| 2/26/98 Solar Eclipse |
Diamond Ring Effect (1/1000 sec) 13 Kb Color jpeg
Inner Corona (1/500 sec) 13 Kb Color jpeg
Inner Corona (1/250 sec) 13 Kb Color jpeg
Outer Corona (1/100 sec) 13 Kb Color jpeg
Outer Corona (1/50 sec) 13 Kb Color jpegNotes:
Pentax 645, 400 mm lens at f4, 400 speed Ektachrome. Images were scanned from slides. The sun's disk, excluding corona, with a 400 mm lens is only 3.6mm, so the image was magnified using Adobe Photoshop.
Shutter speeds for the five pictures were 1/1000, 1/500, 1/250, 1/100. and 1/50. The 1/1000 was taken just as the total phase began. A little bit of the sun had not yet been covered by the moon, and we got the diamond ring. Glare from the sun prevents us from seeing much in the way of prominences, huge areas of hydrogen gas which come off the sun's surface. This was really what I was trying to photograph.
Speeds of 1/500 and 1/250 show the inner corona, while speeds of 1/100 and 1/50 show the outer corona. Thickness of the corona is directly related to sun spot activity. The 1990 eclipse had a much thicker corona.
