Tag Solar Eclipse

The 2024 Total Solar Eclipse

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If you know me, or have read through some of my posts here, you’d know I wouldn’t have missed this eclipse. After all, its totality covered my own back yard near Austin, Texas for 3 minutes. However, my family and I didn’t see it at home. Instead, we traveled to South Texas see it with friends: A good bunch of my friends who were there with me on the two-week journey to the tip of Baja for the 1991 total solar eclipse.

THE eclipsolunatic

This time, we mutually chose the Eagle Pass, TX area. It was in the US, along the center line, and would very likely have clear skies at that time of year. We started planning over a year in advance of the eclipse, primarily to secure our lodging. A lot of hotels were not taking reservations that far in advance. We did find open advance reservations in nearby Del Rio.

Of our original 1991 group, Richard, Bob, Vince, Melissa, and I were in attendance. We also brought a small portion of the ashes of our departed friend and brother Greg.

Vince (in exile), in-crowd L-R: Phil, Marsha, Bob, Darlene, Jamie, Melissa, and a person we met there at the Del Rio Inn.

In addition to the ’91 alumni, we were joined by friends: Louis, Michael, Marsha, Phil, Darlene, Jamie, as well as my own eclipsolunatic family: Shelia and Ryan.

Steve, Shelia, and Ryan

In the days leading up to the eclipse, the weather forecast was firming up to be pretty poor conditions along the path of totality. We had lots of Pacific moisture flowing into the area with high and low clouds. Still, the area we’d picked ahead of time looked like it was going to be drier than the rest of South Texas.

The morning of the eclipse, the previously clear-ish skies were gone. Gloomy low clouds had built up overnight. We sat tight at our hotels in Del Rio, looked closely at the radar and satellite loops, and tried to figure out what to do.

Two kinds of eclipse “nuts”. La Quinta was stocked with the right fuel.

Eagle Pass looked to be a little more socked-in, so staying in Del Rio appeared to be the right thing to do. We gathered at the Del Rio Inn to see if conditions would improve anywhere around us.

A few holes in the cloud cover here at the Del Rio Inn

Richard was still headed in from San Antonio along US90 and had been reporting relatively better skies near Uvalde. With that info, Vince and my family decided to move to meet Richard somewher near the centerline on US90 between Del Rio and Uvalde. The rest of the gang stayed at the Del Rio Inn, hanging out around the pool.

At our viewing spot along US90E

Our team ended up stopping at 29°19’35.0″N 100°28’54.6″W a spot 20 miles west of the eclipse centerline on US90E on the west side of Brackettville, TX. Richard met up with us there.

The eclipse has started, and this is one of those times where we could see through the clouds and cast shadows.

I took some overview video on my GoPro Hero4, and I’ve posted that to YouTube.

During the eclipse, I pulled a fast one on my friends. I launched an audio track containing a bunch of exclamations by our departed friend Greg that were recorded at the 1991 eclipse. The idea was to make it seem like he was there with us. I’m sure everyone would agree he was really there in spirit.

I took still photos during the eclipse, but no other video. My telescope setup procedures require more time and clearer skies than I had available. The stills of the partials look pretty good, but I didn’t set up the tripod for the totality (doh!), so the handheld shots of that were not so good.

Handheld shot with my D7100 and a 300mm lens using my hand made filter.
When the clouds were thick enough, I went ahead and grabbed some shots of the partial phases without the filter.
Almost there! I think you can see a little hydrogen alpha pink mixing in here.
A wider crop of the previous picture. There’s a neat angel shape in the cloud hole there.
Still a sliver!
Well, you really don’t want to shot totality handheld. Next time, set up the tripod first.
The hot pink prominences left nice trails in my shaky shot.
Well, that might have been a diamond ring shot, but again, the tripod wasn’t used.

I am really happy that so many other people in the US were able to see this one and experience the wonder. I look forward to seeing more of what others have experienced and recorded.

Exposure and Tracking for a Total Solar Eclipse

smulanax 3 Comments

They say you should use the full moon to get your initial exposure settings for the totality phase of a solar eclipse. I guess the settings for my setup will be like the ones I used on this picture from last night.

1/100s and 100 ISO
Nikon D7100 on the back of a Celestron 90GT 910mm Telescope

The video tests were similar. I liked 1080p30, 1/125s, and 100 ISO.

We’ve been having a lot of rain, clouds, and haze lately. Last night was my best night for the full moon trials. Today, I moved on with the sun trials.

1/125s at ISO 100
Nikon D7100 on the back of a Celestron 90GT 910mm Telescope
Thousand Oaks Optical Silver-Black Polymer Filter

Wow. How boring is this? One teeny sunspot? Hmm.. I’m not getting great focus today. Moist atmosphere I think. I did get rid of the light leak by covering the viewfinder. The contrast is great! I also worked to shield the monitor so I could focus without glare in the daylight.

Getting things in focus. Well, technically, I’m centering.

My son took that one. There’s an HDMI port on the camera. I ran it to a 24″ monitor and put that in a box with a black cloth hood. Works for my old eyes.

The monitor in the box

There’s a reticle taped to the frame of the monitor. It helps me keep the sun/moon image centered when there is drift in the tracking. When I see error, I can adjust with the slewing controls on the telescope. The image is a composite of several reticle types I found on the internet. I wanted concentric circles, a cross in the center and a ring with degrees for noting the position of sunspots. I used a similar reticle for the July 11, 1991 eclipse.

Closeup of the reticle. Remember making overhead projector transparencies for presentations? That was before PowerPoint and cheap video projectors. This is pretty much one of those. Who still has the plastic? I didn’t. 5 sheets for $6 on Amazon! This time I used my inkjet printer to add the text and lines. Last time I copied the reticle from a book onto the transparency sheet using the copier at work.

Eclipse Preparations Starting

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8″x8″ Solar Filter Bundle

The gear I’ve ordered has started arriving! We’re going to need some filters for the partial phases.

This is the great Mylar filter material from Thousand Oaks Optical. The one 8×8 sheet is enough to build filters for our Celestron 90GT, binoculars, and a few different camera lenses. The filter material is black on one side (eye side) and silver on the other (sun side). Black should help with internal reflections. The included spectacles are made with the same material.