Yet Another Eclipse Shot... ...Melbourne

[ath]

Yeah, I know, yet another Eclipse shot, thought I'd share nonetheless. At least if my house burns down or something I know there'll be a copy on here somewhere! ;)

I would have slept through this event if it wasn't for a friend calling me to say it looked damn special through his welders mask. I raced out with my scope and solar filter and hooked my DSLR to my T-Ring and fired off a few shots in the car park of the block of flats I live in. Needless to say I had a few people giving me weird looks at that time of morning. (Then again I get weird looks even when I'm not holding a telescope at 8AM)

These two images are the most in focus shots I managed to get before having to pack up and head to work. Live View saved me! These were taken in the suburb of Hawthorn at approx. 8:07AM EDST with a Nikon D7000 using Prime Focus through my Skywatcher 90mm Refractor.

I've edited the RAW's in Lightroom 4, added a bit of Clarity, plus chromatic abberation reduction using the Lens Correction tool to rid it of the purple flaring at the edges and finally added a hint of orange for that familiar 'sun look'.

Certainly not the best eclipse shots I've seen (so many great ones on here), but I am wrapt I got something on the sensor nonetheless!!

Can anyone confirm whether the 'rocky' edges of the moon are actually craters on the moon's surface that I am seeing or perhaps a result of heat waves in the atmosphere? Would love to know...

Thanks for looking! :thanx:

Cheers,

Andrew

[Larryp]

Very nice, Andrew:thumbsup:

[rolls05]

You know they're pretty nice shots man. Nice size,sunspots, sharp,the whole package.I was stuck at work but was looking through the old welding helmet every 10 min. Ive got to get me a solar filter for my about to get ed80,thats for sure. Very impressed.

[Deeno]

Some nice sharp images!

[ath]

Thanks heaps for the kind words guys... I really appreciate the feedback (especially positive feedback! :D ). I must admit they did come up pretty sweet when resized and cropped, but at 100 percent they aren't in perfect focus, definitely something I need to work on in future I guess. I'm my biggest critic at the best of times.

Think I need a new mount as it drifts with the weight of the camera attached due to the bolt in the middle not being tight enough, it's a cheap Azimuth one that came with the scope when I bought it. I usually have to carry a shifter with my scope to tighten it, but it never stays and gets kinda fiddly. Might head over to the classifieds section and take a squiz over there.

Thanks again everyone!