Total eclipse, the umbral shadow passage

[OzEclipse]

I have been back home for 5 days and working on my images and this video. The camera is an APSc DSLR capturing 1080p HD video with a 10mm full frame fisheye (180 deg corner to corner). The camera is pointing almost straight up then tilted down 20 deg to the south west with the long side of the frame extending to the eclipsed sun. I admit this orientation causes some visual confusion but my intention was to capture the maximum extent of the umbral passage. The video settings are Aperture: f5.6, Exposure mode: Av, Compensation: -1eV. Capture is 24fps. The camera is capable of up to 60fps but for low light events, I've found it's better to use the slower frame rate. The video started recording about 5 minutes before totality however I've chopped off a few minutes of dead air at the beginning.

The video editing is pretty simple but I had to put a background sound track together using a royalty free library in some sound software I have. It took me longer to do the soundtrack than edit the video. I am no John Williams or Hans Zimmer, but at least it is not in breach of copyright which allows me to post it on public video servers such as this one.

The video is 720p HD. The original was captured at 1080p HD. Downsizing to 720p is a compromise between having a large file chewing up my limited storage space and reasonable video and sound quality suitable for viewing on a typical laptop or computer monitor or smaller. I recommend clicking the expansion arrows just left of the word Vimeo in the lower right corner of the frame for the best full screen experience.

https://vimeo.com/826395876?share=copy

[Peter Ward]

Nice one. I rather like the birds....we had a similar flock head back to roost as things got dark.

[OzEclipse]

Thanks Peter. I had noticed those flocks of corellas flying straight over my campsite each night during twilight. Part of my reasoning for staying there was the hope that they would do exactly the same behaviour during the eclipse and be captured on video.

The umbra was much bigger than I had expected. I saw a similarly sized 40km diameter umbra during the 2013 hybrid solar eclipse. It was projected upon very thin high cloud in the sky and was clearly seen as only a small patch perhaps 40-60 degrees diameter. This one appears much bigger but that could be an illusion and much of it could simply be darker penumbra spread over a much larger area diffused through multiple altitudes in the atmosphere.

Joe