Total Solar Eclipse, Mt Carbine. Photos added.

[von Tom]

Thanks to everyone who posted their pics and videos. There are some amazing images!

With a last minute approval to change work shifts I managed to make the road trip up to Mt Carbine, west of Port Douglas, to see the eclipse. I decided to load the 12" Dobsonian into the car and borrowed a couple of DSLRs from friends and catch as many aspects of the eclipse as I could.

On arrival the day before, I picked out a spot about 10km west of Mt Carbine along the Mulligan Highway, from which to observe the eclipse. The next morning, when still dark, I drove to the spot and set up.

The Eastern sky was clear until sunrise when scattered cloud started to move through, as well as some thin high stuff. I couldn't see the very start of the eclipse and was worried I would miss totality due cloud. They moved out of the way as totality started and it was a wonderful sight. I have not seen anything like it and now know why people chase it around the world! Such a perfect black circle in the sky, with the pure white of the first and last instances of sunlight. Just beautiful.

Here is a video I made of the event, utilising an iPod, iPhone, 4 DSLRs, and a point and shoot camera. I hope to add some photos as I process them :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_d47knEdq0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_d47knEdq0


Cheers,

Tom

[iceman]

I enjoyed that, Tom! Lots of different angles and focal lengths.

[RickS]

Great video, Tom!

[multiweb]

That was bloody awesome! Loved it. :thumbsup:

[Matt Wastell]

Super job Tom!

[SkyViking]

What a great video, thank you! :)

[geoffsims]

That's great Tom, nice work!

I had originally planned on setting up a timelapse and/or still camera facing west, but ran out of cameras :-)

cheers
Geoff

[h0ughy]

top shelf stuff - loved it

[Derek Klepp]

Excellent Tom my apologies for not being able to join you.Still got an Ok partial down here.Especially liked the diamond ring effects on the video.
Cheers Derek

[StephenM]

An excellent record of the event Tom! Very well done.

Cheers,
Stephen

[ChrisM]

Well done Tom - I enjoyed your compilation.
Chris

[gary]

Tom,

To date, of all the images and videos I have seen of the event, your video is the
one I have enjoyed the most.

Firstly, it captures the eclipse so well and secondly, with the introduction that puts the
area into some context, I can personally relate to it as we were just up the Mulligan
Hwy from you.

As a footnote, what did surprise me is that you had cloud. You mention you
were 10km from Mt Carbine. We were 44.8km by road from Mt Carbine
and except for the thinnest veil of cloud low down on the horizon looking
over the mountains at sunrise, the skies were crystal clear the whole time.

The clouds you had must have been quite low as we could not see them.

I did some measurements on Google Earth. Whereas you were probably around
18km west of the Tablelands as the crow flies, we were around 45km.

When we first arrived in Mt Carbine on the Tues afternoon, I felt the place was
still just a little too close to the Tablelands with regards the likelihood of clouds
washing over them. So we headed about as far away from them on the tarmac as
we could but as close to the centerline as possible. We ended up about 10km
south of the centerline.

What has been fascinating in looking at everyone's images is that the jig-saw puzzle
of who had cloud and who had clear skies is starting to come together visually
rather than just through verbal descriptions.

The cloud in your video adds a little drama in any case but if I had bet that it was
also totally cloud free at your location, I would have lost. :)

Thanks for a wonderful video and I know family members who were with us are
going to enjoy it too!

[Deeno]

Great stuff Tom!

Really enjoyed that....

[gregbradley]

Great work Tom.

Greg.

[spacezebra]

Brilliant Tom. We were based at the pub.

Cheers Petra d.

[alexch]

Great video, Tom!

The emerging Bailys Beads are just sublime!

Thanks for sharing.

Alex

[Larryp]

Great work, Tom!

[Jen]

:eyepop: excellent Tom very well put together :thumbsup::thumbsup:

[gaa_ian]

A great eclipse documentary ! I enjoyed it & I re-lived each moment of the eclipse as I watched :-)

[von Tom]

Thanks for the comments, I am glad you like the video :).

Derek, sorry you couldn't come - it was a last minute opportunity for me anyway. A week prior I wasn't considering going and I am very glad I could.

Geoff, I love your work. One can never have enough cameras :). My daughter left her iPod in the car so I used it to attempt to record the shadow bands on a large white card I brought with me. The frame rate/exposure wasn't good enough to capture the rippling shadows in much detail. They were a curious thing to see.

Gary, I thought I was going to be on the verge of the cloudiness. It was clear up until sunrise and then started clouding in the east over the range. I was thinking of moving west up the highway if it didn't improve but took the punt to stay. Lucky I didn't rely on moving in a hurry because I had a flat tyre waiting for me that I must have done in the dark!

Did anyone else see that semi coming down the highway during totality? He must have got a bit of a shock if he didn't know it was going to happen, or what it was going to look like.

