are most likely to get clear skies.

_Whimsical_

Don't forget your solar filters and eclipse glasses everyone. Staring at the sun can cause awful eye damage, even for seemingly short times.

I haven't heard of glasses and filters available in shops etc as they were in 1999. Anyone noticed them about?

shedweller

Just on astronomy websites. Seems to be the first thing on most of them at the moment!

yellowlabrador

is there a website were we can see it live?

Chris_5339762

Waaaay too early to tell for sure as yet but weather not looking good at the moment.

Popoutman

I'm hoping to have the PST set up with the Samsung SCB4000 displaying on a little screen I have, possibly somewhere in UL. I may also have a Mylar filter set up on the 80mm refractor for people to get a live look through. No driven mount anymore, but not that much of an issue especially when I can display live on a little screen.

I don't have any filter suitable for my 12" dobsonian, but also my equatorial table platform hasn't arrived yet which would certainly make it a bit awkward for a public demonstration.

Quite looking forwards to this.

Rikand

I'll have to see if I can schedule a meeting in UL for Friday so

sasco

The current issue of Sky at Night magazine has a free set of solar glasses.

A lot of places are sold out or won't guarantee delivery before the 20th.

bpmurray

Unfortunately yr.no says that it'll be cloudy on the morning of the 20th.

Alexis Sanchez

bpmurray wrote: »

Unfortunately says that it'll be cloudy on the morning of the 20th.

Fortunately, long-range forecasts for Ireland are about as reliable as Lada.

joujoujou

_Whimsical_ wrote: »

[...]

I haven't heard of glasses and filters available in shops etc as they were in 1999. Anyone noticed them about?

No. But welding lens will do the trick. And costs a fiver.

Rikand

where would I get a welding lens ?

shedweller

Rikand wrote: »

where would I get a welding lens ?

A good hardware store should have them. Or if you know someone that works in a factory...

shedweller

http://www.gasweld.ie/product/3m-speedglass-9000-lenses/

Alexis Sanchez

Scopes and Space Ltd in Airside Business Park selling eclipse glasses. They'll have in stock sometime midweek.

ngcxt6

What kind of lense would you need to ask for? Inner, outer? is there any particular brand/thickness/opacity?

shedweller

ngcxt6 wrote: »

What kind of lense would you need to ask for? Inner, outer? is there any particular brand/thickness/opacity?

You'd be looking for the inner lens. The outer one is clear and is to protect the more expensive dark lens from weld spatter which sticks to it.

maquiladora

It looks like high pressure will be dominating.

Super-Rush

Rikand wrote: »

where would I get a welding lens ?

We viewed the 99 one through welding masks.

jfSDAS

Hi all,

I posted some information in the partial solar eclipse thread over in the Astronomy forum.

I just have some comments in terms of welding glass being suitable for viewing the eclipse. I'm not sure the current grading of welding glass but the pieces I have from waaaay back are numbers 13 and 14 grade (#14 was the highest available at the time). Number 14 is generally considered the ONLY safe grade to view the Sun with (or #13 at a pinch). All the harmful invisible radiation must be filtered out as well as dimming the visible solar disk.

The pieces of welder glass I have give a lime-green tint to the Sun. The sun's disk is still quite bright in the #13 grade and requires tilting the glass a little, but the sun is a bit dimmer in the #14 glass.

The bottom line though is, if in doubt, then don't use it.

Professor Ralph Chou's article at http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEhelp/safety2.html is required reading about the dangers of using unsafe solar filter material.

See also the Sky & Telescope article by Ralph Chou at http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/solar-filter-safety/ and Fred Espenak's tests of various filter material (including welding glass) at http://www.mreclipse.com/Special/filters.html

I don't want to cross-post here but do browse the eclipse thread in the Astronomy forum for more advice on viewing the partial solar eclipse. BBC stargazing live will broadcast the eclipse live from the Faroe Islands on Friday morning.

John

snowstreams

So i guess its not safe to wear 5 pairs of UV filtered sunglasses stacked?
I remember doing that in 1999, but I was unsure so I only looked at it for a few seconds each time.

jfSDAS

snowstreams wrote: »

So i guess its not safe to wear 5 pairs of UV filtered sunglasses stacked?
I remember doing that in 1999, but I was unsure so I only looked at it for a few seconds each time.

Hi snowstreams,

It is definitely NOT safe to stack sunglasses. The method might appear to sufficiently dim the Sun but it is not filtering out all radiation wavelengths that are harmful. Still, you did the sensible thing by only glancing up occasionally.

I heard of people using crisp packets as filter material for the 1999 event which is definitely not recommended!

Far safer to project the partial phases using the various methods mentioned in the links on the Astronomy forum post about the eclipse.

John

maquiladora

Still too early to know, but roughly speaking, at the moment it looks like it might be partly cloudy in the south while more overcast in the north on Friday morning.

Elmer Blooker

This chart shows the weak front clearing the south coast at noon so at the all important time it will possibly be lying across the centre of the country so I'm fearing the worst. I think those in the extreme north and extreme south have the best chance of seeing breaks in cloud as thankfully its a very weak front and will give nothing more than spots of drizzle.
That other weak front to the north should be close to the Faroes around 9.30?
The good news is pressure is high and these fronts might break up closer to the time. By Thursday and the early hours of Friday the satellite images are going to be watched like never before!!

