Ship of Fools: Smoke gets in your eyes

Thread: Smoke gets in your eyes Board: Hell / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by Palimpsest (# 16772) on :

Accustom as we are in the Pacific Northwest to balmy summers to make up for the long dark rainy winter, we're all staggering under what we see as a heat wave of 90 to 100 degrees. In addition, Smoke covers Seattle The huge B.C. fires have created a smoke plume that covers Seattle and goes down to Portland. Those of us with respitory and cardiac weaknesses are told to stay indoors till it clears, maybe next week sometime. My normal view of the sound and the mountains across it is a large fog of white smoke.

I know that other places have had worse, such as Phoenix last month. And it must be hellish in British Columbia near the fires. Still, it's unpleasant and hard to breathe.

I've been wondering, if the smoke continues a couple more weeks, it may block the solar eclipse viewing down in Oregon. Talk about bad omens.

Posted by Lyda*Rose (# 4544) on :

In October 2003 in San Bernardino County, California there were three fires that merged into a fire line that spanned thirty miles and there were eleven other fires burning at the same time in other parts of Southern California. I remember at times ash falling like snow and keeping inside as much as possible. About every ten years we get some really big, nasty wildfires. Usually there's a drought. And almost always there are Santa Ana winds. So, yeah, wildfires suck.

[ 05. August 2017, 02:08: Message edited by: Lyda*Rose ]

Posted by no prophet's flag is set so... (# 15560) on :

We remember the city of Ft MacMurray burning in a forest fire last year. 90 thousand evacuated. 2400 homes destroyed. 9 billion in damage.

British Columbia has some 200 active fires right now. We are getting smoke from 2500 miles away. Less than with Fort Mac which is 350 miles away, and we couldn't across the street.

Posted by Soror Magna (# 9881) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Palimpsest:
...I've been wondering, if the smoke continues a couple more weeks, it may block the solar eclipse viewing down in Oregon. Talk about bad omens.

When I was a kid, we viewed a solar eclipse through a piece of glass that we had covered in soot by holding it over a candle. (And none of us went blind, at least not from that.) Might it be possible to view the eclipse with the naked eye if it's smoky enough?

(But the smoke will probably ruin the Perseid display. [Frown]

)

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Soror Magna:

quote:
Originally posted by Palimpsest:
...I've been wondering, if the smoke continues a couple more weeks, it may block the solar eclipse viewing down in Oregon. Talk about bad omens.
When I was a kid, we viewed a solar eclipse through a piece of glass that we had covered in soot by holding it over a candle. (And none of us went blind, at least not from that.) Might it be possible to view the eclipse with the naked eye if it's smoky enough?

(But the smoke will probably ruin the Perseid display. )

It isn't that you go instantly blind, but that you do permanent damage to your eyes.
NASA's eclipse safety page.

Posted by Doc Tor (# 9748) on :

No one would, surely, be so stupid as to look directly at the Sun...

Posted by rolyn (# 16840) on :

The Day the World Caught Fire moves ever closer.

Genetically modified trees that can gobble up abnormally large of CO2, withstand heat, and not easily burn might save us. That's providing we can stop the self inflicted whammy of deforestation.

Posted by Zappa (# 8433) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Doc Tor:
No one would, surely, be so stupid as to look directly at the Sun...

Ha!

Posted by rolyn (# 16840) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Doc Tor:
No one would, surely, be so stupid as to look directly at the Sun...

I take it you mean The Sun

Posted by Golden Key (# 1468) on :

People do look. That's why they give out the warnings each time. And there's a lot of misinformation to correct.

Plus people who've grown up mostly indoors, and spend their time looking at screens, might not think of sun dangers at all.

10:1, people will do stupid selfies of looking directly at the eclipse, and maybe dare other people to do it.
[Eek!]

Posted by Leorning Cniht (# 17564) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Golden Key:

10:1, people will do stupid selfies of looking directly at the eclipse, and maybe dare other people to do it.

