Practicing for the eclipse

DaveSchmidt said:

In the news in 1932:

I know the humans focusing on mathematics and physics at the time were very strong, but in 1932 they didn't have computers as we know them. (Although IBM tabulation and databasing with punch cards appears to have become more sophisticated during WWII as IBM systems were used to identify and track Jews and Gypsies -- but that's another topic). With leap years and possible imprecision of distance computations, etc., I'm impressed that 85 years ago, scientists perfectly predicted the date of the eclipse, and knew it would cross the continental US. 

I saw advice to watch it on your cellphone with the camera mode set to selfie and watch it over your shoulder.  Is that safe?

nakaille said:

I saw advice to watch it on your cellphone with the camera mode set to selfie and watch it over your shoulder.  Is that safe?

Someone at work mentioned this and I googled it. Apparently you need a special lens to view it live on your iphone. Otherwise, you could ruin your phone's camera.

But what do I know? I'm using a cereal box.

nakaille said:

I saw advice to watch it on your cellphone with the camera mode set to selfie and watch it over your shoulder.  Is that safe?

Safe for you, maybe not so safe for the cellphone camera without a filter like eclipse glasses.

pretty amazing how they got that right! ( no computers etc)

DaveSchmidt said:

In the news in 1932:

hmm, what's the cloud situation?

sprout said:

I know the humans focusing on mathematics and physics at the time were very strong, but in 1932 they didn't have computers as we know them. (Although IBM tabulation and databasing with punch cards appears to have become more sophisticated during WWII as IBM systems were used to identify and track Jews and Gypsies -- but that's another topic). With leap years and possible imprecision of distance computations, etc., I'm impressed that 85 years ago, scientists perfectly predicted the date of the eclipse, and knew it would cross the continental US. 

+∞

They've been accurately predicting eclipses without computers for a long time.  Just one example that's been in the news, is the 1919 eclipse used to prove parts of Einstein's theory of relativity.  The scientists knew the eclipse was coming, and knew where it was going to be, and were waiting for it in order to conduct the observation that proved Einstein was right.

Formerlyjerseyjack said:

Plastic would also work. You need paper for the holes to reflect on.  I suspect a single pinhole on a piece of paper would work better. The number of holes on a colander could be distracting.




You need two pieces of paper or one piece of paper and colander. One piece of paper should be white. Copy paper is ok. The goal is to face away from the Sun. Place the white paper on the ground or even better, at an angle from the ground. Angle the pinhole paper so the hole magnifies and reflects on the screen/white paper. 




I guess the google also has instructions. 

I just did this where I am (St Louis) where it is currently partial.  It works just fine, but the view isn't as cool as through the eclipse glasses.  The colander worked also, but you just get dozens of images instead of one and it wasn't quite as sharp.

I don't know if this is a difference worth noting, but were the timing and path of the 1919 eclipse predicted so far in advance?