Annular Solar Eclipse in the West: Your Plans?

Hi all,

We're gonna have one hell of a show this Sunday as the moon blocks out most of the sun for a stretch across from Oregon to Texas. I was curious as to the plans people have for this event?

I myself have the Santa Fe Century bike ride that morning...so I hope I get done in time, but I plan on driving out to Chaco canyon and shooting some ruins with teh crescent/ring of the sun in the Western horizon.

So, what's your big plan? Anyone gonna be able to be at the Grand Canyon, Bryce, Zion? Anything?

Stay home and save the travel costs. A partial will be visible from here just before sunset.

Klainmeister said:

Hi all,

We're gonna have one hell of a show this Sunday as the moon blocks out most of the sun for a stretch across from Oregon to Texas. I was curious as to the plans people have for this event?

I myself have the Santa Fe Century bike ride that morning...so I hope I get done in time, but I plan on driving out to Chaco canyon and shooting some ruins with teh crescent/ring of the sun in the Western horizon.

So, what's your big plan? Anyone gonna be able to be at the Grand Canyon, Bryce, Zion? Anything?

Click to expand...

Might do Zion, PM me though if you are serious about Chaco, I am in Aspen and might make the drive with my wife in our Dead Link Removed....

Heading down to Cedar city utah.

Wish I could go to Lake Tahoe this weekend.

The Path:
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEgoogle/SEgoogle2001/SE2012May20Agoogle.html

Fantastic compilation of information from/by Michael Zeller:
http://eclipse-maps.com/Eclipse-Maps/Gallery/Pages/Annular_solar_eclipse_of_2012_May_20.html

Definately thinking about Chaco.

The show at Chaco was great.

The show from my front porch was just fine and there were a couple of homebrews (ale, not developer) to go with it. Sun was eclipsed about ten degrees over the Jemez Mtns. against a clear sky after passing behind a small cloud bank.

Projected eclipse image through 760 mm nikon onto white wall , gave nice sized image.

Dave Wooten said:

Projected eclipse image through 760 mm nikon onto white wall , gave nice sized image.

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Dang, you beat me -- all I had was a 600mm Nikon lens (but just now remembered I had a 12-21-28 TR I could have used!) Stayed at home -- some light clouds with breaks in between. Got a couple shots with the Rolleiflex of eclipses on the side of the house thrown thru the leaves of the plum tree.

Vaughn

markbarendt said:

The show at Chaco was great.

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Good for you! Looking forward to the results

Chaco was mighty fine. I couldn't believe the crowds though!

So the negs are washing now so I have time to think this through... is it more important than ever to stick to the principles and silver print before sharing? Or is this one of those exceptions?

Should I print full-frame on 11x14 as my standard? Or zoom in and print cropped but still blown up to 11x14? Or should I just print postcard sized? All these possibilities...

I'm leaning towards pulling out the 28mm and going for 11x14 cropped. It's going to be funnnkkkyyyy!

Stuck to principles. Pulled out the 28mm and went for zoomed-in 11x14 cropped. Galerie 3 Matte. Has a wacky paper negative/bromoil look though it is 100% traditional film and paper.

Bill Burk said:

Stuck to principles. Pulled out the 28mm and went for zoomed-in 11x14 cropped. Galerie 3 Matte. Has a wacky paper negative/bromoil look though it is 100% traditional film and paper.

Click to expand...

It's in the gallery...

After giving out all kinds of eclipse viewing advice, I wasn't ready to take pictures so here is what I improvised at the last minute...

Everyone was reaching for their 12 stop ND filters but I don't have anything like that. So I projected an image on black construction paper and photographed the projection on Kodak Panatomic-X with OM-1 and 50mm macro.

The longest lens I have (short of a telescope that I could have unpacked but the eclipse was already started...) is the LF Dallmeyer Dallon 12". I mounted it on an open cardboard 12 x 9 x 6 box. I was thinking 12 inch focus but mounted it on the 9 inch side. Still not close enough by two inches. Nice telephoto design... 12 inch lens with a 7 inch throw...

So inside the cardboard box, on a two-inch platform, I taped a sheet of black construction paper. Spent the afternoon wandering the backyard with my head in this contraption. With clear skies, I used ND 2 stop filter and f/64 on the Dallmeyer. Only got the sun in those shots. But when the clouds came in, I found I was able to open the Dallmeyer wide and throw silhouettes of everything on the horizon.

For the print, I did what I said I'd do. It's the 28mm and with the enlarger at 28 inches, I think I am getting about 24x enlargement on this 11x14 print.