Hey! Why do you have a box on your head? I'm
learning about eclipses. Like this? Yeah that's perfect. Let's learn about eclipses together. Did you know that there's a special word for when three planets or moons are in a straight
line? That's called syzygy. In a solar eclipse the moon casts a giant shadow onto the Earth below
and if I'm standing inside that shadow my view of the Sun's totally blocked by the moon. As you
can imagine before people knew what an eclipse was seeing the Sun disapp
ear might have been a
little freaky so maybe that's why people have been fascinated by eclipses for at least 5,000 years.
Over 3,000 years ago in China a written account of an eclipse said the Sun has been eaten. And it's
not just humans that pay attention to eclipses. In fact some animals might think eclipses are weird
too. Scientists have studied this and they saw some animals respond by essentially getting ready for
bed but some animals seemed anxious and responded by running or pacing o
r other unusual actions. It
makes sense that they'd be anxious since being in a total solar eclipse is a really rare and special
experience. It's even special when we look at other planets. In fact Earth is the only only planet
in our solar system with a total eclipse. This is because of a kind of weird coincidence in
the sizes of the Sun and our moon. The Sun is 400 times the diameter of the moon but the moon
is also 400 times closer to Earth. This puts the moon at the perfect distance to
fully cover the
Sun during syzygy but it won't last forever. In fact in about 600 million years there'll be no
more eclipses. The moon is actually very slowly moving further away from the Earth so eventually
the moon won't cover the Sun anymore and no more eclipses. So you've decided that you want
to catch an eclipse before it's too late and you've probably heard that you can't stare
directly at an eclipse because you'll hurt your eyes. That harm comes from the extreme brightness
of the Su
n hitting the receptors in our eyes but that brightness is always there eclipse
or no. Eclipses aren't more harmful to your eyes than the Sun always is. We just don't want
to usually look at the Sun unless there is an eclipse. You can use these special eclipse
glasses to make it safe but if you want a DIY a viewer it's super easy. The trick is you
have to reduce the amount of light while still seeing what's going on. Just poke a tiny hole in
something like this tin foil and hold it over a w
hite sheet sheet of paper. Most of the Sun's
light is blocked except for the rays going at the perfect angle to go through the pin hole.
That creates the projection on the paper. You can use almost anything to make a pinhole viewer:
a colander works or you can use a Pringles can. Just make a pinhole in the bottom and watch
the projection on the lid or use a giant box to make a wearable viewer. And if we make a
fake Eclipse with this light you can see the projection inside the box change sha
pe. Thanks for
joining us to learn about eclipses today. Click subscribe to discover more cosmic facts with us
and have fun checking out the Sun while keeping your eyes unfried. Check out the description
for instructions and we'll see you next time!
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