Eclipse - A good time to test your scope for low light capability?

[DustyRusty]

If your really bored, and wanted to check how well your scope works in low light, today April 8th 2024 might be a great day to check it out, in some states, anyway.
You wouldn't have to wait long for the light to wade away.
I'm just being silly. Eclipses do that to me.

 

[bearcreek]

If you didn't manage to find the time yesterday, you can always wait till the sun goes down. Happens every day where I live.

 

[Carl N. Brown]

Dusk to Dawn are good times to check "scope capabilities in low light..

 

[Double Naught Spy]

This thread sort of reminds me of the guys you see a sporting events with sunglasses resting on the bill of their baseball cap that is being worn backwards and the guys are shading their eyes from the sun with their hands. If only they had a better way to shade their eyes that would leave their hands free...

Gotta agree with the other guys. That is literally something you can check every single evening & morning given that the eclipse is twilight. Why would you bother during the eclipse?

You wouldn't have to wait long for the light to wade away.

But you would have to wait hundreds of years for it to appear in your location. On average, any given spot on earth sees an eclipse about ever 375 years.

 

[jmorris]

When you're too cool to think.



At least his sunglasses are not on the bill of the hat..

I too just shoot in the evening and even in the dark, with a little help.

 

[jmr40]

We drove almost 1000 miles round trip and spent 2 nights in a motel to take my daughter and 3 of my grandchildren to get in the zone of totality. I'd seen a total before and wanted my daughter and grandkids to see it. Two of them are too young to remember, but too young to leave home. The next one in the USA is 20 years from now and totality will only be in parts of Montana and North Dakota.

But the darkness doesn't last long enough to be practical and only a very small portion of the USA was in totality. With 99% blockage it is no darker than a cloudy day. But when that last sliver of sunlight disappears it's like flipping a switch to near total darkness that only lasts from a few seconds to about 5 minutes depending on where you are. It isn't complete darkness like a moonless night. More like darkness with a 1/2 moon. There is a glow on the horizon 360 degrees. During a normal sunset you only see that glow in the west while the east is dark

We were in the dark just under 4 minutes then just like flipping a switch it was light again. If you were in an area with 95% blockage you'd never notice the difference looking around. You'd have to be looking directly at the sun with eye protection to even know there was an eclipse.

I have checked out various optics as the sun was slowly setting in the past. It's a more realistic method.

 

[jmorris]

I actually stopped shooting to watch it here at home. Not sure I'd go 1000 miles round trip over days to see it but if I make it another 20 years and my family wants to go, I bet I would.

The purple martins and my chickens all went to roost, making more noise than normal, because they knew it wasn't.

 

[Choctaw]

I observed it from the backyard with my test subjects...uh, dogs.

 

[Littlef]

I think it would be easier to just wait till evening, or get up extra early to test low light, than waiting around for an eclipse. also, unless you're square in path of totality, the difference in sunlight is no more than the sun going behind some clouds for a few minutes. If I was in the proper path to be able to witness a true total eclipse, I would not waste that short opportunity shooting at targets.