What a week to be doing a weekly photo post! Despite our home being within the path of totality, we ventured west to the Indiana / Ohio border to double our time in the shade. We jumped from 2 minutes to 4 minutes of totality, and it was worth it. I’ve got photos to share and a couple timelapse videos as well.
We were within 1 mile of the absolute center line of the eclipse, hanging out in a Darke County nature sanctuary — a clump of trees that hadn’t been converted to farmland. Our original choice was a more open area just to the east, but it was swamped by the time we arrived around 10:00 a.m. Eastern.
Eclipse photos
With eclipse glasses deployed and our dog Whisky being actively calmed, we were ready for totality. (The dog was fine during the eclipse. She seemed a little confused, but not stressed.)It begins…To our west was the classic American farmhouse and barn. And the day was cloudy, but the clouds were high-altitude stratus that were thin enough to not get in the way of the eclipse. It did mess with my camera’s autofocus, however.Once I got home, I found this shot in my collection—I couldn’t see this out in the field with the tiny screens I had available to me. It appears I captured a commercial jet flying overhead during the start of the partial eclipse. The high clouds definitely messed with my photos, making it look like the edge of the sun’s crescent were rounded in several photos. It may also have been part of my filter, which in this case I was using a high-powered variable ND filter rather than a static solar filter.Finally THE MOMENT arrives — totality begins with a final blast of photons over the top of the moon.I have a ton of these shots, each one slightly different. My camera did indeed pick up some of the orange prominences around the disc, but despite being a 600mm zoom lens (35mm equivalent), I couldn’t get NASA-level quality images of the orange flares. Still… I have a bunch of these shots and they are delightful.A few stars and a planet came out to play during totality, and a “360 sunrise” was visible in every direction.A wide shot of totality gives up the wild colorscapes in play, from the darkness space with cold stars shimmering through to the warm horizon, plus an obscured sun. Just a stunning experience in person. And finally The Diamond Ring. I have a few of these and they are stunning. I didn’t get a shot like this during the 2017 eclipse because I was using a solar filter. So glad I learned more and experimented this time.
Timelapses in 1080p
I took some GoPro cameras along and set them up for timelapse and video work. They were automatically adjusting to light levels, so the full eclipse experience isn’t there, but it was the only way to be able to keep shooting through the changing conditions. Nevertheless, it’s pretty cool to see the shadow arrive across the horizon and pass on as well.
Real-time eclipse video in 4K
In addition to the timelapse cameras, I setup one GoPro to record a 4K real-time video of the main event. Again, the sensor compensates for the darkening environment, so the experience isn’t perfectly representative. But it gives a good sense. If you watch carefully, you’ll see the flashing strobes on the single-engine plane that flew overhead at the start of totality.
Digital Polity 