SOLAR ECLIPSE

This is probably my best work? Solar eclipses are so unique that they defy description. Even though a basic explanation is warranted.

These photos were taken in Aug 2017, north of Nashville, Tn. I was right on the path of totality. I used a Celestron C6, and a Minolta X-700 film camera. Yes, that is correct these images were all captured on film. Let me state for the record, film is not dead. My next eclipse photos (in the future) will also be done in film. Why not??? It workes. You don't need an expensive camera for this type of photography. For milkyway and Messier Objects, yes you do, but not here. The next 2 solar eclipses: 14 Oct 2023, the path of totality will pass right over Corpus Christi, Texas, and then the next one will be: 8 April 2024. The path of totality will come up out of Mexico, though San Antonio, Austin, Texas, etc. I will be there both of these events.

The film used here was Kodak, ISO 100. Exposure was 500 th/sec through a Thosand Oaks Solar Filter. Now here is an interesting observation. If you slow down the shutter speed to around 250th of a second the surface of the sun changes to more yellow. If you photograph at or about 1/1000 of a second the surface of the sun changes to orange. So, 1/500th of a second is about right as you can see here. Note. For totality which last about 1 minute and 30 seconds, you take off your solar filter and are shooting straight at the sun un filtered. Times for this segment are usually around 2 to 3 seconds of exposure time. That is for totality only. Any sliver of light after totality you should go back to 1/500th of a second. *Also, right before the sun starts to re-emerge you MUST put the solar filter back on the telescope. Direct sunlight can began to creep around the mountains on the moon and even those short burst of direct sunlight can cause serious eye damage.

I took about 175 photos over a period of about 3 hrs of the eclipse. The image you are viewing is a "composite". After viewing all the photos, I picked certain ones and sent them back to Holland Photo Imaging, in Austin, Texas and had them put them in this configuration. The camera can only take individual shots, so the images you are viewing were made in a photo lab.

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