Eclipse
Pictures of the 1999 Total Solar Eclipse
Location
These pictures were taken from a field in Northern France, near
Follemprise just to the North East of Rouen. Latitude 49° 45' North, Longitude 1° 18' East,
pretty much on the centre line of totality. You can get a map of our location by going to the
MapQuest map of our location. The field we were in is at the junction of the D298 and D12.
We managed to get a pretty clear view of totality, with only some thin
cloud encroaching from the West (i.e. from the Right as we viewed the sun).
We abandoned our original viewing site because of the approaching clouds, and did a mad
high-speed dash through the French countryside trying to get under the
clear patch. We got the kit set up again with about five minutes to spare!
Equipment etc.
The main camera was a Minolta Dynax 7000i with a Sigma 70-210mm
lens set to maximum zoom and a Tamron 1.4 times teleconverter.
The approximate overall focal length works out at about 300mm.
All this was, of course, mounted on a tripod.
The aperture of the Sigma lens was set at F8 for most of the shots,
which equates overall to F11 with the teleconverter in place.
The exposure changed by varying the shutter speed across a wide range.
The film was Kodak "Royal Gold" 100ASA, and the processing was
a standard 1 hour service at the chemists. The main images were scanned
in from the prints and cropped to show only the interesting central area.
JPEG compression of 50% was applied to the main images, but no electronic
"enhancement" has been attempted.
To see the main images, click on thumbnail pictures in the sections below.
Before Totality
The first image was taken through Solar Filter Film using automatic exposure,
and I haven't a clue what the camera selected:
The next two pictures were taken with the filter removed, at 1/4000"
and F11 effective aperture:
Totality
These first two are a bit dim - shutter speeds of 1/30" and 1/15" at F11 were a bit fast:
Now the detail becomes gradually more visible as the exposure time increases
to 1/4", 1/2", 1" and 2":
These next ones show the corona quite well, but also a bit of that thin cloud
becomes visible at the longest exposures of 4", 2", 2" and 4" again:
Now the sweep back down to shorter exposures of 2", 1", 1/2" and 1/4".
This reduces the corona, but improves the views of the prominences:
A Wider View
Just in case of disaster with the fancy camera, I had also set up a
totally manual Russian Zorki (non-SLR) camera on the same tripod.
This has a 50mm lens, so gave a much wider field of view. Exposure
was pretty random, only a couple of the shots were worth scanning.
The first image here was taken during totality, the thumbnail is a bit
dim but the main image really does show the eclipse:
This second image was taken after totality and shows that the clouds
were thickening up quite rapidly:
Negative Scans
I also got a friend to scan some of the original negatives (thanks Andrew!).
Thumbnails for these pictures are below, but I haven't got the details of
which image came from which negative, nor exactly what contrast/brightness
adjustments were made.
And Finally
This was my first Total Solar Eclipse, so I am delighted to have got any
pictures at all, let alone so many reasonable (IMHO) ones. No photographs
can really capture the whole majesty of Totality. You really have to
be there to appreciate it.
I now understand why people get "hooked" on eclipses!
If you want to explore the boundaries of science and art, then you are
welcome to play with the images and incorporate them into your own
creations. As an example, have a look at my own attempt at
"The Art of the Total Solar Eclipse".
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