Solar eclipse

[Kenny]

Timelapse of the solar eclipse over approximately 2 hours today, taken near Worcester after a 3-4 hour drive in search of sunshine. The first 20 minutes of the eclipse were unfortunately clouded out (so missing from the sequence) but shortly after the heavens cleared to reveal a beautiful blue sky. Canon 600D. Each eclipse snap is at 23mm, f/13mm, 1/1000th sec, ISO-800 through a home made Baader Astrosolar filter. 4 minute interval between each snap. Stacked in Startrails. A final snap was taken from the same camera position, without the filter, to grab the foreground which was blended into the eclipse sequence in Adobe Photoshop CS2.

Filtered eclipse sequence:


My view for a few hours today:


p.s. rechecked the camera settings and edited post - not what they should have been. This shows how rushed I was in the heat of the moment trying to get the eclipse on screen after 20 minutes of cloud.

[Canadian Roger]

Beautiful!!!  Very nicely done. 

Did you notice any effects of the eclipse, like birds going to roost, dogs barking, and the like?

[Kenny]

Thanks. Not many. It was quite secluded. The horses behind me grouped together near the gate then returned to the rest of the field afterwards. It was very quiet. It didn't appear to get dark, probably my eyes compensating, but it got dull, the colours seemed to have slightly been drained from the scene.

[Delphine]

Wow!  Super pics Kenny - I particularly like the second one with the trees etc.

Delphine

[MarkS]

Well done Kenny!  I'm glad someone managed to drive out and get something!

Mark

[Kenny]

Thanks all.

I've cropped and animated the individual 23mm focal length frames below. Processed in PIPP. It didn't manage to perfectly centre each frame and I don't have the energy to manually centre each frame. If you have a better method let me know.

[MarkS]

I love the animation!

Mark

[Miriam]

Well done, Kenny. I'm glad someone got to see it!

I really like the animation.

[Rick]

Excellent!

[Mike]

Great job Kenny.

[Ivor]

Well done! I was getting worried I wouldn't have any eclipse pictures for the Observing presentation.

[JohnP]

Very nice - impressed with your dedication to find clear skies... I must admit when I was standing on Epsom race course looking at a monotone grey sky I was wishing I made the effort...

Nice one,  John

[ApophisAstros]

OMG kenny, 2nd picture is amazing, and last frame of animation looks like the sun is pacman and its spitting out the moon...lol
roger

[Kenny]

Thanks all.

[Canadian Roger]

Kenny...may I use your images in my astronomy clubs newsletter?  Accredited, of course, and using any information you can provide.

I've been the editor since November 2007 (12 pages, 10 times a year) and I'm always on the lookout for topical articles and images.

I had hoped to use my daughters pictures, but she was clouded out.

Previous issues can be found here: http://www.hamiltonrasc.ca/?page_id=27  .  The OAS is mentioned in the September and December issues of 2014.

Oddly, another past president of my astronomy club enjoyed hearing about the OAS, since he was born in Beckenham and remembers going to primary school there and playing in an Anderson shelter (strictly forbidden).