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Solar Eclipse Video and Photos

Okay, this is the blog entry I've been anticipating for the past month or two.  This was more than likely my last total solar eclipse so I wanted to make sure I document it as best as I can.  

I've seen one or two other solar eclipses but not the way we viewed this one.  The next one in our area won't occur for another 30 years so, being realistic, it is highly unlikely I'll be around to see that one especially considering my health.  We got to see this one though and we even got to share this with our two oldest grandchildren, Lukey and Kenzie.  We always enjoy our time with Lukey and Kenzie but sharing this event with them made for an even more memorable experience.  

Another thing that made this eclipse special is that we had good weather for it even though it was April in Waterbury.  We are usually socked in under clouds with precipitation falling from the sky from November through April so we got incredibly lucky for this event.

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For those who want to skip right to the video, as always, I've inserted that at the bottom of this page.  I have to say that this video came out better than I anticipated so that is good news!

This blog entry is very heavy on photos too.  Although I shared a few of these photos in a previous blog entry, this blog entry has far more photos.  I saved most of the photos from eclipse day for this blog entry so that the photos and the video will be in the same place.

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Although we had a great time all day long, the day was not without a few relatively small problems.  I had some photographic technical difficulties that significantly cut down on the photos I planned to capture.  I'm still struggling with long-COVID in the form of painful joint inflammation and lingering breathing issues so that created a bit of an obstacle.  That being said, in the end, I'm feeling like the day as a whole was a success so that is great news.  We definitely had an astronomically great time (pun intended) and, regardless of this once-in-a-lifetime event, I enjoy sharing astronomy with family and friends anyway.

When we started setting up for the day, it was around 8am.  The sun was shining, the sky was blue, and it was relatively warm outside.  Our whole household was buzzing with excitement.  

Lukey and I set up some tables and chairs in the backmost section of our backyard and then I started setting up telescope mounts and tripods.  Next, I set up cameras.  We headed indoors to have some breakfast and then headed back outside.

For viewing the eclipse, we had five telescopes showing various layers of the sun, solar glasses, and a homemade solar projection box.  This made it easy to observe this event whether we were standing at a telescope or comfortably sitting in a chair.

It was clear and sunny all morning long.  It was absolutely perfect weather for an eclipse!  Unfortunately, by noon, clouds started slowly moving in to cover our entire sky with a relatively thin layer of clouds.  We actually watched these high thin clouds slowly approach us for about an hour.  Having a cloudless sky would have been better but we could live with a thin layer of clouds.  The thin cloud cover can be seen in the second photo, below.  

This part of our backyard has a great southern view...

Thin clouds create a glowing haze in photos and videos of the sun.  This cuts down on sharpness and clarity but, on the other hand, can create a bit of drama and unusual color in the photos and video.  As long as the cloud cover remained relatively thin, I could make this work to my advantage.

I remembered to get a group photo this time!  I really need to do this more often when there is a group of us.  Seeing this photo reminded me that we were wearing eclipse shirts on this day...

Below, Lukey is observing with my 102mm Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope on my little iEXOS-100 tracking mount.  I can control this little mount with one of my tablets.  This mount kept the telescope positioned on the sun all day.  This telescope had a Spectrum glass solar filter mounted on the front end of the telescope.

Kenzie, below, is observing the sun through the largest telescope we had for this event.  This telescope was on a manual mount so it had to be positioned by hand to keep it aimed at the sun.  Lukey and Kenzie had no problems positioning this telescope to view the sun.  This mount has two slow motion control knobs to aim the two axes of movement.  Most of the time, you only need to slowly turn one of these knobs counterclockwise to keep the sun in your view.  Sometimes you need the second slow motion control knob to fine tune the aiming.  Neither Lukey nor Kenzie had any problems with this though.  My homemade solar finder scopes made this an easy task.  I had a solar finder scope on each telescope to make centering the sun very easy.

Lukey was clearly enjoying himself...

Most of the time, Sheila was just sitting back viewing the sun through her solar glasses (as can be seen in a couple of the photos here) but she occasionally peered through one of the telescopes as seen below.  

