Re: Eclipsing sun

  "Toma" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
  > Watching the solar eclipse it makes me wonder why a telescope device
can't
  > block out the sun like
  > the moon does to expose the corona and prominences.  Any reason?


  It has to do with stray light and the dimness of the corona.  In order to
see the corona, you not only have to block off the Sun's disk, but you have
to eliminate all stray light from exiting out the other end of the
telescope.  This includes the scattered light from the occulting device as
well as the light from the sky.  This is not an easy thing to do, and I'm
told that while such devices have been developed by the professionals, they
don't do as good a job as the Moon does, which is why scientific expeditions
are still organized to observe these events, despite the hardships of
transporting and setting up equipment in out-of-the-reach places.  I suspect
that the large size of the Moon's shadow accounts for some of the advantage
of a real eclipse.
  -- 
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  There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to Man.
  It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity.
  It is the middle ground between light and shadow,
  Between Science and superstition
  And it lies between the pit of Man's fears
  and the Sunlight of his knowledge.
  It is the dimension of imagination.
  It is an area that might be called. . . The Twilight Zone.

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