Total Solar Eclipse, Mt Carbine. Photos added.

[Derek Klepp]

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

[deanm (Dean)]

Genuinely excellent stuff, Tom!

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

Cheers!

Dean

[von Tom (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 (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]

Originally Posted by von Tom

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.

Great pictures Tom!

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

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!

Dang!

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.

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. 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...type=3&theater

[shahgazer (Shah)]

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

[von Tom (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

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 but I am happy to have caught it anyway


Tom

[venus (Lydia)]

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 (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

[Phil Hart]

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

[Octane (Humayun)]

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

So, very, very cool.

Congratulations on a top shelf effort.

H

[von Tom (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