The Sun

[entropia]

Not the newspaper . 

I was reading another post regarding filters and how you must protect your eyes when viewing the sun. This reminded me of something that happened 20 years ago.

When I was young I was living in Bolivia  and a total eclipse of the sun was predicted on November 3, 1994 ( I didn't remember the date but thanks, google). There were lots of warning coming from TV, radio, newspaper, pamphlets, showing the proper viewing of the eclipse and emphasizing that if you did not follow the instructions you could become blind. I think they even said that it was safe enough to see the eclipse through an empty dark bottle (like a beer bottle) and that the most dangerous moment (for eyes) was when the sun was coming out of the eclipse.  I don't remember how many times I heard that so I suppose it got recorded in the back of my head. I think  that is the reason why I haven't buy a solar filter yet. The sun still scare me a little

I don't remember what I used to view the eclipse. It has been 20 years already but I found a video on youtube. I remember when it was totally dark people there was a moment of silence and then when the sun appeared again people were yelling. I guess deep inside we were afraid the moon ate the sun and it would never appear again . I hope I can see a total eclipse again someday.

Here is the video, the eclipse is from 0:45 to 1:15

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RybaFJQlXyM