ANNULAR SOLAR ECLIPSE 2012 FROM ASPEN, COLORADO

Eclipse Anular (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Ok, it was only an annular solar eclipse, and it was only partially visible from Aspen, but I did see it (well, at least its projected image, that is)!

I had been hearing and reading about this annular solar eclipse for several weeks, but May 20, 2012 snuck up on me, so I was not as prepared as I could have been for the viewing. This being said, I was able to use a binocular image projection technique I had come across in my brief pre-eclipse investigations to view a projected image of this relatively rare event.

(I was warned profusely and adamantly not to use the binoculars to view the Sun directly – so I did not!!!
- http://astronomy.wonderhowto.com/blog/use-binoculars-safely-project-and-view-upcoming-solar-eclipse-and-transit-venus-0135128/)

I did plan far enough ahead to test this technique earlier in the day on the 20th. I pulled out a sheet of white paper and my binoculars, uncapped only one side of the binoculars (recommended by several sources), and oriented them so that the image of the Sun would filter through the binocular lenses onto the surface of the paper.

This worked out even better than I expected - I could even see sunspots!

Unfortunately, however, I soon discovered that the sunspots were really a manifestation of dirty binocular lenses. I cleaned the lenses off and was rewarded with a fairly sharp (and clean), large enough to view, image of the Sun appearing within the shadow of the binoculars on the paper.

When the actual eclipse time arrived, I set up my binocular projector and viewed the event. Although it was fuzzier than it had been earlier in the day, there was the image of the Sun, along with a dark sliver carved out of the upper-right edge of the disk!

I attempted to take photos of this image of the partial annular solar eclipse, but they did not turn out very well. Still, I had been able to view the phenomenon – my first in-person eclipse view of any kind since high school.

Here are my Aspen 2012 Annular Solar Eclipse photos - projected through binoculars:

2012 Partial Annular Solar Eclipse - Aspen, Colorado (Photo credit: richpalpine)

Aspen, Colorado 2012 Partial Annular Solar Eclipse (Photo credit: richpalpine)

(Actually, to me these look more like those fuzzy UFO photos that sometimes circulate the internet….but, it was the best I could do at the time.)

Later, I found these captivating photos of the eclipse taken from various parts of the world: http://photos.denverpost.com/mediacenter/2012/05/photos-annular-solar-eclipse-makes-ring-of-fire/36073/#121

Next up: The Transit of Venus Across the Sun

I’m looking forward to the next notable astronomical sight visible from Aspen – the transit of Venus across the Sun on June 5, 2012 !

According to transitofvenus.org, the transit will be visible from about 4:00 PM until sunset. It will not be viewable again until December, 2117 (wikipedia.org).

I plan on refining my binocular technique for this and I still have to figure out how to get useable photos, but I have also decided to purchase some “Eclipse Shades” from Rainbow Symphony, referenced in an article in EarthSky.org, so that I will be able to view the event directly and SAFELY!!

I wanted to buy several pair of the "shades" so that I can share this experience with others, but due to an order minimum, I had to purchase 25 pair -- I guess I’d better start looking for more astronomically-oriented friends in Aspen.