Annular Solar Eclipse May 20 2012

 

We had a rare annular solar eclipse. What exactly does that mean? Well it is also called the Ring Of Fire eclipse. Basically the moon is further away than normal so instead of a full covering where you can seen the corona, you get to see a ring around the moon. Pretty cool right? Unfortunately, Salt Lake was a little north of the prime viewing point, so we didn’t get the ring of fire, but it was still fascinating.

Now everybody knows that staring at the sun, can damage your eyes, and it’s probably not good on your camera to photograph it directly either. Luckily we stopped by the local planetarium and picked up solar filters that make it safe to look at the sun.

I took one of my lens filters and fastened a sleeve to it so I could slide the solar filter out in order to use to look at the eclipse, and then slide it back in to take pictures of the eclipse. I was rather pleased with how it turned out.

Now onto what I caught.

The beginning. The first thing you probably noticed is how it looks like night time. The filter blocked everything but the sun out. In fact I read that if you can see anything but the sun, you are damaging your eyes.

Starting to look like Pacman!

 

I think this is about the peak, and the most covered it got. Like I said we were not in the prime zone, so not a ring of fire, we got more of a crescent of fire.  Still REALLY cool.

Here is a quick crop of that last shot.

I had amazing luck and had a pretty clear view throughout the entire peak of the event. But after this a large bank of clouds came in and looked like it was going to be a while until it passed, so I didn’t get anything else. But I am not complaining.

Really spectacular event. I am so glad I not only got to witness it, but capture it as well.

In just a few short weeks (June 5th to be precise) we have another fantastic astronomical event coming: The Transit Of Venus! Venus will be directly between us and the sun so we should be able to see it’s small dot crossing the sun. So I should get at least one more use of my filter, and filter rig. If I get anything worth sharing, I will.