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Cumulus growth from Warren Wilson
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Special Physics Photo of the Week

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Totality! April 8, 2024 - Photo by Donald F. Collins We traveled to Shaker Heights, Ohio (next to Cleveland) to capture the total solar eclipse.  We woke up to some rain and solid clouds as a cold front passed through, but the front passed with beautiful clear skies by noon.  The totality began about 3:13 pm and lasted 3 min:49 sec. The total solar eclipse is characterized by the corona - the halo immediately surrounding the Sun.  The corona consists of ionized gases ejected from the surface of the Sun which glow with the spectra characteristic of the the elements in the Sun.  The shape of the corona is variable from eclipse to eclipse causing every solar eclipse to produce a different display.  The corona is also strongly shaped by the strong magnetic fields surrounding the Sun.  The eclipse also shows several solar prominences - the flame-like ejections of solar mater being "boiled" off into space.  The prominence protruding from the south limb (th...
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Physics Photo of the Week

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Physics Photo of the Week March 8, 2024 The Sun I photographe d this image of the Sun recently (Feb 26, 2024) using a 4-inch (104 mm aperture) telescope fitted with a special solar filter and a digital SLR camera.  The solar filter has a transmission of 1/100,000 amount of the incident light.  The solar filter also reddens the image.  Since the Sun's surface, or photosphere , has a temperature of about 5700 deg K, its true color is blue white - about the color of old-fashioned fluorescent light tubes. Notice the large sunspot dominating a group of sunspots on the center right of the Sun's image.  The Earth is only about 1/100 the diameter of the Sun, smaller than the size of the large sunspot.  Sunspots are cooler regions of the Sun's surface (about 2000 deg K cooler than the surrounding photosphere).  Sunspots are also known for strong magnetic fields directed out of the sunspots.  Thus a sunspot  resembles the north pole or south pole of a stron...
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Physics Photo of the Week

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  Eclipse 2024 from Northeast Vermont - P hotos  by Olivia Mitchell-Eby The recent total solar eclipse was spectacular for family kin in a corner of Vermont called the "Northeast Kingdom".  Olivia used her cell phone held in her lap to take photos of the on-coming eclipse.  In the distance above the horizon we can see the on-coming ominous shadow of the Moon approaching Olivia and her immediate family amidst new-fallen snow.  The fresh snow is a sign of Vermont spring in early April. Modern cell phones have the a bility to do time-lapse videos, so Olivia supported her cell phone in here lap aimed at the eclipsing su n and recorded the time-lapse video seen below.     This video is amazing.  We can see the Moon's shadow projected on the thin cirrus clouds, when the shadow arrives at the viewing point, the sky becomes dark.  We don't see the Sun as if it were eclipsed however.  Cell phones are "smart" and set the exposures automatically....
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