October 14th Annular Eclipse as Viewed From Dallas

Did you get a chance to see the eclipse yesterday? Even though it was only a partial eclipse for us here in Dallas, Texas, it was still spectacular!

As lots of folks at the State Fair of Texas found, it's pretty amazing how easy it is to see what's going on (watching with appropriate eye protection, of course). Given that it isn't safe to look directly at the Sun and we may only even try during an eclipse, it's easy to forget that the Sun is about the same size in the sky as the Moon. That, of course, is why a total solar eclipse like the one next April is even possible. But it also means that putting on a pair of eclipse glasses and looking up yesterday during the eclipse, the piece of the Sun blocked out by the Moon was clearly obvious even without magnification. What about the view through a telescope? 

Here is a view from about an hour into the eclipse taken with my equipment which has an effective focal length of 714mm, resulting in a 12.38X view. At this level of magnification, besides the impact of the Moon being in the way you can also make out some of the many active sunspots. Click on the image to see full-size.

Seeing a point in time view of the eclipse is great but to show the changes over the course of the full eclipse, I put together this view containing a subset of all the images I shot to create the eclipse timelapse of my earlier post. These are each about a half-hour apart. 

When you click on this image to see it full-size, you'll also see another version labeled with the times throughout the eclipse when these were taken. 

Preparations for the Annular, er, Partial Solar Eclipse!

Tomorrow's the day! As mentioned in my last post, tomorrow an annular solar eclipse is visible across a stretch of the western half of the North American continent. 

For the rest of the country - including Dallas where I live - we won't get to see the Ring of Fire but we'll still get to observe a partial solar eclipse. 

Screen shot from Stellarium

Here is what the Sun will look like at maximum eclipse for Dallas (about 11:52am local time). Although that area blocked by the Moon in this simulation looks blue, keep in mind that this is a new moon which means we don't see any illuminated lunar surface since the Moon is in between us and the Sun. 

While you would think that with this much of the Sun covered up the amount of light we see would be low enough to be safe to view without eye protection, it's not! Except during the totality phase of a total solar eclipse when the Moon is completely blocking the solar surface, it is not safe to look directly at the Sun. If you are interested in seeing the eclipse tomorrow, only do so if you have a set of solar eclipse viewing glasses from a reputable source. If you don't already have eclipse glasses it may be too late to get some but here is information from NASA on safe viewing resources. 

Personally, I am treating this eclipse as a trial run for the total solar eclipse that will pass over North Texas on April 8, 2024. I plan to capture the partial eclipse from start to finish using my Nikon D750 and EvoStar 72ED refractor telescope with solar filter mounted on my Star Adventurer tracker. I'll leave it running from well before the eclipse through past the end of the eclipse, capturing a couple of shots a minute. Hopefully, the result will be a handful of good shots of different stages of the eclipse and possibly a sequence of shots I can use to make a timelapse video of the eclipse from start to finish. 

A lot has to happen for this to be successful - a good polar alignment of the telescope the night before, being able to get a good focus of the Sun once it peeks above the trees, the weather forecast being accurate (i.e., no clouds) - but even if it doesn't work out as planned, it will still be good practice for April!

Here are shots of my equipment set up for a test run today. 

That solar filter is critical for
safely photographing the Sun!

The tracker keeps the telescope pointed
at the Sun as it moves across the sky.

I hope you get to see the eclipse, too. Just be sure to be safe when viewing the Sun!