We had nice solar glasses in hard plastic frames that comfortably fit over our prescription eyeglasses.  These solar glasses were very comfortable and provided great views of the sun.  Plus, I can use them on any day to view the sun not just for solar eclipses.  

Here, below, Sheila is peering through the largest telescope...

This setup that Sheila is peering through, below, had two telescopes mounted on one mount.  One telescope (the white one) was for viewing the sun's chromosphere in Hydrogen alpha while the other telescope (the black one) was for viewing the sun's photosphere in white light.  The views of each are vastly different.  There are far more features to see in Hydrogen alpha but the white light views are nice too.  The photos in the blog as well as in the video are all white light views. 

This mount in this photo below, my EXOS2-PMC8 Equatorial mount, tracked the sun automatically so it was always ready for viewing.  This mount is also controlled using an app on one of my tablets.

Kenzie is now taking a turn looking at the sun's chromosphere in Hydrogen alpha.  With this telescope, she can see the hot plasma on the surface of the sun as well as prominences spewing up from the rim of the sun.  The prominences are easy to see against the blackness of space.

Lukey captured a few photos of me too!

Gee and Kenzie are sitting back, relaxing, while gazing at the sun with their solar glasses...

Lukey kept close tabs on the timing of events using his new Fitbit watch (a birthday present from Gee and Papa on the night before this eclipse)...

It is hard to tell whether Kenzie is taking a short nap or watching the eclipse...

Our viewing site in our backyard...  we had a few telescopes set up...  

In the photo below, Lukey and Kenzie are aligning the telescope to position the sun in the center of the view through the eyepiece.  This telescope has a solar finder scope with a bullseye on the back making it easy to align perfectly with the sun.  

This particular solar filter on this telescope is a solar wedge with its own way of finding the sun.  On the back of the solar wedge (the right angle part under the eyepiece) is a small translucent window.  Most of the light from the sun is safely directed toward this window allowing you another way to easily align with the sun.  You simply center the bright sun in the center of this translucent window...

Kenzie and Gee relaxing, chatting away the old-fashioned way, and watching the sun...

Below is a sequence of photos showing the moon slowly moving in front of the sun.  The first shot is the full disk of the sun.  This initial partial part of the eclipse took one hour and 14 minutes before the sun was fully eclipsed by the moon.  

You can see two black spots on the sun...  those are sunspots.  The smaller spot toward the left is a single sunspot while the larger spot near the center of the disk is actually a tight grouping of three sunspots...

This shot, below, shows the moment the moon started infringing on our sunlight.  You can see the rim of the moon starting to cover the sun at around the 5 o'clock position.  As more and more of the sun was eclipsed, the temperature dropped more and more as darkness fell upon us.  That glowing light surrounding the sun is due to the thin clouds passing between us and the sun...

At a certain point, the remaining visible light reaching us is such a thin sliver that the light is actually only shining through the valleys between mountains on the moon.  This causes sparkling bursts of small light sources for a very short period.  Within less than a second, the moon is completely covering the sun from our view.  You can see these tiny bursts of light below, called Bailey's Beads, while I still had the solar filter on the telescope.  It appears a bit differently without a solar filter.  

The moment I pulled the solar filter off the telescope, we were greeted with a Diamond Ring, shown below.  In the previous photo, the solar filter cut almost all those this burst of light which is why I removed the solar filter.  

Very quickly, while viewing with the naked eye, this burst of light making the diamond of the Diamond Ring shrinks down to what is called Bailey's Beads.  In this photo, below, the diamond is smaller than in the photo above... 

Below is a shot of Bailey's Beads without the solar filter on the telescope (seen at around the 10 o'clock position)...  also, at around the 7 o'clock position, you can see a prominence...  and the corona all around the entire rim of the moon as it completely blocks all the light from the sun...

Below is the total solar eclipse and the corona...

In the photo below, we can see the moment the sun is again a sliver of light shining through the valley's of the mountains on the moon (seen at around the 7 o'clock position) which is called Bailey's Beads...

