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Astrophotography
Bob Minor April 2025
“ It was amazing really, at one point I just stood and looked around, everyone, spell bound, looking up. The sky was so beautiful, with the sun glowing, the corona streaming, and unearthly color, the stars spread out across the ecliptic plane.
It felt like there was no gravity "
Elizabeth Minor , Curacao 1998
I have witnessed 15 total solar eclipses, the first in 1963 in Maine, the most recent in Texas 2024.. The longest was over 8 minutes in the air north of Easter Island, the shortest 6 seconds from a small airplane over the Bermuda Triangle. Only once have I been completely clouded out - when living in Hawaii in 1991.
The two exhibit images from 2006 and 2017 show some of the dynamics of an eclipse: the partial phases as the Moon slowly covers the bright photosphere revealing prominences and the corona of the Sun and the rapid changes as totality is reached.
The exposures were chosen to emphasize the increasing excitement as totality approaches. The eclipse seems to move very slowly at first and accelerates to totality.
The 2017 Idaho image gives a hint of the revealing of prominences and Bailey's Beads ( the photosphere shining through valleys on the edge of the Moon) as totality approaches.
The 2006 China image is timed with longer periods at first , emphasizing the buildup to totality.
2008 China near Urumqi. This image is a hybrid of film photography and digital imaging.
A single frame of 35mm film was exposed multiple times to record the position of the Sun at predetermined times with a solar filter. The spacing of these images is not uniform but intentionally narrows as totality approaches. Timing was manual using a spreadsheet, a watch and with prompts recorded on an iPhone, synced to the eclipse.
The filter was removed for the exposure at mid totality.
At the same time that each film exposure was made, a digital image at higher resolution was taken with a small telescope. These digital images were then superimposed on the film image to produce the hybrid image.
The two bright “stars” are actually Mercury and Venus captured on film during totality.
We traveled with a tour group to deal with logistics and Chinese security limits. We offset the carbon impact of this trip with a commercial offset firm.
Idaho 2017
We were able to bring many of our family members to Idaho for a wonderful eclipse in clear skies. The approaching shadow of the Moon was particularly exciting.
The image is a composite of over 20 separate exposures. The 10 before and after totality were 1 sec apart, the totality is a high dynamic range (HDR) combination of exposures to partly encompass the wide dynamic range of the Corona.
This sequence shows the rapid changes as the photosphere is covered.
While some eclipse chasers might travel to see a partial or annular eclipse, it is the spectacle of the Corona that motivates most “umbraphiles” - those who love to spend time in the umbra of the Moon’s shadow.
All these images were digital under the control of a laptop computer running my script on “Solar Eclipse Maestro”.
Cameras used include a Nikon D300, Canon 5d, Canon SL1, Leica D-Lux. This image was made with a William Optics 80mm triplet telescope.
We traveled by car to Idaho, staying in a farm cabin. Again, the carbon impact of the trip was offset by a commercial firm.
Some favorite eclipse quotes:
“The astronomer is often disappointed by clouds or rain on the day of totality, but if the sky is clear and his instruments properly adjusted, he reaps a rich harvest of material that can be gotten in no other way.
In any event, the main point of an eclipse expedition is the fun, the challenge and the exotic location, and most of the eclipse data are never analyzed or published.”
"Astrophysics of the Sun", by Harold Zirin,
“if you can't read the street signs, hire a guide.” , anon
Mi Ra Kheper Shu Pet
“Almighty Ra give us clear skies”
Elizabeth Minor
First chanted on the bus ride into a fog bank at the Egypt/Libya border, 2006
Additional information
More of my images of eclipses and other astro-photography can be found at
https://www.flickr.com/photos/rhminor/collections/72157630994677998/
https://tinyurl.com/rhmchabot
Including panoramas, close ups and my most favorite, flash spectra, the spectra of the chromosphere at second and third contact.
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