Checking in about the Eclipse with an Astronomer and Astrophotographer
Astronomy Insights: A Deep Dive into the 2024 Solar Eclipse with an Astrophotographer
The solar eclipse is coming up on April 8, 2024. I know next to nothing about astronomy and yet, I am fascinated. I remember going to our local science museum growing up (mostly when we drove my mom insane on rainy days). I couldn’t wait to get to the end of the museum where we’d sit in the planetarium and look at slides of the stars in a pitch-black room. I don’t really remember much of that except how it made me feel, small. (That, and I remember the space ice cream we bought in the gift shop which felt disgusting but necessary). I wanted to do a deep dive into the upcoming eclipse, how to appreciate it, and how to learn more about astronomy. Lucky for me (and you), one of my friends is an amazing amateur astronomer (and software engineer). Nazmus Nasir, or Naz, educates the public about astronomy on his YouTube channel, Naztronomy, and his site. He was just featured in the Washington Post and appeared on Good Morning America today (!), so I am so happy he could make time to share a little about its history and how we can best appreciate it (and astronomy in general).
What is an eclipse?
An Eclipse is when one celestial body casts a shadow on another celestial body. In the case of a Solar Eclipse, the moon perfectly lines up between the Sun and the Earth and it casts a shadow on the earth, called the Umbra. A lunar eclipse is when the Earth casts a Shadow on the Moon.
There are 3 types of solar eclipses, Partial, Annular, and Total. A partial eclipse is when the moon partially blocks the sun. An annular eclipse is when the Moon is directly in front of the sun but it’s a little too far away so it can’t fully cover the sun and it looks like a ring of fire. A total solar eclipse is a special phenomenon where the Moon completely covers the Sun. It can last between 10 seconds and up to 7.5 minutes, depending on how close the moon is to the Earth. The moon is moving away from us every year and in about half a billion years, total solar eclipses will no longer be possible.
How have people made sense of this phenomenon in the past? What kinds of meanings have different cultures mapped onto eclipses?
As with Comets, most saw eclipses as an omen. The word ‘eclipse’ comes from a Greek word meaning ‘abandonment,’ and the ancients saw an eclipse as the Gods being angry.
Ancient Chinese have recorded eclipses for more than 4000 years and they believed that the sun was eaten by a dragon. They would make loud noises during an eclipse to scare the dragon away.
Ancient Incans used to practice human sacrifice during an eclipse in order to please their sun god.
Eclipses were also used for evil. In March 1504, Christopher Columbus used an almanac to predict an upcoming lunar eclipse. Although he and his men were first welcomed by the indigenous people in Jamaica, after six months, they halted trade because they were not satisfied with the Spaniards. Columbus used the information from the almanac to inform the leader of the people that God was angry with the local people’s treatment and would provide a sign by inflaming the moon with wrath. Sure enough, as predicted, the moon started to slowly disappear and turn red which frightened the indigenous people. Columbus “prayed” and told the people that God had listened to him and would forgive the people if they would only listen to him.
Some eclipse traditions still exist today. Native American tribes today such as the Dine tribe are not supposed to look at the eclipse, eat, sleep, or engage in physical activity. Instead, they are supposed to sit at home and pray.
Some Asian cultures will fast during the entirety of the eclipse. Both lunar and solar.
Note: you can learn more about this history on NASA’s site here.
Who will be able to see the eclipse?
NASA estimates that 99% of people in North America will be able to see at least part of the eclipse, including Hawaii. The only place that will miss out is Alaska.
Here’s a map:
The red dotted line is the center of the eclipse and the darkest red region will see a total solar eclipse. The diameter of the total eclipse is between 108 and 122 miles wide. Anyone within this path will experience “totality” where the moon completely engulfs the sun and we will be able to see the outermost layer of the solar atmosphere, known as the corona.
The eclipse starts on April 8, 2024 out in the Pacific Ocean and enters land in Mexico near Mazatlan at 9:51 AM local time, and heads northeast and enters Texas just southwest of San Antonio. And moves northeast towards Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, while also hitting Montreal in Quebec and the Provinces of New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador before exiting into the north Atlantic at 4:10 PM local time. Each area will see roughly 3 hours and 40 minutes of the eclipse (from the beginning of partial to the end of partial) at the centerline with decreasing duration as you go farther away from the center.
The duration of totality also depends on how far you are from the exact center. Although the diameter of the eclipse can reach 122 miles, if you are at the very edge, your length of totality can be as short as a few seconds! But get to the center and in the right place, you can experience up to 4 minutes 29 seconds of pure bliss.
What can people expect to see or experience?
