Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Un-Blinded by an Eclipse

If looking at the sun can lead to blindness, maybe looking away from the sun can lead to enlightenment...

Taking advantage of the recent solar eclipse, Mark Day published a short video that demonstrates how dappled sunlight results when interwoven leaves act as pinhole cameras.  It's rare and fascinating footage of sunlight, that can only witnessed by avoiding the instinct to look up.



Earlier this month, Punya Mishra was the first person to alert me to this effect, when he shared photos he'd taken in 1994.  Just as otherworldly is this 'shadow' photo of the eclipse posted to Twitter by Andrew Rice.



The Big Picture took advantage of the distant alignment of our sun and moon by publishing inspiring photos of the event.  The images are for the most part, of the celestial show overhead, and of people from around the world finding ways to see it.  Being that an annular eclipse is such a rare wonder, it makes perfect sense, but it has me thinking about the wonders we miss, because our attention is focused in the wrong direction.

blog comments powered by Disqus