Quick Facts About The Solar Eclipse
From Safety to Cosmic Coincidence
As we get ready to witness this cosmic event, the significance of it cannot be understated. This is a list of interesting facts I have gathered from various sources.
Safety First!
The Sun is a massive ball of fire. It’s emitting all spectrum of light and sending massive amounts of energy towards us. Which is great for powering our daily lives, but not great for your eyes. Looking at the Sun is not advisable at any time, but it’s even more important to be careful during the Solar Eclipse.
Here are few safety tips —
Do NOT look at the Sun through a camera lens, telescope, binoculars, or any other optical device. As these devices amplify & focus Sun’s energy, looking through them will cause severe damage!
Always inspect your eclipse glasses viewer before use. If worn out, replace.
Always supervise children using solar viewers.
Eclipse glasses are NOT regular sunglasses. Sorry, your cool shades will not work for viewing the Sun directly.
You need solar glasses even for partial eclipse 😎
More info — NASA Eclipse Safety
Fun Facts
A total solar eclipse is when the Moon completely blocks the Sun and we have total darkness for few a minutes. This is a collection of interesting facts from various sources about the Solar eclipse —
Since the Moon’s plane is slightly inclined (by ~5 degrees), there isn’t an eclipse every month (i.e every New Moon), but there is one somewhere on Earth’s surface every year.
The Moon is ~400 times smaller than the Sun, but also about 400 times closer to us. This cosmic coincidence allows the Moon to completely cover the Sun. If it was smaller or further away, we would not get a total Solar eclipse
The Moon is receding away from us by few centimeters each year and at some point would be too far away for a total solar eclipse. Not to worry, that will take another half a billion years.
Solar eclipse moves from West to East, even though the Sun is moving from East to West.
During total Solar eclipse, animal behavior changes. Most will start their night-time routines.
Solar observatories will attempt to study outer layers of the Sun during this eclipse as the Sun’s corona will be more clearly visible.
No eclipse glasses, no problem — during the eclipse look down at the shadows. Again, never look up without glasses. You can make an eclipse viewer by casting the shadow of it on white surface.
A solar eclipse in 1919 made Einstein famous —
Lots more info on Solar Eclipse from NASA’s Solar Eclipse Guide!
Informative read !!
Great info 👍