For anyone viewing the partial eclipse, you can expect the sun to start looking a little bit like Pacman as the moon takes a bite. Most people won’t notice anything different about their environment until they get to an area where at least 80% of the sun is covered. In those regions, which include heavily populated areas like New York City (90%), Boston (93%), Hartford (93%), Toronto (99.93%!), and Chicago (94%), people can expect the sky to get significantly darker and the temperature to drop 10-15°F. Your shadows also start to look weird! At around 85%, the sun’s light gets polarized, and depending on how you’re looking at your shadow, it may look blurry. It can be extremely trippy. To look at the sun, you MUST wear solar eclipse glasses.
For those in totality, when the sun is completely covered, expect your mind to be blown, especially if it’s your first total eclipse. You can take your glasses off during totality. The sky gets very dark. You can see a 360° sunset which will look more red than normal, the sun will look like a black hole with white hairlike structures coming out in every direction. That’s the Corona. It extends far out into space and the view looks surreal. The sky is also dark enough to see some planets and the brightest stars. This year, a Comet named 12P/Pons-Brooks may also be visible near Jupiter. This comet was discovered in 1812 and will attempt to photobomb the sun.
Totality is a sight that can’t be described by words and cameras will never capture the feeling that people get when they see it for themselves. Put your glasses on when the totality ends.
What can people do to enhance their experience of the eclipse?
Wear safe solar glasses. Even during the partial phases, the sun will look interesting. You can also do fun experiments like grab a colander from your kitchen and look at the sun projected onto the ground or a piece of paper. The holes on the colander will act like pinhole cameras and project the eclipsed sun on the other side. Do NOT look at the sun directly through the colander itself.
Other things you can do is observe your shadows especially if you’re in an area getting 80% or more coverage.
Wear red and green clothing! As it gets darker, the colors start to look slightly different. Red starts to lose its color earlier, and green can start to look even brighter!
Can I look directly at it?
The only time it’s safe to look at the sun without eclipse glasses is when it’s totally covered. It’s actually encouraged to take your glasses off at the time.
At no point during the partial phases should you take your solar eclipse glasses off. You should also make sure you use authentic solar eclipse glasses because the knockoffs will cause you to damage your eyes. The difference between 99.9% coverage and 100% coverage is huge. Even at 0.1% power, the sun can damage your eyes.
If you are looking to buy eclipse glasses or solar filters, I would recommend starting on the American Astronomical Society’s website (eclipse.aas.org) where they have over 200 suppliers listed. Every supplier has been vetted and we can be confident that their products are safe and conform to the international safety standard known as ISO-12312-2.
I would highly discourage you to not start your search on sites like eBay, Etsy, or Amazon. Although some legitimate sellers will have their products on Amazon, my recommendation is to start on AAS and if the company you are purchasing from lands on Amazon, then it’s probably safe. As we get closer to the eclipse, the number of counterfeit glasses will surge and it will become impossible to tell them apart from real ones.
One last bit of safety advice, never look at the sun through a telescope or camera’s viewfinder (especially if it’s a DSLR), without a filter in front. The filter must be the first thing the sun hits. Otherwise, you risk unwanted laser eye surgery as the viewfinder or telescope focuses the light right into your retina.
You are an accomplished astrophotographer. Do you have plans to photograph the eclipse?
Yes! I plan on photographing with at least 4 setups. I have 2 telescopes to get up close and personal, and two camera lenses, one which will get pretty close and the other is a wide field lens because I want to capture the planets and stars if possible. I will be automating most of my photography tasks so that I can enjoy the eclipse with my eyes. I’m hoping to turn my photos into timelapses and I plan on using my photos for educational purposes.
Have you ever photographed an eclipse before? Is it your favorite thing to take photos of in terms of astronomy? If not, what is?
This upcoming eclipse will be my third total solar eclipse. I was 6 years old when I experienced my first one. I can’t remember seeing the sun under totality at all but I remember my family and others around me cheering. I remember the skies getting darker, but I don’t remember totality.
I photographed the total solar eclipse in 2017 from Tennessee using a large telescope and a camera with a lens. It was my first time photographing totality and mistakes were made. I’ve learned from them and I’m prepared for 2024.
I’ve also photographed other eclipses, mostly lunar eclipses because they are easier to see and some partial solar eclipses.
I can’t say that it’s my favorite thing to take photos of because it’s difficult to get it right. And since total solar eclipses happen so rarely, it’s not something that I can practice for. I really enjoy trying to photograph though. And I love taking pictures of far away galaxies. These giant collections of stars in the sky, some larger than our own galaxy, millions to billions of light years away, always makes me wonder if there’s life there looking back at us and taking a picture of our galaxy.
How did you get involved with astronomy? What made you so interested in it? A lot of people think it’s beyond them, so I’m interested in how you navigated a casual interest into learning about it more seriously.
I believe curiosity is key to astronomy. I was always interested in stars. I grew up in Bangladesh and my grandparents lived far from the city without any electricity. When I visited them, I used to stare at the night sky not really understanding what I was looking at. When I moved to the US, we moved to NYC, the brightest city in the galaxy. My curiosity for astronomy kind of died out until I started seeing pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope on TV. I believe it was an episode of Nova on PBS that reignited my interest. But I never thought that I could see the universe myself, I mean, I don’t have a space telescope and ground telescopes are expensive (I said to my 9-year-old self). Photographing space was out of the question.
