October 14th, 2023 Annular Eclipse Timelapse

 

Unable to make it to a spot on the path of the annular eclipse today to view the Ring of Fire, I captured this timelapse of the partial eclipse view from my backyard. 

What's great about successfully capturing this eclipse that I wasn't even home! Since our granddaughter Harper was showing her rabbit at the State Fair of Texas stock show today, I had the equipment set up to run automatically. Months of preparation and practice paid off! BTW, more to come on the State Fair....

The shadows on the first few seconds are power lines which appear to move across the face of the Sun but it's the Sun's apparent motion across the sky, tracked by the telescope/camera, that accounts for the motion. 

This view was captured with a special solar filter, a Baader solar film filter. Without it, pointing my telescope and camera at the Sun would have damaged my equipment. 

As we are approaching "solar maximum", the Sun is pretty active so there are plenty of Sunspots across the face of the Sun right now. 

Here's what I used to create this timelapse. I set the internal intervalometer on the D750 to take shots every 30 seconds at 1/1000th shutter speed from just before till just after the eclipse, about 380 shots in all. Just to be sure I didn't have to worry about batteries in the camera and tracker lasting long enough, I ran everything off an external power pack stored under the tripod. You can see the equipment in action in my post on eclipse preparations. 

Equipment

Sky Watcher EvoStar 72ED Refractor

Sky Watcher 0.85 Flattener/Reducer

Sigma 2X Teleconverter

DeepSkyDad AF3 Autofocuser

Baader Solar Film Filter

Nikon D750 DSLR

Sky Watcher Star Adventurer 2 Tracker

Radian Carbon Fiber Tripod

Processed on Mac OS with 

Adobe Lightroom Classic

LRTimelapse

DaVinci Resolve

Music

"Eclipse"

by 1st Contact

Shared under Creative Commons License

Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

https://freemusicarchive.org/music/1st-contact/single/eclipse/

Countdown to Annular Eclipse

Sequence from 2012 Annular Solar Eclipse
Photo by Nathan Eaton

We are just a month away from the next solar eclipse! On October 14th, 2023, people from the upper west coast down across Texas and in parts of Central and South America will have the opportunity to see an annular solar eclipse. As with all solar eclipses, this one involves the Moon passing between the Earth and the Sun. This time, the Moon will be farther out in its orbit around the Earth, making its angular size just a bit smaller than that of the Sun. In such a case, the Moon doesn't quite cover the face of the Sun. Consequently, at mid-eclipse viewers along the centerline of the eclipse track will get to see the Ring of Fire, a view in which the Moon is centered over the Sun with a fraction of the solar surface showing all round the Moon. 

The image sequence above is one I took during an annular eclipse in 2012 when we were visiting Albuquerque, New Mexico. Shot with a Nikon D7000 DSLR through a telephoto lens and a Baader film white light filter, it shows the eclipse from near the start at top left as the Moon has begun to cover the Sun, progressing across and down to the Ring of Fire view at bottom left then on through near the eclipse end at bottom right. For that eclipse, the Sun set before the eclipse was over so I wasn't able to get any shots of the final phase. The reason for the yellow color in that last shot is partly because the Sun was close to sunset and partly due to heavy smoke in the atmosphere from fires west of Albuquerque. Basically, the image came out yellow for the same reason a sunset with heavy clouds to the west looks yellowish to reddish; the denser atmosphere with heavy particulates (in this case, smoke) filters out shorter wavelengths, only letting the longer (and redder) wavelengths through. 

To see how close the path of the eclipse comes to where you live and to see where and when you can view it in person, check out Xavier Jubier's interactive map for the eclipse. Click anywhere on the map and it will give you details of the eclipse for that location including when it starts and ends, how long it lasts and how much of the Sun will be eclipsed by the Moon. Note that the path of the eclipse on the map represents the areas where the annular form of the eclipse will be visible. In the Dallas area, we'll experience a partial eclipse since the Moon never moves completely over the face of the Sun from our vantage point. Unfortunately, we won't get to see the Ring of Fire here. 

