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We
had a partial solar eclipse today.
The moon seldom passes between us and the sun, dragging its dark shadow
across the earth. Today it did exactly that right here where I live.
Using a paper punch, I had made five holes in a half sheet of computer
paper by 6:00 that evening.
Understanding that it was possible to burn the retina of my eyes if I
looked at the sun directly, I planned to observe what was happening indirectly.
By
projecting the sun's light through a small hole in a sheet of paper, I could
safely watch its image change on the light cast on a second piece of paper held
at arm's length from the first.
Later, a little after 6:00, I noticed a small, dark bump in the upper-right of
each of the five circles of light on the second sheet of paper. As I
continued to check every five minutes or so, the spot slowly changed into a
crescent shape--like a cookie with a bite taken out of it. I knew that the moon
was beginning to block out a little bit of the sun's light.
I
wondered if I could project the crescent shapes on the east wall around our
back yard. This is a photo of the result:
Sure enough, the five little crescents shone onto the fence. My
husband began to get interested in the project, and that is his shadow holding
the paper for me.
Isn't it interesting how the projection of light through each little hole
repeats the shape of the eclipse in the image? --Five little holes and
five crescents in the shadow of the paper.
That was when I noticed that the branches and leaves from a nearby tree
were casting some more unusual shadows. The light shining through the
tree's spaces was making more crescents on the fence.
They resembled bubbles of light on the darkening wall because there were
so many. We took some pictures of them too.
My husband had a sudden inspiration. He found an old metal tractor
seat with lots of holes in it. It looked like this:
"Do you think it will make crescent-shaped projections from each of
these holes?" he asked.
We
took a picture of the result.
Can you see the eclipse projection in each hole?
What else do these shadows look like? Is someone carrying a basket?
Does it look like an Inca Sun god with a fancy crown on his head?
What kind of books might this post inspire you to read? Non-fiction
books about eclipses? Shadow puppets? The pin-hole camera? Look that one up if you don't already know what it is, and enjoy your ability to read about anything and everything.
What fun ideas can we discover about our new eclipse on Monday, August 21, 2017? Come back to visit Jump Up 2 Chapter Books next week to find out.
