Caveman Astrophotography

Adventures in el-cheapo astrophotography - please navigate back to Chapter 1 using the page links at the bottom of this page for the start of the journey...

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WARNING: Viewing a solar eclipse through anything other than approved visual solar filters may cause eye damage or blindness. Only totality may be observed without filters, but some risks still pertain.
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Well finally at the age of mumble mumble years (too many) I have seen my first total solar eclipse! The 'journey' began nearly 18 months ago when I stumbled across a link to a mob that were advertising a two-week "Solar Eclipse Cruise" aboard the Aranui 3, a freighter with limited passenger facilities that plies the outer islands of French Polynesia! At my partner's insistence (!) we booked immediately, so it was a long, long wait before we finally flew out from Melbourne to Tahiti on 27 June 2010. We boarded the Aranui at Papeete, Tahiti, a few days later and after a visit to Fakarava Atoll in the Tuamotu Archipelago we headed off for the Marquesas. This French Polynesian island group was simply stunning - cloud-topped volcanic islands rising straight up out of the ocean. Part lush jungle and part rocky desert, the geological formations and landscapes were breathtaking. We landed at six of the islands, seeing sights and taking tours while the ship's crew attended to unloading and loading cargo.

Almost everyone on board was there for the eclipse and it was more "Geek Boat" than "Love Boat"! But hey ya gotta love geeks and at least you didn't feel obligated to demonstrate any fashion sense during the cruise!! However the cruise is a whole other story and one I won't go into detail about here!

Our time in the Marquesas passed too quickly and soon we were on the return journey to Tahiti, and a date with the total solar eclipse in the Tuamotu Archipelago. The itinerary, which had included land-based eclipse viewing on Hikueru Atoll in the Tuamotus, was changed the night before the eclipse to ship-based viewing. This decision, in which most passengers played no part, was made owing to intermittent cloud cover in the region. It was felt that the manoeuverability of the ship would be an advantage in these conditions and that clear-sky 'holes' could be chased. I personally was dismayed. Intoxicated by islands, I just wanted to set foot on another one! As it turned out, the decision was probably a wise one as many viewers on Hikueru were clouded out during the precious minutes of totality.

Eclipse morning dawned the same as every other morning we had been on ship - partly cloudy but with enough clear blue sky to set up a buzz amongst the passengers. The ship veered to a westerly course just before First Contact so that the open rear decks gained a superb easterly view. People crowded the decks, but the Sun was high enough that no-one missed out on a view. In the following photograph, I'm the geek in the red shirt at centre!

A big cheer went up as the first tiny bite was taken out of the Sun at First Contact at around 7:20am (UT-10)! Odd small clouds scudded through during the partial phases but not enough to hinder my photography of the gradual covering of the disk of the Sun. I was using a Canon 400D DSLR on a tripod, shooting at 200mm through a Baader AstroSolar Safety Film filter (settings 1/2000 sec, ISO 400, F/9, if you're interested!). As the eclipse progressed, all manner of objects were used to project the narrowing crescent onto the white-painted walls around the decks. Straw and woven hats worked particularly well!

As Second Contact approached, strange effects became noticeable. First, the glare off the water lost its blinding harshness. Looking around the ship, it was almost as if something had cranked up the saturation and contrast, and everything looked sharper. Shadows, once muted at the edges, became razor-sharp. The brilliant blue of the sky was replaced by a steely grey. I didn't see the shadow approaching, as it was overrunning us from the west, nor did I notice the "shadow-bands" (some people had laid out white sheets on the deck to observe this phenomenon - I think maybe they were successful, can't really remember). A buzz rose as a small patch of thin cloud scudded over the Sun, and I glanced up and saw a wafer thin, short brilliant crescent! Realising the first "Diamond Ring" was just seconds away, I whipped the filter off the camera and kept clicking away with the wireless remote, without bothering to change the settings. Two shots in, the Sun flared with incredible brilliance and the dark disk of the eclipsed sun was seen clinging to the flare. The disk moved quickly into open sky but the flare hung on, gradually extinguished over a period of about 20 seconds. This was apparently an extraordinarily long time for a "Diamond Ring" to last, according to experienced observers!

Despite having read a lot about eclipses, I was completely unprepared psychologically for what happened next. The "Diamond Ring" extinguished suddenly, and there, hanging in the brooding grey sky, was a jet black disk with a white rim, surrounded by long pale streamers - the solar corona. The emotion of seeing this eerie, alien object in the sky just cannot be described adequately in words so I won't even bother to try. My shot clicking slowed and stopped. I became vaguely aware of the oohs, ahhs and cheers of the people around me (many of whom had seen multiple eclipses), but the sight of the eclipse just transfixed me. So beautiful, yet so strange.

I could see Mercury down below the Sun, and several bright stars. I gradually collected my senses sufficiently to reel off a few more shots at longer exposures but the ship's motion was always going to defeat long exposures. About 1/40 sec was the limit at 200mm. I even briefly took a few subs at 55mm to see if I could get a sign of comet C/2009 R1 McNaught, but later processing revealed nothing. Too dim. I grabbed the binoculars and quickly checked the comet position but there was nothing there. I turned them on the eclipsed Sun, revealing wonderful detail in the corona. I was a little disappointed that I couldn't see any prominences, but later I realised that this was probably mid-eclipse with the main prominences hidden by the Moon. They certainly came up in my first set of shots, at the start of the eclipse.

After that the camera got left alone, and I just drank in the scene. Suddenly, the Sun flared again, an exquisite second "Diamond Ring"! This lasted only a few seconds and the harsh brilliance of the Sun returned to the sky. The four minutes and five seconds of totality seemed to have passed so quickly. Amid the cheers and whooping of the crowd, I completely forgot to look for the departing shadow! After that, it was just regulation shooting of the partial phases until the Sun resumed its existence as a familiar round ball!

When it was all over, I raced to my cabin to get the netbook. Checking the shots I was amazed and pleased at how well they had come out, considering I didn't really have a clue what I was doing. Photography was always going to be second to visual observation - I hadn't wanted to get too involved in photography at totality and had even deliberately avoided attending eclipse photography tutorials held on the ship prior to the event. Beginner's luck maybe?

The Great South Pacific Total Solar Eclipse of 2010, from start to finish!
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In closing, all I can say is that however many photographs you see of solar eclipses, nothing - NOTHING - can prepare you for the visual impact of totality. So if you haven't seen one yet, make it a priority! Northern Australia, November 2012, is coming up! Maybe we'll see you there...