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…The Sun[Next Page - Balloons and Bosque]
October 14, 2023
[Photos]

For the annular eclipse today, we were positioned in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. The first image was shot through the Televue 85 telescope (lens equivalent 600mm, F7) with glass filter, the second is the more orange film filter on a 100-400mm camera lens with 1.4x extender, the same lens configuration I used in Iceland 20 years ago. I used the late lamented 1D Mark I back then, now I had the 6D Mark II on the telescope and the R10 on the lens combination. I think the glass filter is slightly sharper than the film filter, but for these images it didn't make any difference. Some prefer the more orange color in the belief it is more natural, whatever that means when you are dealing with sunlight and very dense filters. I didn't bother to match the relatives sizes of the images.

Unlike the Iceland experience, there were no tense moments due to interference by clouds. There were some high wispy clouds as the partial phase started, but after that it was perfectly clear.

An annular eclipse is fascinating to view through solar glasses, to see the sun with a huge hole punched out of the middle. But I have admit the image of a perfectly round ring is not that impressive without the context of what it is. The sequence of images before and after the peak adds that context, so click on either of the images to show the thumbnails for the slide show. The slide show starts with a single image of the film filter at peak, then shows the glass filter sequence, then the film filter sequence.

And just to show the difference between an annular eclipse and a total eclipse, the third image here is the total eclipse of August 21, 2017 as seen from Wyoming. During totality, a filter isn't needed.


Glass filter

Film filter

2017 total eclipse, no filter

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