US Solar Eclipse 21 Aug 2017 -- How Does Tobacco Behave?

[deluxestogie]

The deluxe Helioscope

A single sheet of printer paper is cut in half. One piece is taped to the interior of one end of the basket. The other piece is taped to the exterior of the opposite end of the basket.

A pinhole is poked into the exterior sheet of paper.

When the long axis of the basket is pointed toward the sun, the pinhole focuses the sun's image onto the interior sheet of paper.

The helioscope is now carefully added to the instrumentation platform.

This will allow me to monitor the sun's progress without having to put on my official eclipse glasses for every glance.

Happy viewing!

Bob

 

[OldDinosaurWesH]

Bob:

It's 8:30 a.m.local time. Eclipse starts here @9:11. Heading out to the tobacco patch to set my camera up. Photos when available! Later.

Wes H.

 

[deluxestogie]

I decided that my scientific apparatus, standing suspiciously close to my pear trees, looked like I was just planning to pick some more fruit. So I've added the definitive touch, to separate the mundane from the frontier of science.

Does it look more professional now?

Bob

 

[Alpine]

It looks suspiciously professional now... enjoy the eclipse!

pier

 

[deluxestogie]

If you should make some interesting observations related to the eclipse, first post them here. But you can also post them to a wider audience.

http://www.inaturalist.org/projects/life-responds-total-solar-eclipse-2017/

The site also includes a Google map with stickpins in the observation locations.

Bob

 

[OldDinosaurWesH]

Sorry folks, no "clasping hands". We never got totally dark here. I'm calling it a "Most-ality", since we didn't have a totality here. The sunlight just got fairly dim. I did notice the temperature drop and it got quieter. (Critter quieter that is.) The neighbor's cat seemed a little concerned, but I didn't notice him wearing his eclipse glasses. I got an interesting optical effect from the combination of eclipse light and the shadows from the neighbor's tree that I've never seen before. I'll post my photos in a little over an hour after finality.

Wes H.

 

[SmokesAhoy]

A hat is held over a tyvek mailer. Strange wizardry commences.

I decided that my scientific apparatus, standing suspiciously close to my pear trees, looked like I was just planning to pick some more fruit. So I've added the definitive touch, to separate the mundane from the frontier of science.

Does it look more professional now?

Bob

 

[OldDinosaurWesH]

They're pretty underwhelming, but here goes:



Photo 1, 08:35 - 36 minutes before the eclipse starts. This area doesn't get into direct sun 'till ~10:45 so bear with me.
Photo 2, 09:11 - beginning of eclipse
Photo 3, 09:48 - mid way between beginning & "Most"ality.
Photo 4, 10:23 - two minutes before "Most"ality
Photo 5, 10:25 - "Most"ality
Photo 6, 10:27 - two minutes after "Most"ality
Photo 7, 10:29 - four minutes after "Most"ality
Photo 8, 10:31 - six minutes after "Most"ality
Photo 9, 11:20 - one hour after "Most"ality

 

[BigBonner]

If the eclipse has not reached you yet , lay something white under the edge of a shade tree and take a look at that .

It was something to watch. No air stirring , , Quiet as could be , Cigarette smoke lingered to the ground and did not float up until the moon was half way going out of the suns path . Air got a little cooler and felt really good . Grass and everything had a shadow .
Picture taken with my camera looking through Solar glasses

This is a folding table laying on the ground under a small shade tree . Rings shinning through the leaves

 

[OldDinosaurWesH]

Two photos taken during the eclipse that are actually more interesting than my eclipse photos are attached. The partially eclipsed sun combined with the shadows from the neighbor's tree created this interesting "scalloping" effect. (for lack of a better term.) This surface doesn't usually look like this. The only other time I've seen this weird effect was earlier this summer when we were experiencing severe haze caused by forest fires. The forest fire haze effect wasn't as pronounced. Photo taken at 10:21 and 10:27 just before and just after "Most"ality.



You can't really see it in the photos, but each of the "scallops" had a modest rainbow effect accompanying it. I'm assuming this is a diffusion of the light due to the eclipse effect. Again this is not usually the way these shadows fall. Photo one edited to blot out the license plate #

Wes H.

 

[OldDinosaurWesH]

Bob:

I see you are getting that same weird optical effect. Any explanation?

Wes H.

Whoops! That was BigBonner getting the weird optical effects.

 

[Jitterbugdude]

Here you go. Proof positive that the solar eclipse effects tobacco.

Here is a pic taken right before the eclipse began:

And here is one taken right after "totality" ( 80% for me) :

Pretty amazing, proof positive that a solar eclipse speeds up the aging process by about 6 weeks.

 

[deluxestogie]

Everybody is ahead of me: Oregon, Kentucky, Maryland.

I still have a couple of shots to do over the next hour and a half. Then I'll post the photos.

I agree with Larry and Wes. The most interesting effect from the partial eclipse is the "scallop" patterns cast onto the ground as light is filtered through the leaves. (I have a few shots of that on my neighbor's pitch black asphalt driveway.) I also photographed his tall sunflowers. Meh.

