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View Full Version here: : Annular Eclipse 20th May 2012


Jay-qu
22-05-2012, 04:40 PM
As I'm sure everyone was aware, yesterday part the western coast of the united states got to experience an annular eclipse - which was also my first eclipse :)

We drove a few hours north to extend 'annularity' to a full 2 minutes. Giving me just enough time to setup - and do a rough align (need to practice more day aligning :\ ). Fortunately I got lucky and the scope only required a nudge every 10 mins or so. With the eclipse finishing at Sunset, the diminishing light meant I had to extend the exposure from about 1/640 to 1/80 and double the ISO... Unfortunately this means the colours change a little throughout the video, as I haven't got the time to spend tweaking the ~1000 RAWs manually (if anyone knows of program that may help with this please let me know!).

Equipment used:
Canon 500D
Skywatcher 100ED
Celestron CG5 mount
Thousand Oaks type 2+ white light solar filter
Intervalometer

Processed the RAW's in lightroom, wrote a script for mathematica to align the frames and pieced it together with ffmpeg:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QIqgvYwHyU

Below I have attached my favourite frame, thanks for looking! :)
J

MortonH
22-05-2012, 04:55 PM
Very nice!

Jay-qu
22-05-2012, 05:51 PM
Also I just missed a plane and moon eclipse.. :rolleyes:

StephenM
22-05-2012, 07:51 PM
Nice work! Must have been a great sight. (Shame about missing the plane shot though...)
I can't wait till November!!!

Cheers,
Stephen

iceman
23-05-2012, 05:30 AM
Excellent images! Such a shame you missed the plane, that would've been a beauty.