Solar Eclipse – Constitution Hill Observatory

May 4, 2024September 7, 2024

Total Solar Eclipse – 8th April 2024

With another total solar eclipse occurring in the US in 2024, there was no good reason why I would miss it. Planning for the eclipse started about a year out focusing firstly on an ideal location. With the path of totality running from the west coast of Mexico then through Texas and onwards to the north east of Canada.

I consulted the following website that provided a wealth of information around the best places to observe based on historical weather patterns. We settled on Texas as I could fly into Dallas Fort Worth and then meet up with some friends making the journey from New Jersey.

But where in Texas? We settled on a small town called Burnet that was only a small distance from the centre line.

The website provided by Xavier Jubier was pivotal in assisting us in making the decision, which would mean we would experience 4 minutes 27 seconds of totality.

In the days leading up to the eclipse we nervously consulted the weather forecasts and it looked like we would be dealing with some cloud cover. This was going to similar to the circumstances with the TSE in Alliance Nebraska. We decided that we weren’t going to chase clear skies simply take what the weather gods provided.

The day of the eclipse was similar to that of the days leading up with scattered cloud in amongst periods of bright sunshine. I setup in the early morning and waited for first contact of the moon passing in front of the sun that would start just after lunch.

Five minutes out with the darkness fast approaching the cloud cover appeared to get less and less. There was one last group of clouds covering the sun and we could tell that there was enough time for it to pass and that we would have unobstructed views. We were all so very happy.

Even though totality lasted for the four and a half minutes it was over way too quickly. By the end of it, high level cloud was beginning to cover the sun and moon blowing out the observation of the final diamond ring at C3.

In terms of the final pictures I was not as happy as previous observations. Not sure if it was down to the thin layer of cloud or a slightly out of focus camera setup though I was able to pull together the following images from the main event. Click the image to load a larger version.

Other links of interest include the following site that predicts what the structure of the suns corona during totality.

https://www.predsci.com/corona/apr2024eclipse/home.php

July 22, 2023July 22, 2023

5 years to the Total Solar Eclipse of 22nd July 2028

For any given location on Earth, a total solar eclipse will occur on average once every 360 years. And for parts of Australia and New Zealand it will be their turn on Saturday 22nd July 2028.

To provide some idea what 4 minutes of darkness would look like, I decided to created a composite image of the event combining it with one of the most iconic scenes known across the world, that of the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Composite image of the 22nd July 2028 as viewed from Farm Cove

Creating an accurate composite

So you are probably asking yourself, how accurate can this image be 5 years out from the event even occurring? Well I must admit I can’t predict the weather and that will truly be in the hands of the gods on the day. But I’ve tried to make everything else in this shot as accurate as possible.

Let me take you through the process.

Planning the shot

The first tool that I used was Sun Surveyor on my iPad. This allowed me to determine the location of where the Sun and Moon will be and then looked at the best spot to start planning out where to take a photo from. It was pretty obvious that a location in the Royal Botanic Gardens was going to be ideal with uninterrupted views across Farm Cove.

Using Sun Surveyor on iPad to plan the shot

Taking the shot

Next step was to take some photos down at Farm Cove in roughly the same position as Sun Surveyor. It was just a matter of utilising the live augmented view to ensure that I had the framed the shot and included the patch of sky where the Moon and Sun would be.

And this is the beautiful thing about using the tool, being able to set the date/time five years into the future.

Augmented live view using Sun Surveyor on iPhone

I captured a number of pictures across a variety of shutter speeds to ensure that I had captured some additional stars and planets. These would later act as reference points in post production.

Post production workflow

On reviewing the 40 or so pictures that I had taken I settled on the one that had what I felt was the right exposure along with some visibile starts and planets.

The next tool that I planned to use was Stellarium an open-source planetarium. Similar to Sun Surveyor, it also works by utilising your Earth based co-ordinates and either current or user specified date/time to display to display what the sky would look like. It was then just a matter of grabbing some star fields, one for when I took the original photo and the second for 22nd July 2028 @ 2.01pm AEST.

Then it was over to Photoshop to do the following.

