Total Solar eclipse...getting ready

[Peter Ward]

Getting prepared for this years TSE, I decided to go over some of my old data, to see what could be improved and start testing verious bits & pieces to take to Port Douglas later this year.

A Canon 5dMkIII would have been very handy back in 2006!

I also reprocessed some old, if not infamous, data :).

It brushed up pretty well IMHO, now having a more "natural" look

The link is here (http://www.atscope.com.au/BRO/gallery135.html)

.... hope the North Queensland weather co-operates in November!

[Paul Haese]

Can easily see why you won a category for this image Peter. Hoping that my third TSE will produce similar results.

[Peter Ward]

Thanks Paul. Won a bust of Galileo (or is it John Sarkissian) that year :)

What I found was *really* important was to use a lens/telescope that had few internal reflections.

The Diamond ring phase has a vast dynamic range, the last bits of photosphere will wreak reflection havoc on many camera lenses.

I took a good number of images of mercury street lights prior to the eclipse, checking for sharpness, reflections, colour correction, halos etc.

The little Megrez with simple but well corrected optics blitzed most of my lenses at the time. Sunspots were resolved quite well in the full-res data.

Not sure what I'll use this year...cameras have certainly improved so I'm hoping for significantly better resolution and lower noise.

[Matt Wastell]

Hi Peter - looks like you are well and truly brushed up - I hope the weather is good to you and all that make the trek \!

[Shark Bait]

That explains why this image is familiar. :thumbsup: