First Solar Eclipse of 2010
Posted by Avital Pinnick on January 15, 2010
The clouds that morning were beautiful. Good conditions for taking sky photos but not so good for viewing the partial eclipse (24%). I took this photo at 6:45 a.m. from my balcony, not long after I got up.
I got to the small park in Mitzpeh Nevo, Maale Adumim, before Roy had arrived, so I went to look at the hyraxes. I could kick myself for forgetting my long lens. This photo, greatly cropped, reminds me of those “Where’s Waldo” books. I think there are six hyraxes in this shot.
Roy, a neighbour who is extremely active in the Israel New Moon Society, set up his tripod with binoculars. It’s a funny-looking contraption, no denying it, but it works.
The wind was blowing from the west, so the bank of clouds that had been over Jerusalem was now directly over us and between us and the sun. This photo was taken with a 3-stop ND filter.
We’re in luck! The clouds cleared for a few minutes at the maximum point of the solar eclipse, around 8:03 a.m. This photograph was taken from the projection of the eclipse, through the binoculars, onto the white formica-covered board. You can see sunspots on the lower part of the sun. If you click the photo to go to the Flickr page, I’ve marked the spots with a note.
A neighbour stopped by at 8:11 a.m. to see what we were doing. By this time the eclipse is about 12%.
A couple hours later, Roy sent me his interpretation of one of my photos, enhanced with Photoshop. You can see the sunspots (electrical storms on the surface of the sun, near the top of the disk) quite clearly now.
Denise said
What a great blog post! Love the photos.
JulieT said
Great photos. I love your neighbors; I want neighbors like that. And, uh, SQUEEE! HYRAXES!! EEE! CUTE!
pam said
You have made my day with this post! Astronomy and wildlife! It doesn’t get any better than this!
I love that you shared not only the photo of the partial eclipse, but also the shots of what was taking place “on earth” in your neighborhood while it was taking place! Brought back some favorite memories of spending an afternoon with Diane and her beau, standing on a hill in San Diego overlooking the ocean watching and photographing an annular eclipse. Your images brought it all back and in some way I felt I was there with you and your friends!
The shot of the Hyraxes is brilliant! If ever a shot demonstrated a creature designed to blend in with it’s environment – this is it! I for one and glad you didn’t have that long lens with you! Great shot just as it is! Tells so much about the creatures.
Cool First Solar images | Make Solar Power At Home said
[...] First solar eclipse of 2010 – 15/365 Image by Avital Pinnick 8:02 :33, pretyt much at maximum. Taken via projection, not directly at the sun. Maale Adumim, Israel. Blogged at apinnick.wordpress.com/2010/01/15/first-solar-eclipse-of-… [...]