Oct 14, 2023 Update:
akj

Eclipse fun with good friends, Mark & Marcelo:
I just got home from a lovely little eclipse-viewing party, where we shared welding helmets to watch this quite*special annular eclipse from Mark’s patio in Merida, Yucatan.

Besides using welding helmets, there was another way to view the eclipse, without protective lenses, that I had only heard about.

It turns out that natural plant foliage (leaves) filter out enough of the light, to cast ~lovely~ little images of the eclipse … that look like shimmering fish scales.

The first image below, shows this effect … as you can clearly make out the 90% eclipse level that we experienced here in Merida … and the second image shows the current 10% eclipse level on our front patio ~right now~.

Sidelight: Readers of a scientific bent can think of the plant leaves working as either multiple pin-hole cameras … or multiple camera-obscura’s, (where the images are inverted).

Notice how the 90% eclipse level foto (above) shows 90% of the sun blacked-out by the moon (leaving a sliver that looks like a moon) …. and the 10% eclipse level foto (below) shows almost all light, with just a small 10% of the sun blocked out … with multiple images of the eclips … displayed like shimmering fish scales.

The final image shows the ficus plant leaves that produced the lovely images.

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Original report:

Aug. 22, 2023
For people who enjoy looking up, Yucatecans in Celestun & Halachó will be right in the optimal path to see this year’s Annular Eclipse … October 14, 2023 – at 11:21.57 CST midday.

Merida will see only a more partial Annular eclipse (94.6%) at 121:24 mid-day. The path with yellow dots (see map below) shows the best views of the 2023 Annular (partial) Eclipse … paired with an approximate image of what it will look like. (seen through protective lenses) Sidelight: The path with the purple dots is for NEXT YEAR’s big 2024 Total Eclipse’s best viewing path. … Thanks NASA!

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Details for BEST viewing (because Merida is slightly out of the best path):

The earliest Yucatan full eclipse viewing starts at CELESTUN … @11:20 :34 PM for the start of the total eclipse (C2) … with a FULL 4 minutes 41 seconds of eclipse !

Best Viewing in Yucatan: (cont)

… then, after Celestun … on to Halachó @ 11:21 :57 PM

Then the VERY BEST viewing of the annular eclios in Yucatan …of 4 min 42 sec of eclipse (the longest in Yucatan) Maxcanú @ 11:22 :06 PM

Followed by … Samahil @ 11:22 :06 PM
… Kinchil @ 11:22 :21 PM
… Tamchen @ 11:22 :23 PM
… San Antonio Chum @ 11:22 :50 PM
… Muna @ 11:23 :15 PM … 3 minutes 30 seconds of eclipse … (note the trend?)

… Hunucmá @ 11:23 :25 AM … as seen from the cenote !?!??

… Sacalum @ 11:23 :53 PM
… Ticul @ 11:24 :07 PM … when buying pottery or shoes ?

… Oxkutzcab @ 11:24 :40 PM … when buying some incredible citrus fruit in bulk.

… Akil @ 11:25 :05 PM

… Tecax @ 11:25 :24 PM … with just 2 minutes 3 seconds of viewing time.

https://eclipse2024.org/2023eclipse/eclipse_cities/states.php?state=Yucatan&country=Mexico

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  Cheers,
  Dr. Steven M. Fry
  
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