{"id":30317,"date":"2017-08-22T14:31:23","date_gmt":"2017-08-22T14:31:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.padtinc.com\/2017\/08\/22\/how-ansys-helped-us-view-the-solar-eclipse\/"},"modified":"2022-03-24T22:50:09","modified_gmt":"2022-03-24T22:50:09","slug":"how-ansys-helped-us-view-the-solar-eclipse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.padtinc.com\/2017\/08\/22\/how-ansys-helped-us-view-the-solar-eclipse\/","title":{"rendered":"How ANSYS Helped Us View the Solar Eclipse"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" <\/picture>Here in the Phoenix area, we weren\u2019t treated to the full total eclipse that others in the USA got to see.\u00a0 Our maximum coverage of the sun was a bit over 60%.\u00a0 Still, there was an eclipse buzz in the PADT headquarters and although we had some rare clouds for a few minutes, the skies did part and we did get to view the partial eclipse from the parking lot.<\/p>\n

So, how did ANSYS help us view the eclipse?\u00a0 It was in an indirect way \u2013 via a pinhole camera I made from an old ANSYS installation software box.\u00a0 The software box, a hobby knife to cut out a viewing port, a couple of post-it notes to allow for a small hole and a clear projection area, and a thumb tack were all that was needed, along with a couple of minutes to modify the box.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Here we can see the viewing port cut into the software box.\u00a0 On the opposite side is a pin hole to allow the sun\u2019s light to enter the box.<\/p>\n

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After heading out to the eclipsing grounds (the parking lot), we quickly lined up the pin hole and the projection screen and got our views of the partially obscured sun:<\/p>\n

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Here is a close up of the sun\u2019s image projected inside the box:<\/p>\n

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Others viewing the eclipse here at PADT HQ had a range of filters, eclipse glasses, etc.\u00a0 With the projection method as shown above, though, we don\u2019t have to worry about eye damage.\u00a0 So, in a way, ANSYS did help us view the eclipse safely, by providing a box that was easy to convert to a pinhole camera.<\/p>\n

While we enjoyed the partial eclipse here in Arizona, we did have a couple of PADT colleagues in the path of totality.\u00a0 Here is a picture from one of my coworkers who viewed the eclipse in South Carolina:<\/p>\n

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We hope you enjoyed the eclipse as well, either in person or via images on the web.\u00a0 We\u2019re looking forward to the next one!<\/p>\n

Finally, In case you missed an earlier astronomical rarity back in 2012, here is a photo of the planet Venus transiting in front of the sun\u2019s disk (black dot on the left side).\u00a0 The next one of these won\u2019t be until December, 2117.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here in the Phoenix area, we weren\u2019t treated to the full total eclipse that others in the USA got to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":30318,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2323,30],"tags":[478,1738],"post-podcast":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.padtinc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30317"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.padtinc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.padtinc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.padtinc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.padtinc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.padtinc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.padtinc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.padtinc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.padtinc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.padtinc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30317"},{"taxonomy":"post-podcast","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.padtinc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-podcast?post=30317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}