10/14/2023 "Ring of Fire" Solar Eclipse

[Jonathan Scrogham]

Hello all,
This is my first time viewing any sort of eclipse and I will say I was not disappointed. First time photographing anything like this and I'm and absolute amateur, but I tried my best, and they don't look horrible, so I'm counting this as a win. Photos taken near Orlando, FL.

 

[gdlewen]

Hello all,
This is my first time viewing any sort of eclipse and I will say I was not disappointed. First time photographing anything like this and I'm and absolute amateur, but I tried my best, and they don't look horrible, so I'm counting this as a win. Photos taken near Orlando, FL.

I think the pictures are great. I'm very interested in your hardware--telescope or not, solar filter (looks like "yes"), and camera settings. I had a similar view through my Meade LX200 with solar filter, but no camera attachment, so my memory will have to serve....

In Tulsa we had a stratus/stratocumulus deck with some very brief breaks that occasionally afforded enough clarity to see the large sunspot visible in your pictures. Also, we expected at most 74% coverage at the peak of the eclipse. A recipe for a mediocre day.

But, the "cloudy"-filtering did make it possible to use my Z6. Here's a technically hideous picture, from an astronomical point of view, but...from an artistic point of view? that is up to the individual.

 

[Jonathan Scrogham]

I think the pictures are great. I'm very interested in your hardware--telescope or not, solar filter (looks like "yes"), and camera settings. I had a similar view through my Meade LX200 with solar filter, but no camera attachment, so my memory will have to serve....

In Tulsa we had a stratus/stratocumulus deck with some very brief breaks that occasionally afforded enough clarity to see the large sunspot visible in your pictures. Also, we expected at most 74% coverage at the peak of the eclipse. A recipe for a mediocre day.

But, the "cloudy"-filtering did make it possible to use my Z6. Here's a technically hideous picture, from an astronomical point of view, but...from an artistic point of view? that is up to the individual.

View attachment 24345

Here’s the specs:
SONY ILCE-7M4
FE 100-400mm F4.5-5.6 GM OSS
14 MP • 4608 × 3072 • 1.4 MB
ISO 100
600 mm
0 ev
f5.6
1/60 s
And the filter was an Amazon Basics UV lens filter.
I’m not gonna lie, I don’t know what most of that means, I am an absolute novice. One of the other people at the viewing event was a lot more knowledgeable than I. She let me borrow her secondary camera to take the picture, believe me, I wish I had a camera that nice. I just messed around with the settings a tad bit and put my own SD card in so I could save my photos. My normal camera is a basic point and click Nikon Coolpix b500, I took some pictures on there and they were not nearly as good. I was very fortunate to have a minimal cloud cover. I appreciate the kind words!

 

[Ben Holcomb]

Went to San Antonio area for the eclipse and ended up with a pretty cool time lapse. Was a pretty cool eclipse! Can't wait for April

More at Annular Solar Eclipse 2023 - Ben Holcomb

 

[John Farley]

Nice time lapse, Ben! My plan had been to be in Santa Fe for full annularity, but six days before the eclipse, my wife had a heart attack and just got out of the hospital the day before. So going to Santa Fe was not an option, but I was able to get out to Pagosa Junction, CO, much closer to home, and experience it and get a few pics with a solar filter. Below is the closest it came to full annularity. BTW, my wife is doing much better now.

 

[James K]

It was just something like 84% in my area, but still I went out & 'watched' from the roof, plus got some pic's/video (while also putting up Christmas lights)

It was mostly cloudy that morning, but they started breaking up around the beginning of the eclipse sequence, leaving it pretty much clear for the main part...then started moving back in towards the end, eventually becoming mostly cloudy after it was over. That was a nice little trick/gift of nature!

Need to still look through what I got on camera, its all on my other computer waiting...

 

[Jeff Duda]

The wife and I traveled to Farmington, NM in anticipation of this. The show did not disappoint, although the rest of the trip outside of this was pretty shitty, including the hotel I reserved ending up not having a room for me on arrival, and having to spend $400+ on a suite in pretty much the only open room in the city. That was my last business done with Hotels.com.

I didn't have a solar filter, so the photographs were taken by me placing my eclipse glasses over the lens. Since I have a 77 mm lens, the glasses only covered parts of it, so you're seeing some pretty close crops. The below image shows what the full frame shot looked like for most of these, haha.



I was gifted a solar filter and a 300-mm lens (the above are at 120 mm) for my birthday and the holidays, though, so I will be ready for the big one in April. I reserved a room in San Antonio last February, and it was already difficult to get anything.

Final artistic shot showing my wife watching totality with the "crowd" around us in the distance. There was somewhat of a crowd, but it was pretty easy to get a wide open spot with few people around. I was amazed at how bright the sun still was at totality. 90+% coverage and you still couldn't look at it with bare eyes!