Today's (Thurs, Oct 23rd) Partial Eclipse

I just picked up a variable ND filter (it seems to be two polarized filters with one that rotates) to photograph the sun during the eclipse. I also picked up a cheap pair of welding goggles at Harbor Freight (6 bucks for two pair) so DW & I can watch. Should be interesting.

They say the eclipse will begin at 3:18 p.m. in the Denver area, reach its maximum about 4:35 p.m. and be over by 5:44 p.m. In the Denver metro area, about 55 percent of the sun will be eclipsed by the moon. You can google for times and coverage in your area.

It will not amount to much here in Florida so I must skip the event

The eclipse will be shown live on the Slooh camera via the internet.  I'll be watching that way as we only get a partial eclipse in SA and I don't have the proper equipment to view it.  Pinhole cameras just don't do it for me

Here's the first few shots. The first one, taken at 15:19:34 (times are all MDT) just barely has a teensy bite out of it at about the 2 o'clock mark. I think that's a sunspot at lower center on the sun. The second one was taken at 15:31:53, and has a more obvious bite missing. The third one, at 15:39:11 is with a slightly different setting on the filter, causing the blue aura.

The last one, taken about half an hour before the eclipse started, is just to show the sky condition -- we've had clouds running in and out, sometimes hiding the sun, sometimes almost clear. This was taken with the same filter, but on a much lighter setting.

More later, as the eclipse hasn't yet reached its peak.

Good shots, and the giant sunspot group shows up nicely.  I'm still watching on Slooh from Prescott.

What sun?  No sun here in SW Missouri.

Molaker said:

What sun?  No sun here in SW Missouri.

Click to expand...

That's what the Slooh camera is for

OK, here are some more pix, though the end of the eclipse. On the second one the filter wasn't set as dark, so you can see a few clouds. On the third one you can see the edge of the eclipse is approaching those sunspots. On the fourth one, the sun had been behind some clouds, and was almost ready to come out again, but with the reduced filter you can see the sun dog at the bottom as well as the sun shining through with the eclipse still defined.

On the fifth one you can better see the path the moon is taking over the sun. On the sixth the sun dog is slightly visible, (taken at 16:56, well past peak) and the moon is obviously "retreating." In the seventh (at 17:29) you see the eclipse is nearly over.

And on the last pic (at 17:40) there's just barely a nibble. All pix I took after that didn't show any nibble at all, and the eclipse ended (officially) at 15:44.

Nice work, Larry.

Nice work, Larry. I had no plans to attempt to photograph the eclipse tonight. I had a concert in Clearwater to attend and I would be on the road driving during the eclipse. So at 6:50 I am driving across Tampa Bay on highway 60 directly into the setting sun. It is just off the horizon and I can see that there is a tiny bite out of the sun. I am trying not to look at it but it is almost impossible to avoid. I am dying to pull over but I am on a bridge with plenty of No Parking signs and I am in traffic that is moving five miler per hour bumper to bumper with no off ramps in sight. I start getting really upset because I have no chance to getting somewhere to photograph the eclipse before it sinks below the horizon. In desperation I grab my camera case off the floor and pull my camera out. I turn on the camera and set it to M for manual settings. I quickly set the shutter speed to 1/2000 and the aperture to f/11 hoping that will be underexposed enough to get an image. I blindly point the camera in the general direction of the sun and get off one shot before a car gets in between me and the sun. By the time I am clear of the car the sun is in the trees and out of sight.

Sometimes it is better to be lucky than to be good. The one shot actually came out. However I did get some power lines in the shot. Please don't tell Bob Hurst, my college photo prof. He would have a heart attack if he saw power lines in one of my photos. It may be the only time in my life I have had power lines in one of my photos since Bob beat that point into our heads.

Nice shot, Tom... Luck did a good job.