kittynh
7th February 2003, 09:08 AM
I'm reading Phil's great book "Bad Astronomy" which I bought at the Amazing Meeting. I also bought an extra copy to give to my daughter's school (which we should all do).
I was reading about how looking at the sun won't cause you to go blind, but can cause some damage so don't do it, and why gazing at an eclipse is much worse!
That reminded me of the time I accidentally engaged in really stupid astronomy. I was vacationing in Puerto Rico, as I do every year, and I vacation where there is nothing but a beach and a hotel. Our rule is all tv shows and radio must be in Spainish, even though we don't speak the language. To us, it feels like a foreign country then...
We were totally clueless there was to be a solar eclipse! I'm on the beach asn it gets kind of dark and I think, "Oh a storm," and look up. The sky looked to weird I took a picture, and said to the family, "Hey, look at the sky, it's kind of odd." So, we all stare at this eclipse, until we all shout at once, "It's an eclipse! AAHHHHHH!!!!!! Don't look!"
I totally expected we would all be blind in a few hours, we even debated going to the local hospital.
Well, we can all see, my guess is that because it was cloudy it filtered some of the light. I'm not sure, because we actually looked at the thing for awhile.
I was reading about how looking at the sun won't cause you to go blind, but can cause some damage so don't do it, and why gazing at an eclipse is much worse!
That reminded me of the time I accidentally engaged in really stupid astronomy. I was vacationing in Puerto Rico, as I do every year, and I vacation where there is nothing but a beach and a hotel. Our rule is all tv shows and radio must be in Spainish, even though we don't speak the language. To us, it feels like a foreign country then...
We were totally clueless there was to be a solar eclipse! I'm on the beach asn it gets kind of dark and I think, "Oh a storm," and look up. The sky looked to weird I took a picture, and said to the family, "Hey, look at the sky, it's kind of odd." So, we all stare at this eclipse, until we all shout at once, "It's an eclipse! AAHHHHHH!!!!!! Don't look!"
I totally expected we would all be blind in a few hours, we even debated going to the local hospital.
Well, we can all see, my guess is that because it was cloudy it filtered some of the light. I'm not sure, because we actually looked at the thing for awhile.