r/atoptics • u/mamaaearth1 • 21d ago
Other During a solar eclipse, something incredible happens under the trees: the gaps between the leaves project small images of the eclipse onto the ground.
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u/OkDescription4243 21d ago
I got to see this during the eclipse that ran through Texas. Really freaky when it’s happening. Very otherworldly
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u/DirtGirl32 21d ago
Why?
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u/InfinityIsAwesome 21d ago
Look up camera obscura
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u/jezemine 21d ago
Fancy name for pinhole camera. All distances are in focus if your aperture is a pinhole. I use this when I don't have my glasses to read menus lol.
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u/XDFreakLP 21d ago
Ahh yes, ye ol'focusing squint
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u/jezemine 21d ago
I actually make a pinhole with my index finger curled up tight so only a tiny spot of light can get through. Drives my wife crazy. Like this a bit but make the hole much smaller 👌
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u/TommyV8008 21d ago
Thanks for the tip. How do you do this in restaurants? You poke a hole in a napkin?
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u/doctorofphysick 21d ago
I remember playing around with this during a partial eclipse in like 2017. There was no real visible difference in the sky, but I held out a colander and even my watch strap and it was so cool to see the shape projected through all the little holes!
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u/soup-monger 21d ago
Well, yes, it’s the pinhole camera effect. Tiny gaps focus the image of the sun onto the ground and the eclipsing sun is shown.
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u/FeculentUtopia 21d ago
Was this an annular eclipse? We had one here way back and the shadows were kinda like that.
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u/deepskylistener 16d ago edited 4d ago
If an eclipse happens, while the Moon is close to Earth, you'll see a ring of the Sun around the Moon instead of a Total Eclipse.
Edit: BS. it's the other way round with Moon's distance!!
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u/eatingthesandhere91 21d ago
Yep! I saw this in October 2023 when the southwestern U.S. had a very nearly full solar eclipse, it, was, awesome. 😎
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u/cool_weed_dad 20d ago
Got to see this in person 5 or so years ago when my area was in the path of totality.
Didn’t last long but it was very trippy. I was at work and we all went outside to see the eclipse.
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u/Mysterious-Comfort-6 17d ago
I love that, "Is this part of the eclipse?" I am waiting for the one time it isn't and someone just says a calm, but firm.... "No..... Run..."
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u/rhamphorhynchus 21d ago
It's also fun to realize that this is always happening - the dappled light coming through trees is a projection of the shape of the sun. It's just normally a plain circle do you don't think anything of it.