My friend texted me this morning asking me when the solar eclipse was, and I was about to answer, “It’s not,” since the path of totality passed across northern Europe. But then I thought to check and see if there was any portion visible from the US, and indeed there was. The irony of this being, I could see the smallest fragment from where I was, but not from where he was, just two hours south. Still, this prompted me to go out at the right time.
I didn’t have specific details for where I was, but in the nearest big city, the eclipse was supposed to peak at 0.33% – yes, one-third of one percent. Here, it might have reached 0.35. I suppose I could have checked Stellarium, and indeed, still can – according to that, it peaked at 0.40% for this location – righteous! This is what it looked like through the solar filter, roughly 13 minutes before that time:
When using the filter, I always set to under-expose by a certain amount, since the exposure meter on the camera copes with the darkness surrounding the disk and tends to render the sun too bright – in this case, it’s one full stop ‘underexposed.’ You can also see a hint of two sunspots in there, though focus was slightly off.
[I was aiming too close to vertical for this, since it was about 2 PM locally, and so using the swingout LCD on the Canon 70D as a viewfinder, since I couldn’t raise the tripod with the long lens that high above my head and my neck doesn’t otherwise bend that way – for stability, I set the tripod fairly low and sat on the ground to do this. Sharp focus, however, is achieved by firing off test frames and then examining them at high magnification, which works fine at night but less so in the glaring sunlight, so the above frame was off a tad.]
This is the stunning amount that it reached just past peak:
According to Stellarium, this really is at 0.35% here, this time 1 1/3 stops underexposed. This was the sharpest of the frames, but you’ll notice the greater glow around it; thin clouds were passing in front of the sun. I did, in fact, do video, which just barely shows the movement – ah, what the hell.
This partial lasted just 30 minutes, and in between frames I had my shirt draped over the camera and lens to keep it from getting too hot, since it’s still brutal out there. During the frames, the shirt was draped over me and the viewfinder so I could see, and not broil too badly.
One last frame as the eclipse was ending.
I left this at full resolution, but again, thin clouds were affecting things so it could have been sharper; this time, I knew the focus was as good as it was going to get.
I think we have largely the same conditions tonight as the Perseids are peaking, so we’ll see if I snag anything. Meanwhile, a partial lunar eclipse will be taking place in just two weeks – funny how that works. Should I get the counterparts to these, we’ll have a nice matched set for August- perfect decor for the baby’s bedroom! I’m taking advance orders…