Add original image as background layer
Add star field image for current date/time as a new layer
Add star field image for 22nd July 2028 as a new layer
Position, rotate and scale star field layers to align to stars and planets on original image
Remove existing stars from original image background layer
Add image from August 2017 total solar eclipse as a new layer
Position and scale August 2017 total solar eclipse image layer to align with camera lens of original image
Add planet to represent Mercury position at time of eclipse
Add star to represent Pollux position at time of eclipse

Final tweaking of the image was then performed in Lightroom.

Apply linear gradient to have a darker sky to represent the umbra (total eclipse) on the right hand side of the image, whilst the left hand side is lighter representing the penumbra (partial eclipse).

Final thoughts

I’m delighted with the final product. It’s by no means perfect and assumes that the weather will be kind to observers on the day.

If you are interested in learning more about the path of totality then I highly recommend this interactive Google Map.

http://xjubier.free.fr/en/site_pages/solar_eclipses/TSE_2028_GoogleMapFull.html

Simply click on the map to see how long the eclipse will be for a particular location.

Enjoy!

July 2, 2019July 17, 2023

Total Solar Eclipse – 2nd July 2019

I left my decision to travel to Chile for the 2019 total solar eclipse to only a couple of months out. I felt very fortunate to be able to book myself onto an organised Intrepid Tour with renowned eclipse chaser Dr John Mason and felt confident that his expertise in picking a viewing site would guarantee success.

I flew out of Sydney to Santiago about a week out from the eclipse and this gave me the chance to experience a day in Santiago before joining up with the rest of the tour group. We were convenient split across a number of buses for the journey up to La Serena where we enjoyed day trip up to the Elqui Valley to experience the local food, wine and finishing the evening off at under the stars at one of the local observatories high in the Chilean mountainsWe then had one final day to prepare and relax in back in La Serena and I made the most of this by walking around the town and enjoying the atmosphere that was building.

The next morning we all boarded the bus for the journey up to the planned observing site. It turned out to be a local football pitch and part of the payment to the local team was that they would each receive a jersey of their favourite team, Manchester United.

We were then kept well fed with deliveries from local suppliers and it was a great chance to chat with people from across the globe. Then around mid-afternoon people started taking up their positions prior to the main event. Everything went perfectly to plan, not a cloud in the sky and even though it was winter in Chile, it was very mild. I captured some amazing pictures and can’t wait to do it all again.

And here are some photos from the main event. Click the image to load a larger version.

August 21, 2017July 16, 2023

Total Solar Eclipse – 21st August 2017

After experiencing my first total solar eclipse in 2012 I had to wait till 2017 to experience my second. I was able to convince a friend who is currently living in the US to join me on a journey to Alliance, Nebraska where we experienced clear skies and 2 and a half minutes of totality.

I was quite shocked by the beauty of the event as the 2012 TSE in Port Douglas was partly obscured by clouds. I then set myself a goal to see as many as possible.

November 14, 2012July 15, 2023

Total Solar Eclipse – 14th November 2012

Well the vodkas last night certainly helped with a good nights sleep. I didn’t want to be waking every 15 minutes and clock watching. This is what typically happens when I need to catch an early morning flight. Woke around 5am but did not get up until about 5.30am. The bags were already packed so getting ready was not going to take long at all. Wandered down to the car park at around 6am and started setting up.

The sky had scattered cloud and a lot better than what had been there in previous mornings . The winds were rolling the clouds through so it is going to be a lottery if we are going to see anything. Setup of gear was pretty easy given I had practiced enough times. Connected the laptop to the 7D and it was just a matter of counting down. My little QStarz GPS was showing only the smallest of clock errors through the Eclipse Orchestrator so sync’d the DSLR clock.

By this time a number of other people had joined me in the car park. A few other people were jumping into cars which I though was strange at this late stage.

As we approached totality a rather thick cloud moved in front of the sun. I was rather annoyed at this stage but there is nothing I could do. The Eclipse Orchestrator application called out for filters to be removed which i did. At the point of totality the remaining sun beams that were appearing around the edge of the cloud disappeared. That was very dramatic and the gasps and wows from people around highlighted the spectacle. If I could describe it, it was as if the worm hole from Star Trek DS9 went from open to closed.