Where will you be during the eclipse? 

See the NASA eclipse page for more information on this eclipse as well as the total solar eclipse next April. 

WARNING

Be sure to NEVER look directly at the sun without appropriate eye protection. Read up on safe viewing techniques before viewing the eclipse. 

Solar Transit of a Jet

UPDATE: I've replaced the previous video with a new version that includes the sound of the jet flyover from the original audio track. 

While out filming the sun to practice for the total solar eclipse next April, I was photo-bombed by a jet! 

The technical term is "transit", when an object crosses in front of an astronomical body. There is plenty of air traffic over our house with Love Field and DFW serving the area so I guess this shouldn't have surprised me but observing a transit (like this one, or this one) takes being in just the right place at just the right time so it's a pretty rare thing to have happen. 

One reason I happened to be shooting at this time is that I'm working out exactly what equipment I'm going to be shooting with for the total solar eclipse. This video was shot using:

• Sky Watcher EvoStar 72ED refractor
• Baader film solar filter
• 2" mirror diagonal
• Celestron 1.25" 2X Barlow
• T2-ring
• Nikon D750 DSLR
• Focusing with DeepSkyDad AF3 autofocuser
• Sky Watcher Star Adventurer 2 tracker
• Radian carbon fiber tripod

I have a new 2" 2X Barlow and I plan to shoot straight-through (i.e., no diagonal) but I am still working out what combination of components will allow me to properly focus with the new Barlow. Once I have that worked out, I'll start working on automating my astrophotography workflow using a small computer (a Raspberry 4 running software called StellerMate).  

The quality of this video isn't great but that's basically because I was focusing (pun intended) more on getting the equipment working right than on the finer details. Next April may see a long ways off but it will be here in the blink of an eye and as I know from my experience in 2017, being ready to catch a full eclipse end-to-end, most importantly those few minutes of totality, takes an incredible amount of practice. So, I'll be shooting pretty regularly over the next few months to make sure I have everything working perfectly. 

Anyone have a way to ensure that April clouds don't spoil the eclipse for me, er, us?

Seriously, you'll notice from the video that the Sun is pretty active with quite a few sunspots showing. Over the next few weeks, if I can get a day with good "seeing" (i.e., where there is minimal air turbulence), I'll get some shots with lots of detail, everything in focus, and the sunspots should jump off the page at you. Stay tuned!

Warning 

NEVER look directly at the sun without proper protection. This video was shot using a telescope and camera equipped with a special solar filter.

First (and Second) Light with New Equipment

Earlier this year, we started on the journey to replace our older telescopes, a Parks 60mm refractor (currently for sale) and an Orion 8" Dobsonian reflector, with something lighter and smaller. The new telescope is a Sky Watcher Evostar 72mm ED apochromatic refractor. It is under 18" long and only weighs a touch over 4 lb so it's very portable. On a solid mount and using our Sky Watcher Star Adventurer tracker, it makes a very nice platform for both visual and photographic views of the sky. 

The telescope itself is optimized for viewing large but dim structures like galaxies and nebulae but with the right optics it works well for wide-field views of the planets, the Moon and the Sun. Of course, for solar viewing, it takes more special equipment. As with our other telescopes, I opted for one of the more affordable solutions, a filter made of Baader solar film. I had ordered Baader film from the Baader Planetarium but I needed a holder to fit the new Evostar. Instead of creating one from scratch out of cardboard as I did for the 2017 Total Solar Eclipse, I searched online and found a design on Thingiverse. Thanks to Dari Esfahani for creating it for me on his 3D printer. 

Here are shots of the finished filter and the new telescope.

On Friday, I set up the telescope and filter in the backyard. The view was great as there is plenty of sun spot activity right now (see SpaceWeather.com). I grabbed a shot through the eyepiece with my phone as it was too hot (105°) to take the time to mount my camera on the telescope. This morning before it got so hot, I tried again with the camera mounted on the Evostar. So, here are the "first light" and "second light" shots for the new solar filter. 