In high school. I took a science class at a local community college for college credit, unrelated to astronomy but the professor was the head of the astronomy department and the college had an observatory open to the public every Wednesday (if weather permitted).
One day after class he asked if we would like to go on a little trip to the observatory. I, of course, went. The professor pointed the telescope towards Mars, then Jupiter, and then finally Saturn. Although the ice caps of Mars and the turbulent atmospheric bands of Jupiter were impressive, nothing could beat seeing Saturn’s rings for the first time. That was the first time I felt that I could do astronomy. I could get a telescope. I could buy a camera and take a picture! And that’s really when my journey began. I was 14 or 15 at the time. I bought a really cheap Walmart telescope a year later (not good enough to see planets). When I started working a real job, I saved up and bought a real telescope in 2012. My first two paychecks went straight into astronomy equipment.
Since then, I have tried to host at least a couple of star parties every year where I show people something in the sky through my telescope. I love showing people Saturn because their face always lights up and it reminds me of what I felt when I first saw it. I love bringing that feeling to others.
Without getting into the weeds too much, I transitioned into astrophotography as a way to bring that feeling to more people around the world. There’s an art to taking photos of space and slowly over the last 12 years, I learned and I taught others what I learned. Now I take photos of planets, the moon, the sun, nebulae, and galaxies. Just don’t ask me to take pictures of people, I never learned how to do that.
How can someone who likes space but isn’t an astronomer get involved? Where can we learn more?
The best way to get started is to just use your eyes and look up. The sky is free and it belongs to all of us. Observing the moon is the easiest way to do it because you can do it from anywhere. Look up when meteor showers are happening and go sit under some dark skies (hint hint: Perseids in August and Geminids in December are two of the best). Once you’re ready to buy something, get a pair of binoculars and look at the craters of the moon.
You can also find local astronomy clubs around you. The Sky and Telescope website has a database of thousands of astronomy clubs all around the world (except Antarctica). Most of them will allow you to visit for free. You can contact them ahead of time to learn about their outreach programs. I guarantee you that astronomers love talking about astronomy.
You should also look at your local library. Aside from finding books on astronomy, a few libraries carry telescopes as part of their “Library of Things” and you can borrow the telescope and try it out.
I also love talking about astronomy so anyone should feel free to reach out to me. I’ve helped quite a few people over the years find their first telescope, attend their first star party, and join their first astronomy club.
You have a great YouTube channel where you share a lot of beautiful images and great information about astronomy. Are there any other channels or resources you would recommend for people just getting started?
Eyes On The Sky! The channel is run by David Fuller who lives in Illinois. Aside from being one of the best humans on the planet, he’s extremely knowledgeable and a great teacher. He teaches how to find things in the sky and the best ways to observe them. Very beginner friendly and I highly recommend him.
Ed Ting runs another great channel. He’s based out of New Hampshire and another really wonderful person. He mostly covers telescopes and I think his channel is great for anyone shopping for telescopes, especially beginners.
What is your favorite movie based in space? Why?
Interstellar. The science behind the visuals is amazing. I love black holes and I love the way they visualized it in the movie. They also got the science right on time dilation. That movie came out a few years before we took an actual picture of a black hole, but that black hole in the movie was very close which impressed me all the more. It helped that they had consulted with actual scientists.
The science kind of stops at the end when (spoiler alert) they dive into the blackhole and don’t get spaghettified!
What is a pop culture astronomy fail that keeps you up at night? (factual error in a movie, shoddy set for a tv show, etc, weird hot takes on astronomy, etc.)
Oh my god, there’s so many! One thing that figuratively kills me is when I see a full moon during the day. Many shows and movies do this! We can only have a full moon when the moon is on the opposite side of the Sun. And the full moon will rise when the sun sets. Simple! If you want a moon during the daytime, put up a quarter moon!
Lots of shows/movies will also have sound in space. You see something crash on the moon and the SFX guys are like “Boom!” - no! If there was sound in space, we would be deaf because the sun would be extremely loud on any normal day.
What is your favorite piece of space trivia (doesn’t have to be related to the eclipse)
The black hole at the center of our Galaxy is named Sagittarius A*. That asterisk is pronounced as ‘star’. It was first discovered as a radio source but when telescopes were pointed at the location, there was nothing there. But they knew something had to be there because they detected radio waves. So the astronomers thought it was interesting and exciting. In physics, the excited states of atoms are denoted with asterisks so the astronomer put an asterisk next to Sagittarius A because it was exciting.
The name stuck and now, the asterisk means “star” because believe it or not, black holes are actually stars. They are exotic stars.