Sunday, May 20, 2012

Solar Eclipse 2012



Timeline:

5:37 pm Arizona time. I am watching the solar eclipse by the moon. There is a tiny bit of moon shadow in the lower east section of the sun, just a sliver so far though. I'll check back in 10 minutes.

5:49 pm. Ooooh! There's a nice crescent being cut out of the sun right now. I am using a pair of 8 power binoculars with one end sealed off and the other covered by a sun filter. I can see several sun spots that the moon is covering over. I'll check in five minute intervals from now on.

5:55 pm. Nice movement of the moon across the suns face. It is blocking more of the sun's face and moving in a north west direction - up and to the left.

6:04 pm. Same as before...nice steady movement. I have started a Photoshop sequence of the eclipse.

6:10 pm. The southern edge of the moon has reached the halfway point of the solar face.

6:18 pm. The sun now resembles a crescent moon.

6:25 pm. Still more crescent. The sunlight is now a mellow soft tint as opposed to the usual harsh strength of a summer's day. Obviously there is something happening in the sky.

6:35 pm. Very mellow and shadowy tinted, as if the air were being filtered through a haze or a fog.

6:40 pm. I don't think we are going to get a "ring of fire" effect. The moon is traveling too far up and is not centering.

6:45 pm. Darker now, even more mellow almost like an autumn evening. A little cooler too, not much but noticeable. The sun resembles a Shriner's crescent - lower part is showing while the top is blocked by the passing moon.

6:55 pm. I think I'll leave it here unless something very unusual happens. I was hoping for the "ring of fire" effect, but no such luck. Nice show nonetheless.

Here is the animated Gif.


Sunday, March 25, 2012

Me & Facebook cont'd...

No, not a scam. It was really the Facebook Team asking for identity confirmation. They want to be certain that the demographic info they gather can be cross-referenced to an ongoing database that collects info from browsers and website cookies and such.

I might look into the other FB options, but I have to decide if I want to play FB again. It takes a lot of work staying involved and dealing with the "opinions" one can encounter in discussion groups. Facebook is becoming a legal liability. If someone can be certain that the FB profile is really you, it can be used in legal proceedings, by collectors, employers, the IRS and other more clandestine government agencies in this country and abroad. By asking for identity confirmation, FB could be placing people at risk.

Greed is the only reason Facebook will not allow the uncomplicated use of screen names or web identities. Forgive me if I do not trust in Facebook's reassurance that my information will be kept private or will be deleted after my identity is verified. The operators of this particular social media have not been honest in the past and show no signs of being honest or truthful in the future.

Remember MySpace? With their overbearing presence, it won't be long before the question asked will be: Remember Facebook?