Taken with Pixel 5 cell phone through  eyepiece on Evostar 72ED

Taken with Nikon D750 mounted on Evostar 72ED

The shot taken with my phone isn't quite as clear and it has some odd artifacts from how the phone camera processed the image but otherwise, it isn't too bad. The shot through my Nikon D750 is sharper though I was a bit rushed and I think I can get even sharper focus the next time. As for the differences in the sun spots between the two images, it is in part because the orientation of the phone camera yesterday vs. the Nikon this morning plus a small difference in the size and location of each sunspot due to the time that had elapsed between each shot. 

With the new solar filter, I'll be spending more time watching and photographing the surface of the sun. Stay tuned!

As always, click on an image to see full-screen. 

Partial Phase Eclipse with Sunspots

With the adrenaline rush of racing 11 miles south at the last minute with Beau Hartweg to see totality through relatively clear skies, after we returned to Camp Drake, base of operations for Project Stratoclipse, I almost didn't have the presence of mind to take advantage of the fact that the clouds had finally cleared and take any shots of the partial phase of the eclipse. I guess it felt like since I'd missed the first half and totality to clouds, shooting any close-up shots was anti-climatic.

And then I remembered the sunspots. The show was almost over by the time I was set up again but I did manage to get a few decent shots before the end. The first shot is from about 6 minutes before the end of the eclipse and the second one is from less than a minute before the end (4th contact or C4). Note that in the second one there is another group of sunspots visible that were covered by the moon in the first one.

Pretty cool! Can't wait for 2024!

For anyone interested, these were shot with a Nikon D7000 and a Nikon 80-400mm lens on a (roughly) polar-aligned equatorial mount. The shots were taken through a home-made Baader film solar filter.

About 6 minutes before end of eclipse (C4), one sunspot group. 

Less than a minute left before C4, second set of sunspots now visible.

Astronomical event of the year: Mercury Transit 2016

In spite of clouds and windy conditions, I've managed to capture a few shots of Mercury crossing the face of the sun. It's a relatively rare occurrence, though not as rare as a Venus transit which I've also watched (see here). Very cool.

It's still in progress through 1:42pm Central today so you might still have a chance to check it out.

For information on the transit:

Everything You Need to Know (Sky and Telescope)

To watch online:

How to Watch Transit (Space.com)

Click on any image below to view large.

One of the better shots so far today. This is the sun with the planet Mercury (the dot at middle left) crossing it's face, an event called a transit. To the upper right of Mercury is a sunspot. Note that it's larger than the planet!

Our 60mm Parks refractor outfitted with a Baader film solar filter. My Nikon D7000 DSLR is attached to the telescope with a T-adapter. I'm remotely watching the live view from camera using an app on my tablet. The app also allows me to control the camera, taking the shot above and video (to be posted later today).

The makeshift wind screen I'm using to minimize how much wind shakes the telescope (which affects stability of images)

May 2012 Annular Eclipse from Albequerque

May 2012 Annular Eclipse from Albequerque
Originally uploaded by neatonjr

Lots of stories to tell about this eclipse but for now I'll share this quick sequence I put to together using some of the shots I took with my D7000 and a Baader film filter and also share what happened to that filter.

I created the filter by mounting the Baader film on the lens hood for my 55-200mm lens. I also created filters for our Nikon binoculars by mounting the film on cardboard tubes that fit over the binocular objective lenses. After the eclipse, we were packing to travel and I wrapped all three filters in clothes packed in our suitcase. Unfortunately, I forgot to tell my wife and she washed the clothes, including the filters. Noing left of the cardboard or Baader film, though of course the lens hood is fine.

So, I get to create a new set for the Venus transit coming up up June 5th. Thankfully, we'll see that from home so I don't have to worry about the next set going through the wash...


Click the eclipse montage to see more information on what went into creating it.