The DSLR was snapping away at this stage, every image was of cloud. About 30-40 seconds into the totality the eclipsed sun started to appear. There were no other clouds approaching so was going to experience totality pretty much to completion. To have just 1 second of totality, for me this was a success. Any additional time was going to be a bonus.

I turn around to look at the other people and some are still wearing the glasses. I shout to them that they can take them off.

Now to the beauty for the eclipse. It was really stunning. Most spectacles we see these days are accompanied by music to give atmosphere. All there was was an eerie silence and I found this very appropriate.

For the remaining time in totality I adjusted the positioning and exposure levels of the video camera. Then contact 3 when the diamond ring effect occurred for the last time it lit up the and surrounding cloud that had moved across. The automated photos on the DSLR had now completed and the call to replace filters had been made. Cloud had completely rolled in at this point so started packing up the gear.

I judged that I had experienced around 30 seconds of totality. But on returning to the hotel room and checking the video footage it was more like 70 seconds. A few SMS’s had come through from people back in Sydney and abroad. I exchanged a few thoughts of the experience with them.

During the rest of the day I read reports from other eclipse chasers. Looks like people in Cairns were completely clouded over. Then people located only a couple of kilometers away were also clouded out. It simply came down to pure luck. Looks like it was on my side.

You can watch/hear the video on YouTube below…

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Zn26WVmOUmQ%3Ffeature%3Dplayer_embedded

And I have put together an image based on a stack of 5. These were of the prominences just before C3.

November 13, 2012July 15, 2023

Final Preparations for Total Solar Eclipse

Followed the usual routine this morning. Got up early and confirmed the suns position for eclipse zero hour tomorrow. All looking good. Did my normal run into Port Douglas before coming back and parking the car in the spot from where I plan to watch the eclipse.

Headed back up to the room and then completed my setup for the Eclipse Orchestrator application. Did a number of simulated runs which is a great feature of the applications. Allows you to make sure that the gear is ready.

Dropped over late in the afternoon to Four Mile Beach. This was so that I could manually set the 100-400mm lens to infinity. Used a large passenger ship that was off the coast before using electrical tape to ensure that the focus wouldn’t change. Chatted with a few people on the beach about their plans. Do you drive looking for clearer skies or do you sit tight? I have chosen to sit tight and take what comes.

Took down all the tripods and mount attachments and stuck them in the back of the car before returning back to the hotel room to put away a couple of vodkas in readiness of the big event early tomorrow morning.

Clear skies!

November 12, 2012July 16, 2023

Visit to Daintree Rainforest

The morning greeted me with patchy cloud, very similar to previous mornings. There also appeared to be accompanying winds blowing on shore. Scoped out my preferred spot in the car park. This time I had eclipse glasses so that I could ensure that the sun was above the trees which it was.

Took a few more photos of the car park before getting in the car and heading down to Port Douglas. This has become my morning routine now and I ensure that I bring the iPad to have a read of the papers.

The wierd thing that I am not seeing yet is huge numbers of people. This could be because people are basing themselves in Cairns and other locations. Or people are out and about don’t things like sight seeing before the big event on Wednesday morning.

After refueling and catching up on the news I headed back to the hotel and then onto the village of Daintree. I was expecting the village to be a little bigger but there wild have only been around 6-8 shops. I chose to go on one of the river cruises and grabbed the cameras and boarded the boat leaving at 10.15am. We headed up the river towards where the guide had seen a crocodile in the previous days. Though we didn’t see any crocs we did see some snakes sleeping in trees and some nice birds. The cruise was pleasant and showed off the beauty of the area. Certainly reminds me of far north New South Wales.

After leaving the boat I was going to head up to Cape Tribulation, a short journey over the Daintree River by ferry. But they didn’t take credit card so headed back to Port Douglas for lunch and a walk around the shops. Heavy showers were rolling through and had been doing so for most of the day. Did some grocery shopping and refueled the car.

Returned to the hotel and did some setup and preparation. Weather forecasts are not conclusive but sounds like they will be similar to the last couple of days. It will certainly be a lottery.