Sunrise Eclipse

A partial "hybrid" solar eclipse was in progress at sunrise today.  I woke up spontaneously early enough to drive around and find a good eastern horizon.  I was concerned about the low cloud bank but once the Sun finally broke over it the eclipse was still in effect.  Not as spectacular as the pictures you will see later from eclipse chasers that traveled all the way to Africa for the full show but this is the best eclipse Southeastern PA saw.  You can plainly see active sunspot regions 1882,1884, 1885, and 1889 on the right side of the solar disk in the photo.

1/160sec, f16, ISO100 with variable circular neutral density filter.

I even caught this Canada Goose flying through this shot, if only it was sharper!

Holey Sun Batman!

Somebody made quite an sacrifice to Ra because he was out in all his glory this evening for the Venus Transit at Presque Isle State Park.  After days of rain and cloud cover it cleared right in time for us to observe this twice in a lifetime event.  My head is throbbing from squinting behind viewfinders and lenses for hours but it was a now or never, I'm currently nursing it with a glass of wine (probably a bad idea but the Tequila has run dry).

The photography was difficult to say the least.  I used a variable neutral density filter to block most of the light from the sun.  I should have sprung for a BAADER filter (google it) but alas they were either sold out or over-budget.  I did my best to get a good focus with my 300mm, set my intervalometer to 1 min intervals, and set the camera to 1/100sec @ f14.  I then mingled with the shockingly huge crowd only to return to the camera and recenter the sun in the frame.

Here's a few of the shots I quickly browsed and edited from 300+ images.

Second Contact "black drop effect"

199 frame time-lapse.  Not nearly as impressive as some other amateur video's I've seen but it's mine.

The dim moving smudges are from the large cottonwood seeds floating in the air.  I love the atmospheric ripples as sunset nears at the end.

Re-edited the time lapse. I either need better video editing software or better skills but I'm satisfied with this last version.  If anyone knows any software that will perfectly align multiple frames for time lapse videos, do tell.

And I nabbed a green flash as the the sun sank! 

Eclipse-ish

As I'm watching all the breathtaking "Ring of Fire" shots roll in across the interwebs, I can't help but get a little jealous.  There's some great shots out there, go check Google.

This was the maximum eclipse here in NW Pennsylvania before it headed further west.