Pic of the Day

August 21, 2017 Total Solar Eclipse:  Hopkinsville Kentucky

15 different photos arranged to show the progression of the eclipse. The eclipse begins on the right side of the image and progresses to the left through totality and the waning partial phases.

     On August 21, 2017 my family and I were on site in Hopkinsville, Kentucky for the total solar eclipse.  This was the second total eclipse for my wife and I, and the first for my children and grandchildren.  I was fortunate to have contacted the Northwest Baptist Church a few months before the eclipse and got permission to park on their property to set up camera equipment.  The church property sets on a incline that gave a good 360º view.  It was without a doubt the best place near Hopkinsville to see the eclipse.
     I have been preparing for this eclipse most of my life.  As a young fellow I had a passion for astronomy.  I remember when I was fifteen years old and looking through a astronomy book from my high school library.  The book had a chapter on the mechanics of solar eclipses, and a chart of solar eclipses that would occur between 1950 and 2050.  At the top of the chart was a map of the August 21, 2017 total solar eclipse.

Baily's Beads, August 21, 2017 Total Solar Eclipse: Hopkinsville, Kentucky

 the last hint of the photosphere as totality begins.  This phenomenon is named in honor Francis Baily who theorized that the beads seen at the beginning of a total solar eclipse was sunlight shinning through mountains on the moon, which indeed does create Baily's Beads. 

     I remember being so excited.  The path of the future total eclipse would pass only one-hundred miles north of where I lived at the time.  My mind when into overdrive.  I immediately started thinking, "I can see that one, its close to home."  I then realized that I would be sixty-two years old in 2017 and immediately thought, "I hope I live that long."  Well, as you can imagine my thoughts on age as changed drastically since that day, and yes, I did live to see the eclipse own August 21.

Inner Solar Corona:  Hopkinsville, Kentucky

Notice the solar flares at 2:00, 3:00 and 5:00 position.  Solar flares are plasma 

being ejected from the photosphere.

     No words can express the beauty and excitement of an event like a total solar eclipse, and no photograph can capture the extent of tonal ranges of the solar corona.  It is something that must be experienced in person and seen with ones on eyes.

August 21, 2017 Total Solar Eclipse,  Solar Corona:  Hopkinsville, Kentucky

The solar corona extends two to three times the diameter of the photosphere.  This image does not show the entire corona.  The latitude of the camera sensor cannot maintain a proper exposure from the inner corona to the out corona. 

     The photos here simply, do not even come close to what the eye can see in an eclipse.  The human eye can see a far greater range of values than a camera.  Some of the images here are single images, others are multiple images put together to give the viewer a more comprehensive view of what I saw with the naked eye. I can not stress enough, how captivating, and thrilling a total eclipse experience can be.  The next total solar eclipse in North America will occur on April 8th, 2024.  I am planning to there, and I hope you will do the same.

Eclipse Preparations

    I was supposed to be in Nebraska photographing sharp-tailed grouse and prairie chickens at this time but my plans have taken a sharp turn.   A month ago I injured my right knee.  Not sure how, but it started hurting March 3.  I though sure it would get better, but it did not.  Last week, right before I was to leave for Nebraska, I went to the doctor and discovered that I have 2 subtle tears in the right knee meniscus, and a sprained ligament.  The doctor says that the pain is most likely because of a sprain of the MCL (a ligament), though the torn meniscus is doing its part.

     Fortunately I am already better, and can move around fairly easily again.  So, I have been using my chicken photography time to prepare for the August 21, total solar eclipse (see my February 19 post at www.bobbyharrison.blogspot.com).  I have big plans for photographing the eclipse.  One of the problems is the sun will be at an approximately 67º above the horizon.  Most tripod heads will not permit a lens to reach that angle.  For my main camera and lens (a 500mm with 2x teleconverter) I will be using an equatorial mount as a shooting platform.  The equatorial mount will allow the lens to point in any direction.

     The photos shown here is the lens set in a wooden cradle.  I will use a vibration dampener (not completed at this date) between the camera body and base of the cradle for stability to reduce the play between the lens / teleconvert / camera connection.

     The equatorial mount also has a right ascension (RA), and  a declination drives with fine tuning adjustments.  The drive controls should help me keep the sun centered in the lens without having to touch the lens.  A right angle finder is going to be a must have, for photographing this eclipse.  I will be very difficult to see through the viewfinder without one for this eclipse.

     I took the images below today.  They illustrate the size of the sun disk on a full size sensor.  The white box around the image indicates the edge of the full frame (FX) image.  Each image is the complete sensor area.  No cropping was used to make the Sun's image look larger.  The larger solar disks was achieved by using teleconverters, a 1.4X for the second photo below and 2X for the third.

     One thing I discovered today is that I need a lot of practice to insure that all will go well during the total phase of the eclipse.  All details will have to be worked out in advance, for totality last only 2 minutes and 40 seconds where I plan to be.  That's not much time for all the images I hope to take.  Take a look at my February 19, 2017 post, I have a lot of good links there, and 2 photos I took during  1979 total solar eclipse near Winnipeg, Manitoba.

If you have not started preparing for the August 21 eclipse, START NOW!  August 21 will be here before you know it.