re: #29 Anymouse

I have never seen one over about 40%. I moved here in late 2011; I was pleasantly surprised I moved right into the path of a total eclipse.

Turns out, this eclipse sweeping the USA is the first to go from coast to coast since 1918, I suppose I won’t have another shot. (Weather, don’t fail me now; this area is semi-desert so hopefully it won’t cloud up like it did to me in Virginia Beach).

If you want to practice, there’s a transit of Mercury happening on Sunday 8th May. It’s not naked-eye visible but a projection from a reasonable-sized telescope will show it. Obvious warnings — don’t try and look at it directly with binoculars etc.

I’ll be trying to take pictures as I did with the near-total eclipse in April 2015, using a welder’s helmet glass filter positioned in front of a cheap superzoom digital camera. I’ll post what I get although the weather forecast is for cloud early on in the day.