That "scallop" effect is caused by tiny gaps between the tree leaves that create hundreds of pinhole projectors. The height of the leaves above the ground means that even fairly large gaps can find a suitable focal length on the ground. Each individual scallop is a focused (more or less) projection of the shape of the eclipsed sun. And it doesn't cost anything!

What was most curious was the lighting effect at max eclipse. It hushed the local birds and insects. Unlike the light at dusk, which is reddish, this was a bluish light, like someone had turned down the dimmer. Very still and cool.

My son (in Alabama) drove his family up to Tennessee last night, and stayed at a motel outside the zone of totality at only ~$130 for the night (2 adults and 2 kids). This morning, they drove up toward Nashville, and joined a crowd of observers in a Home Depot parking lot. I spoke with them on the phone, and the kids (8 and 10) were having a blast. That sure beats the hell out of another trip to a water park. As a concerned grandpa, I had purchased a stack of ISO certified eclipse glasses back in June, and mailed them down there, along with two glow-in-the-dark eclipse t-shirts.

Pics soon.

Bob

 

[Thedbs999]

Here in Wheeling,WV only 82% coverage. About half way to the peak at 234Pm we started getting a breeze. It died down after about 10 minutes around 2PM. Also the locusts started their cadence as they do before dark.
The pictures are from my raised corn bed. I am trying to show how dim the light got. Also, the dimly lit little dutch stalks. Final pic is from my I phone with a 2x neutral density filter held against the camera lens at the peak. Lens flair shows coverage here.
Dan

 

[OldDinosaurWesH]

Bob:

Those two photos that I submitted showing that "scalloping" effect, were taken 5 minutes apart. One immediately before "most"ality and one immediately after. Note that the effect has rotated nearly 90 degrees from photo one to photo two. Is this because of the angle of the sunlight as it was being deflected by the moon? I'm thinking Albert Einstein and his general theory of relativity is having some effect here, but my advanced Physics is limited. I know that the gravitational effect of a large body can bend light, but I'm not sure if the moon has that much gravity. Put on your professor hat!

Wes H.

P.S. I'm glad I noticed this phenomenon. It turned out to be the most interesting thing about the whole eclipse. Also, I tried to view the eclipse on NASA's feed. No luck there, their servers crashed. Imagine that. Only the biggest astronomical phenomenon to come down the pike in years, and NASA couldn't handle it. Your tax $ at work.

 

[SmokesAhoy]

This happened after the peak, absolute devastation

 

[deluxestogie]

Sorry for your loss, Smokes.

OldDinosaur, with a partial eclipse, the crescent of the sun (if you look at it) rotates from one side to the other, as the eclipse moves toward max then away from max obscuration. Einstein would just stick out his tongue.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

Eclipse Observations

Well, that was fun. Although the bugs and birds seemed aware of something going on, the plants were totally unimpressed by this rare mega-event. The photos below are a representative selection of all that I shot.

The Wood Splint Basket Helioscope

The challenge was to keep the long axis of the basket aligned generally toward the sun. I did find it helpful to be able to just glance at the image of the sun, rather than frequently donning the eclipse glasses and staring straight up.

And along the same concept as the pinhole projector, I captured the patterns filtered through the tree leaves above my neighbor's black asphalt driveway.

The neighbor's sunflowers showed zero change. Sun? No sun? Who cares?

Corojo 99 Morphologic Alterations in Response to a 92% Partial Eclipse of the Sun

Summary: none.

I honestly can not detect even the slightest change in the photos of these plants. Perhaps younger plants, with more recently emerged upper leaf would have been more responsive. But we'll never know.

[I just discovered that a plus sign (+) within the filename of an image prevents it from displaying. Had to do some editing of file names.]


Bob

 

[OldDinosaurWesH]

Yes, that was my experience. The birds quit chirping, the squirrels quit squirreling around, and generally nature got quieter. (not the human activity.) The temperature went down by several degrees. Old Sol is out there right this minute making up for that modest cooling I experienced earlier today.

It's a testament as to just how powerful the sun is. At 95.456% (per that website) of totality it was't all that dark. I remember in 1979 when I was in a total eclipse area, in spite of the cloud cover, it got dark for a couple of minutes.

I hope that kitty-cat that was looking at the eclipse without benefit of special glasses is okay. As Bob said in one of his earlier posts, plants are smarter than animals. None of my vegetation seemed to notice.

I will also note that my tobacco is pretty mature. It doesn't really produce the clasping hands except on the newest shoots. At this late stage there aren't many new shoots...to shoot so to speak.

Good job to everyone who participated.

Wes H.

 

[deluxestogie]

Thank you to those who participated. I guess the conclusion is that plants are smart enough to ignore an eclipse, while animals are far more gullible. One other conclusion is that building a pinhole projector for an eclipse is a waste of materials and time, if the eclipse occurs where there are trees bearing leafage.

My understanding is that the Great American Solar Eclipse has brought about an unprecedented boom in port-a-potty rentals.

Bob