My Astronomical Activities in Pictures

Well, finally I've got some time to share my Solar Eclipse experience.

I did not have a telescope with me, so, a lot of pictures are not so good and I can't capture visible sunspots.

Will start in the order...

The Place.

My original plan was to go to Alliance, NE. However, weather wasn't good enough for watching the Eclipse. It would be a very disappointing, to put so much effort and get a very little cloud in front of the Sun exactly at the time of the Eclipse.So, I've decided to do my observations in Casper, WY, where the weather was predicted as ideal.

The Facility.

I came to a gas station on the north of Casper and got an advice to observer the Eclipse from Casper Event Center. The center is locating at the top a hill on the north of the town.

The facility was well organized, there were ABC News, Times magazine and even Miss Wyoming. Provided restrooms, snacks and beverages.

There was a huge line. Organizers sold special T-Shirts dedicated to Eclipse-Festival.

All observers had not only unique chance to observer the Eclipse, but also observer whole town from the hill during the event.

Here is my camera ready for the Eclipse.

The First touch.

The first touch is what everybody waiting for at the beginning. However, I could define the event only by timing. It is very hard to say looking at the picture if you can see the shadow of the moon or not yet.

Here is a picture of the Sun without the shadow:

And here is, what I think, was the first touch:

Is it just my imagination or I really something in the upper right corner?

In just a few seconds I could see the shadow of the moon without any doubt:

After one minute of watching people could notice the eclipse using solar glaces:

Moon Solar Phases

That was interesting to see all "Lunar" phases in just 100 minutes.

Kids were running around cactuses screaming: "I see the moon!"

Here are some phases before the Totality Phase of the Eclipse:

It became darker and colder

And here is the very last moment before the Totality:

The Totality

And here is a Diamond Ring:

During the Totality phase I tried to experiment with exposures. Here is what I've got for constant ISO=100 & f/5.6:

Exposure 0.005s (1/200): Corona is small, but you can see couple of promenamces on the upper right.

Exposure: 0.04s (1/25) - promenances are still visible

Exposure: 0.125s (1/8) - promenances are not visible. the picture is overexposed.

Back to 0.04s (1/25) - Can recognize third promenance.

Exposure: 0.02s (1/50) - Sun is coming back

End of Totality.

Second Diamond Ring

And at this point happened unpredictable. Because of dropping the temperature the vapor in the air condensed in tiny layer of clouds and all pictures after that became blury: