The photos below are what we saw.
This
stack of 75 was shot the day before the eclipse as a practice
run. Sony A7RM2 at 1/50 sec, ISO 100 at about f/8
(whatever the scope with barlow provides for aperture).
A few
minutes before the start of the eclipse. All of our stuff
is out and ready to go. Kathleen is using my pro Canon
1DsM3 with 28-300mm lens.
This
stack of photos was taken just before the start of the
eclipse. Note the sunspots and the pattern of the surface
around them.
About 5%
of the surface is occluded by the shadow of the moon.
30%
occlusion.
As the
moon blocked more of the sun, it was starting to get
cooler. Note the slight blurring near the moon's
edge. This is a result of the stacking process not knowing
what to do with an edge that is in motion from frame to frame.
About
50% involvement.
Perhaps
75% coverage.
The photo above came out of Kathleen's Fujifilm X-Pro2 with a 23mm lens. The camera takes great photos, but 23mm is just way too short, but it DID get a photo of totality. Note the purple fringe which is a great example of chromatic aberration present in most lenses.
The
photo above was compliments of Randy Begger from Bozeman,
MT. Randy and his family were camped next to us and he had
the correct equipment to capture the totality.
Here is
where things started to get tough. The filter on the scope
blocks light so you can photograph the surface of the sun.
But, with all that light gone, the only thing that remains is
the outer edge of the sun. The photo above is NOT a stack,
but rather a single photo from the Sony. Note the slight
blurring which is due to the atmospheric distortion. Stacking
normal removes the blurring, but since this photo is not stacked,
you get what you get. In an ideal world, had we know the
specific course of events, we would have had an additional
camera without a solar filter to capture the totality.
Kathleen was using the other camera with solar filter and in my
setup, the scope IS the filter, thus not removable.
The
corona is visible around most of the circumference of the sun.
A few
seconds later the flares on the lower portion of the surface
became visible.
These
are huge flares, many earth-diameters high.
Stacking
does not work in these situations, so one has to accept the
blurring of individual images.
The
flares were impressive, even blurry.
Almost
at the end of totality, the halo is starting to appear.
Totality
+ 5%. The flares are still clearly visible.
Later,
the sunspots became visible.
The
stacking helps eliminate the atmospheric blurring and provide
improved detail. The flares are now crisp.
Note the
patterns around the sunspots.
About
15% still occluded. Flares are still clearly visible around
the circumference.
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Photos and Text Copyright Bill Caid 2017 all rights
reserved.
For your enjoyment only, not for commercial use.