Eclipse Blog and Images

[Peter Ward]

Think I'm done with my eclipse data... sadly not much to salvage.

Some new pics and a blog here

[DavidTrap (David)]

Great story Peter,

Certainly a solid tripod you have the Starlapse mounted on!

DT

[Phil Hart]

I think your widefield of the eclipse, beach, clouds and crowds looks great, but can understand the frustration with the corona images (well done for the honesty in putting up the portrait too). Looked like a great setup.. I doubt it will be the last time you attempt an eclipse with it?

Phil

[Peter Ward]

Originally Posted by DavidTrap

Great story Peter,

Certainly a solid tripod you have the Starlapse mounted on!

DT

Ta Dave... that Manfrotto has seens some miles..it went with me to Lybia in 2006.

Originally Posted by philiphart

I think your widefield of the eclipse, beach, clouds and crowds looks great, but can understand the frustration with the corona images (well done for the honesty in putting up the portrait too). Looked like a great setup.. I doubt it will be the last time you attempt an eclipse with it?

Phil

Thanks Phil. Yep, despite the great kit, there is not alot I could do about the weather. My next planned travel for a TSE will likely be in 2016 (Totals look a little too brief priot to that) using the same mountng hardware. I really liked travelling without counterweights !

Given Canon's DSLR upgrade cycle, I will likely have a different camera body then....also tempeted to run with a Baby FSQ.

[iceman (Mike)]

Great images Peter, sad that you missed the long totality but what you got was great!

[DavidTrap (David)]

Where do you intend to be for 2016?

DT

[multiweb (Marc)]

Cool series. Your experience is very similar to mine but at least you did see totality.

[Paul Haese]

Looking at getting a small and light weight mount that will carry my kit for our next TSE. Star lapse looks to be a good contender. Does the tripod come with it?

Imaging in the tropics was always going to be dodgy. However, I felt that seeing the eclipse from another beach location was going to be more valuable to me than just taking the images. The way the light dances on the water has a special look to it. We have seen two eclipse above water and each were fabulous. Our third was high in the sky and in my opinion not as spectacular despite the long duration.

Take heart your images are very nice. I suspect that your fish eye lens shots will feature nicely next year.

[jakob]

Thanks for sharing.

I love the pictures, from where i was there was only clouds all day! (Sydney)

[Peter Ward]

Originally Posted by jakob

Thanks for sharing.

I love the pictures, from where i was there was only clouds all day! (Sydney)

No problemo. Glad you liked them

Originally Posted by Paul Haese

Looking at getting a small and light weight mount that will carry my kit for our next TSE. Star lapse looks to be a good contender. Does the tripod come with it?

No, but Scott is working on something portable, yet very rigid and affordable.

Originally Posted by multiweb

Cool series. Your experience is very similar to mine but at least you did see totality.

I heard further down many did not fare so well. Major bummer.

Originally Posted by DavidTrap

Where do you intend to be for 2016?

DT

Might take the cruise option.

Originally Posted by iceman

Great images Peter, sad that you missed the long totality but what you got was great!

I'm still giving the data the occasional poke...just to see if there's some more life left in it

[mithrandir (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by Paul Haese

Looking at getting a small and light weight mount that will carry my kit for our next TSE. Star lapse looks to be a good contender. Does the tripod come with it?

Paul, I've tried my StarLapse with a Manfrotto 190XPROB and it is OK as long as you don't have too much weight on it and do not extend the centre column. I've also got a Manfrotto 475 and that is OK with the column extended, but it won't fit in my usual suitcase.

What seems equally important is the head and how tight you get the screw into the mounting bar of the StarLapse. If the load isn't balanced in all directions this screw can let the StarLapse rotate.

Peter noted his fluid head slips with the big Canon lens. I've tried 804RC2 and 498RC2 heads on the 190, and a 229 3D Pro on the 475. They all slip with my a77 and Sigma 150-500 if I don't do something to balance the load. A geared head might do better.

Also most heads will not let you go past about 30 deg upward tilt so you might have to reverse the load to use downward tilt. eg the 804 goes to 90 deg down.