Fun Fact #503 Getting the Shadowband Back together

 Fun Fact #503

Getting the ShadowBand Back together

Good Morning everyone! I really do hope you got a chance to enjoy the solar eclipse yesterday, but in case you missed it here are some cool facts and photos taken by other members from around Rock Cut Campus.

The Eclipse itself casts quite a large shadow over this fun fact so to start off there. Here is an Image that Daniel Freund was able to take with his modified Telescope. What’s really cool about this photo is that it provides an excellent view of the Chromosphere which is normally hidden by the sun’s much brighter surface. The reason it’s red is due to the presence of Hydrogen Plasma (Hydrogen at really high temperatures). The reason this view was even possible is because Rockford only got 9% the normal amount of sunlight. All in all really cool ... well plasma is Hot by definition so technically its not cool, but you know what was cool? The fact that it became a little under 5 degrees cooler in Rockford during the Eclipse.

(Image of Chromosphere by Daniel Freund)

Next up is This image of Optical Wizardry by Hayden Morris on his Phone. When you take images there are a lot of interesting factors to take into account and Solar Eclipses are more difficult than most. First off most phones have thankfully short exposure times which limits the potential damage the sun can have. This short time however, means the phone doesn't always get a clear image with artifacts like oversaturation which caused the sun to be blurry in this image. Yet that's not what makes this image interesting, if you look below and above the image you can see a green and blue dot respectively. These are from a Lens flare where the sunlight is refracting within the lens of the camera itself, making two dimmer reflections of the solar eclipse for a Triple Eclipse Photograph. Better images do exist online but it's still really cool that Hayden was able to capture one. Lastly there are also 4 Diffusion Spikes (also called Starbursts or SunStars) which were likely caused by the camera aperture on smartphones. The 4 spikes means it has 4 blades which is common among smartphones for simplicity. THe more blades means more corners which translates into more visible spikes.

(Image Of Eclipse Diffusion Spikes by Hayden Morris)

Lastly we have Nate Gomes’ Image of Shadow bands appearing on the ground. Shadow Bands are a rather interesting phenomenon which scientists have settled on a theory for but have yet to be able to successfully prove it in a laboratory setting, meaning we can't say with certainty what causes them. However they tend to appear as waves of moving crescent shadows just as the Sun is almost fully eclipsed. While rare outside of Umbral areas due to the low levels of light this was visible from RCC  which is rather cool. As for what the current leading theory is, it relates to the Sunlight from the eclipse being refracted within subtle aircurrents, theoretically creating the moving shadow images that Nate saw.  Another theory (older) has to do with light diffusion in a similar vein to what Hayden experienced in his photo, but this theory is generally considered outdated today.

(Image of Shadowbands by Nathaniel Gomes)

Once again, a special thanks to Dan, Nate, and Hayden for sending pictures of the solar eclipse, as it was rather fun to dive into. If anyone has any more feel free to send them and I’ll try to make another fun fact like this. As always, thanks for reading and please have a wonderful day.