Although the individual photos of this sequence is really nice, it is really cool seeing all of this sequence in fast motion video!  That is seen in the video at the bottom of this page. 

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As our environment slipped into darkness in mid-afternoon, we noticed other changes.  The light was an odd color...  shadows were a bit strange...  birds went quiet...  this darkness created instant frigid air conditioning prompting us to go scrambling for our sweatshirts...  we could smell the sweet aroma of wood burning as neighbors lit small campfires to keep warm...  mosquitos came out as though it was nighttime...  and when the Diamond Ring finally burst into the darkened sky, our whole neighborhood erupted in screams and howls...  people set off fireworks...  it was definitely a memorable event touching all of our senses.  

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We had most of what was necessary for this event like telescopes, solar glasses, chairs, tables, snacks, drinks, but a few other things would have been nice to have.  In hindsight, I now have a better understanding of what would make a large group of people happy during any eclipse event.  

First, I found that the younger kids (younger than Lukey and Kenzie) preferred looking at an LCD screen rather than looking through an eyepiece.  I happen to prefer an eyepiece for various and valid reasons but younger kids have difficulty lining up their eye on an eyepiece making it difficult to view.  During this event in our backyard, the younger kids definitely preferred looking at the LCD screen on one of my cameras rather than trying to look through an eyepiece.  Consequently, it would have been nice to have a live image of the sun also on a larger monitor or television so it would be easier to see for more people watching together. 

Also, it would have been beneficial to have the timetable and sequence of events on a larger LCD screen too.  I did have this timetable written in a notebook but that didn't work for everyone while I had too much to do (photography and videography) to keep up with keeping time and calling out the timing of each phase of the event.  If I had this timetable visible on some sort of large LCD screen that everyone could easily see then that would have been great.  I mention a monitor or television screen because it does get quite dark out making it more difficult to read a notebook or even a poster.  Any sort of LCD screen would have made it easier for people to understand when things are happening and whether they should have their solar glasses covering their eyes or not.  That being said, an LCD screen is difficult to see in bright sun so it is not ideal for all phases of the event.  

All in all, everything worked out great though.  Some of our neighbors visited us twice during the event to check out the views through the telescopes while Lukey and Kenzie also seemed to enjoy themselves including helping the younger kids see the sun through the telescopes.  I know Sheila enjoyed herself and, once you view the video, you'll understand why I say that I know Sheila enjoyed herself.  She was amusingly vocal in her excitement!  Kenzie, on the other hand, seemed to be a bit embarrassed by this very outwardly vocal show of emotion.  Lukey had a few bursts of adrenaline that provoked some vocal emotion too.  It was very clear that he enjoyed the whole day just by looking at the photos here in the blog entry.  I know that Kenzie also enjoyed herself on this memorable day even though she was a bit more subdued than everyone else.

I definitely enjoyed this event and I'm thankful to have shared this event with Sheila, Lukey and Kenzie while capturing the day in photos and video.  I don't think it would have been as enjoyable if I were alone!

POST EDIT:  April 13th, 2024 - It occurred to me that I completely forgot to mention the telescope that I used to shoot all the photos and videos of the sun.  I had my little Skywatcher 72mm ED refractor telescope on my new SolarQuest mount.  I purchased this mount specifically for this eclipse as well as for future solar observing and imaging because it is very easy to use...  plop it down, level it, turn it on and the mount then finds GPS satellites, finds the sun and tracks it accurately for as long as the mount has power.

The camera was a Panasonic GX8.  This camera has a four thirds inch sensor.  I had a remote shutter release plugged into this camera so there would be no chance of shaking the camera by pressing the shutter release button.  I also had a shroud over the LCD monitor of this camera to make it easier to see the LCD screen.  

This all worked out quite well and the photos and video from this camera were great.  The biggest issue was the clouds and they did significantly affect the sharpness of the photos and video but there is no gear that could get around that though!  You can't magically see through clouds, however, we were fortunate in that our cloud cover on this day was relatively thin so we could see somewhat through this cloud cover.