Selfies wouldn't damage their eyes though - surely they'd want their grinning mug with the eclipse in the background? It's just their camera they risk...

Posted by mousethief (# 953) on :

I don't imagine it will damage cameras at all. This page talks about how to do it -- the important bit being not to look through the viewfinder.

Posted by no prophet's flag is set so... (# 15560) on :

Is selfie just narcissism or is it actually unrequited pornography?

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :

quote:
Originally posted by mousethief:
I don't imagine it will damage cameras at all. This page talks about how to do it -- the important bit being not to look through the viewfinder.

OK, so it depends on your camera. A DSLR has a mirror that partially shields, or partially shields, the sensor. But you cannot look through the viewfinder because eye damage and the constant heat caused by the sun isn't good for the electronics. So it can take being pointed at the sun longer. Mirrorless cameras, such as point and shoot types and mirrorless ILCs or DSLRs in Live View, have the sensor constantly exposed and can damage the sensor.
Basically, whatever camera you use, filter before the totality, no filter during the ~15 sec of the totality, filter after the totality.

DSLR - Digital Single Lens Reflex. You look through, and shoot through, the same lens DSLR
Point and shoot and mirrorless remove the mirror and one views through a screen or Electronic viewfinder which get their images from the sensor.
Live view, viewing the image on the rear screen before the image is taken, also requires the sensor to be active and recovering the rays of the sun.

Apologies, hosts. Saving eyes and cameras.

Posted by mousethief (# 953) on :

quote:
Originally posted by no prophet's flag is set so...:
Is selfie just narcissism or is it actually unrequited pornography?

Are you worried about your own behaviors, or fussing about those of others?

Posted by no prophet's flag is set so... (# 15560) on :

Seeing as I have never taken a selfie, being very ugly and not worthy of admiration, and that I'm being a twit with such a comment, I haven't the faintest idea.

Posted by Moo (# 107) on :

There was an eclipse in the early 1960s total in part of Canada and a small part of Maine. My husband and I went to Canada to view it. A friend of ours who was a photographer made safe viewers for us. He exposed film to direct sunlight for five minutes, developed it, and cut it into strips. It was dark enough to protect our eyes.

A friend of my husband's, who had grown up in Iran, damaged his eyesight looking at an eclipse when he was a child. No one had warned him of the danger. He had a small blind spot in the middle of his retina. It did not appear to be a handicap.

Moo

Posted by Nicolemr (# 28) on :

At work we're giving out free eclipse viewer glasses that come from these people. (I'm a librarian at a public library for those who don't know)

The lenses are practically opaque, silvered on the outside, black on the inside.

Posted by Golden Key (# 1468) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Leorning Cniht:

quote:
Originally posted by Golden Key:

10:1, people will do stupid selfies of looking directly at the eclipse, and maybe dare other people to do it.

Selfies wouldn't damage their eyes though - surely they'd want their grinning mug with the eclipse in the background? It's just their camera they risk...

But that wouldn't show how "brave" they were being.

Posted by Palimpsest (# 16772) on :

The Haze in Seattle continues, although it's lightened a little. It's not going to move out until we get a westerly wind which might be a week or more. It'd hard to find out if the BC fires have abated. Meanwhile August brings Eastern Washington States own forest fires.

Here's hoping for clear skies. I would like to go outside again.

Posted by simontoad (# 18096) on :

People in South East Asia live with this every year, due to fires lit in Indonesia to clear land. Beijing is supposed to be pretty bad too.

Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :

I was in Beijing in July. It was socked in with smog. You could look straight up and at the zenith there was a small area of blue sky. But the rest of the sky was a light brown. We asked the locals, does it ever get clear? They were puzzled. It wasn't raining, therefore it was clear.

Posted by Moo (# 107) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
I was in Beijing in July. It was socked in with smog. You could look straight up and at the zenith there was a small area of blue sky. But the rest of the sky was a light brown. We asked the locals, does it ever get clear? They were puzzled. It wasn't raining, therefore it was clear.

The problem occurs over a large area. See this site.

Moo

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