Starship Asterisk*

An Eclipse Tree

Explanation: Yes, but can your tree do this? If you look closely at the ground in the featured image, you will see many images of yesterday's solar eclipse -- created by a tree. Gaps between tree leaves act like pinhole lenses and each create a small image of the partially eclipsed Sun visible in the other direction. The image was taken in Burleson, Texas, USA. Yesterday, people across the Americas were treated to a partial eclipse of the Sun, when the Moon moves in front of part of the Sun. People in a narrow band of Earth were treated to an annular eclipse, also called a ring-of-fire eclipse, when the Moon becomes completely engulfed by the Sun and sunlight streams around all of the Moon's edges. In answer to the lede question, your tree not only can do this, but will do it every time that a visible solar eclipse passes overhead. Next April 8, a deeper, total solar eclipse will move across North America.

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…I used to be taken driving and notice the speckled shadows moving across the carriage, before it occurred to me that they were caused by the leaves overhead. (As soon as I discovered this, the scientific interest killed the impression, and I began speculating as to why the patches of light were always circular and so on.)

Bertrand Russell, Autobiography

The first time I saw these crescents on my dad's lawn was, I think, in 1954 when I was just sixteen. Not having any appropriate equipment I viewed the eclipse indirectly by looking at its reflection in a very still pond.

https://en.wikipediaDOTorg/wiki/Solar_e ... e_30,_1954

Peter Bradford wrote: ↑Sun Oct 15, 2023 4:05 pm The first time I saw these crescents on my dad's lawn was, I think, in 1954 when I was just sixteen. Not having any appropriate equipment I viewed the eclipse indirectly by looking at its reflection in a very still pond.

https://en.wikipediaDOTorg/wiki/Solar_e ... e_30,_1954

What's with your use of "DOT" instead of a period? Working URLs are allowed to be posted here.

Reminds me of a post with shadows on a shirt!

Funky eclipse fingers!
_

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Sun Oct 15, 2023 7:07 pm Funky eclipse fingers!
_
PXL_20231014_162304168p.jpg

So what's going on there? Is your hand posed in the typical "Ok" sign formation? That has only one pretty large - not pinhole - opening, right? And just how many eclipse images are we seeing? At least six?

johnnydeep wrote: ↑Sun Oct 15, 2023 7:19 pm

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Sun Oct 15, 2023 7:07 pm Funky eclipse fingers!
_
PXL_20231014_162304168p.jpg

So what's going on there? Is your hand posed in the typical "Ok" sign formation? That has only one pretty large - not pinhole - opening, right? And just how many eclipse images are we seeing? At least six?

My index finger was curled into the base of my thumb, tightly enough to make a roundish aperture about a centimeter in diameter. Other fingers were loosely extended. You have the primary crescent from my deliberate aperture, and a lot of weird shadows created by the slit-like light source, which results in asymmetric penumbras.

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Sun Oct 15, 2023 7:28 pm

johnnydeep wrote: ↑Sun Oct 15, 2023 7:19 pm

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Sun Oct 15, 2023 7:07 pm Funky eclipse fingers!
_
PXL_20231014_162304168p.jpg

So what's going on there? Is your hand posed in the typical "Ok" sign formation? That has only one pretty large - not pinhole - opening, right? And just how many eclipse images are we seeing? At least six?

My index finger was curled into the base of my thumb, tightly enough to make a roundish aperture about a centimeter in diameter. Other fingers were loosely extended. You have the primary crescent from my deliberate aperture, and a lot of weird shadows created by the slit-like light source, which results in asymmetric penumbras.

Thanks. Then something like this I presume:

johnnydeep wrote: ↑Sun Oct 15, 2023 7:42 pm

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Sun Oct 15, 2023 7:28 pm

johnnydeep wrote: ↑Sun Oct 15, 2023 7:19 pm

So what's going on there? Is your hand posed in the typical "Ok" sign formation? That has only one pretty large - not pinhole - opening, right? And just how many eclipse images are we seeing? At least six?

My index finger was curled into the base of my thumb, tightly enough to make a roundish aperture about a centimeter in diameter. Other fingers were loosely extended. You have the primary crescent from my deliberate aperture, and a lot of weird shadows created by the slit-like light source, which results in asymmetric penumbras.

Thanks. Then something like this I presume:


hand in ok sign form.jpg

Almost exactly like that.