Thargor

Its been completely overcast over Bray for days, hopefully we're getting it out of the way for Friday.

maquiladora

12Z GFS currently showing partly cloudly skies over the southern half of the country at 9am Friday morning. Take it with a pinch of salt for the moment.

Thargor

Is the red clouds in that image or did you mean Northern half of the country?

maquiladora

Thargor wrote: »

Is the red clouds in that image or did you mean Northern half of the country?

White is 100% cloudcover on that image.

Thargor

Are we looking good?

http://www.surf-forecast.com/maps/Ireland/cloud/54

Thargor

Actually Met Eireann completely disagrees with that link

http://www.met.ie/forecasts/5day-atlantic.asp

Pangea

How are people on here going to view the eclipse, if the weather holds up that is, special glasses? Is it too dangerous to look at with naked eye.
Where would one buy such glasses.

Alexis Sanchez

Pangea wrote: »

How are people on here going to view the eclipse, if the weather holds up that is, special glasses? Is it too dangerous to look at with naked eye.
Where would one buy such glasses.

You'd know the answers to those questions if you read the thread.

shedweller

Pangea wrote: »

How are people on here going to view the eclipse, if the weather holds up that is, special glasses? Is it too dangerous to look at with naked eye.
Where would one buy such glasses.

Naked eye is a big no no. Its the sun we're looking at!! Solar filters are a must but dark welding glass (no.14) will also do. There is also the pinhole projection method so google image that. Thats very safe so would be preferable around kids.

jfSDAS

Pangea wrote: »

How are people on here going to view the eclipse, if the weather holds up that is, special glasses? Is it too dangerous to look at with naked eye.
Where would one buy such glasses.

Hi Pangea,

Fingers-crossed that we will get a view of the eclipse on Friday morning.

It is only partial from Ireland so do NOT look at the Sun with the naked eye unless you are using suitable filter material such as eclipse shades, a specialised solar filter, or #14 grade welder's glass. The Sun will still be too bright even with only a small percentage left uncovered. There is a risk not just of permanent blindless but a permanent after-image of the partially eclipsed Sun burned on the retina. I have heard of cases of this happening before.

There are a large number of events being held where people will have eclipse shades to hand out or allow the eclipse to be seen by projection. Details of these events are below.

Try Scopes & Space in Airside, Ktec (online), or Astronomy Ireland (in Blanchardstown) for shades.

http://www.scopesandspace.ie/
http://www.ktectelescopes.ie/
http://www.astronomy.ie

Eclipses shades are made of black polymer material (which gives an orange tint to the Sun) or mylar, a foil like material. The shades should be tested before use though by holding them up to a light. If any light shines through then discard the shades as the material may have a hole in it or be crinkled and so is unsafe to use.

Free events ... see also, http://www.irishastronomy.org

The Irish Astronomical Society at Dunsink Observatory Dublin
St Cronans Stargazers at St Cronans National School Bray Co Wicklow
Midlands Astronomy Club at Athlone Castle Co Westmeath Cork Astronomy Club at Blackrock Castle Observatory
Galway Astronomy Club at Toft Park Salthill Co Galway
Shannonside Astronomy Club at The Stone Circle Grange Co Limerick
DEISE Astronomy Club at Dungarvan Square Co Waterford
Irish Astronomical Association at Belfast: Queen's University, in front of the Whitla Hall, University Road (in association with the ARC, Dept of Physics) Larne: Chaine Memorial Park, seafront. Newtownards: Scrabo Hill Car Park Portballintrae: Seafront car park

Trinity College Dublin ... see the events tab at http://eclipse2015.ie/

Scopes and Space plus Republic of Astronomy (Facebook group) will be at the Papal Cross in the Phoenix Park ... see http://www.scopesandspace.ie/latest-news

Astronomy Ireland are apparently charging to view the eclipse. I'm not in agreement with this commercialization but if you want to part with your hard-earned cash then their eclipse watch is mentioned at www.astronomy.ie

If you can't get your hands on eclipse shades, then the various projection methods mentioned in the thread at http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057390355&page=2 should do the trick.

Now let us all pray to the Gods of clear skies!

John

Pangea

Great info there, thank you.
Probably a silly question, but is there anything more damaging about this eclipse to your eyes than say looking at the sun any other time, or is it just the fact that people are going to intentionally look at the sun the reason for concern?

Harry Palmr

Looks like only a band along the south coast will get clear or semi clear skies.

Calibos

Excluding the religious nutjobs holding their eyelids open at Virgin Mary apparitions and bypassing their autonomic reactions that way, the body will usually protect itself when accidentally looking towards the sun. ie. the blink reflex and pain will make people look away before damage is done. The danger is not intrinsically greater for eclipses but because people try and use the wrong materials to dim the sun they expose themselves to more danger. ie. Camera negatives dim the sun to the point where there is no pain and the blink reflex is not triggered but are actually only dimming the visible light but are letting the actually damaging UV rays through to the retina.