Mareeba Maccas was packed, with not a few people reviewing their images, including me :)

Here's a pic of what delayed my trip back to Brisbane:

Cheers,

Tom

[Derek Klepp]

Tom great update I really like the last shot.Definitely worth the effort.

[deanm]

Genuinely excellent stuff, Tom!

Could you offer some explanation of the 'rippling shadow bands' - what is their basis?

Cheers!

Dean

[von Tom]

Thanks Derek and Dean.

Here's a link to a study of shadow bands:
http://www.strickling.net/shadowbands.htm

The animated gif (first picture to left on that page) gives an idea what the shadows they make looked like.

Cheers, Tom

[von Tom]

Here's a stack of 50 images from the video through the 12" Dobsonian showing the first rays of sunlight breaking out from behind the Moon, and a reworked wide field composite image using the telephoto corona image to better match how it looked to the eye.

[gary]

Great pictures Tom!

However I see what you mean about the clouds.
What a difference another 30km up the road made.



Dang!



Given the distance between us, it could not have been the same truck,
but we had one drive past during totality. What's worse was he was
heading north so would not have directly seen it. I speculated he was probably
aware of it and was just the average hard working joe that had a delivery
to make to Cooktown and figured he wasn't being paid to gawk at an eclipse.
He could have made a un-scheduled rest stop but then again there were
few places for him to safely pull-over with all the turn-off areas occupied
with observers.

What was stranger was there were at least two 4WD's packed with guys and gear
racing along, probably trying to get to the centerline, but totality had
already started. :lol: All they had to do was so slow down and drive carefully
into one of the turn-off areas and they would have seen it in perfectly
clear skies.

I haven't seen it posted on IIS yet (Alan Dyer had a photo of it
on his Facebook page), but there was an official sign on the Mulligan
Hwy very close to the centerline heralding the eclipse. Didn't get
a chance to pullover safely to snap it but here is Alan's shot -
http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fbid=4205801142154&set=pb.1198676282.-2207520000.1354065488&type=3&theater

[shahgazer]

Beautiful piece of work on the video!! Great work! :thumbsup:

[von Tom]

Nice sign Gary, I didn't see it as I didn't go far enough.

Thanks Shah, and I really like your corona shot (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=99932) :)

I worked on a single image at second contact to see if any shadow bands appeared in the clouds and I think I see them :). The shot was 1/250 sec. Also in the image is an internal lens reflection showing the extent of sun visible, although it is a mirror image of the actual view it still gives an idea of what orientation the bands are following.

Nothing like Stephen's fantastic shot (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=99409) but I am happy to have caught it anyway :)


Tom

[venus]

Oh my goodness that's what we missed. You captured the diamond ring effect perfectly as well as totality, you lucky you:)

[Paul Haese]

Your extended coroner shot is very nice Tom. I like the wide field look to it too. Something to consider for my next eclipse venture.

[von Tom]

Thanks guys. Here's some images constructed using Startrails. The first is during totality only, the second includes the time after the Sun comes out again, the last is of the western sky as totality starts and shows Jupiter (bottom), Orion (left) and Gemini (in cloud at top right).

Thanks for looking,

Tom

[CometGuy]

Hey Tom,

Wow, these are some great photos. The startrails are very unique, never seen a startrail photo taken during a total solar eclipse!

Terry

[Jen]

Wow Tom that second pic looks really cool love it :thumbsup:

[Phil Hart]

great effort.. remarkable for a first eclipse to manage that many cameras and still enjoy the show!

[Octane]

That was one of the best videos I've ever seen.

So, very, very cool.

Congratulations on a top shelf effort. :)

H

[von Tom]

Thankyou for the kind words!
Once I knew I was driving up I thought there would be no point holding back on the equipment (which included a big white card for the shadow bands). I know that the amount of gear can diminish the experience of an eclipse but I didn't want to come away without anything, so I spent the 20-odd hours driving up rehearsing in my mind what I would be taking with what, when I would be activating cameras, taking off filters etc. When it came to the event I could enjoy it without worrying too much. I made sure I looked west to see if Jupiter would be visible and it was. The SLRs were on auto exposure, with -3 stops used for the tele stills, video and the Dob video. That seemed to go OK.

For the most part things went to plan, except I do regret neglecting to press record at the 2nd contact on the camera attached to the 12" Dob (after removing the filter), and not having the sun in shot in the iPhone footage which was designed to take a shot every 5 secs (using an app) at a constant exposure to record the lighting changes. If I knew how fleeting and quick-changing the shadow bands were I may have tried to use a camera with better low light performance than my daughter's iPod that was left in the car. :)

I am glad I angled the west-facing camera (with 10-22mm lens) back towards the east halfway through so I could capture both views. I am also glad people enjoy the video as not everyone can get the opportunity to see something like this.

Cheers,

Tom