These images were taken near Hangzhou, China, as part of the Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston expedition to see the eclipse. Many thanks to Mario Motta, Bernie Volz, Joel Harris, and China Travel Service for making the trip a great success! Also many thanks to all our traveling companions on the trip for making the whole experience so enjoyable and memorable.
These images were taken with a Canon Digital Rebel XTi 10 megapixel single-lens reflex camera operating at ISO 100 and a Vivitar 600 mm telephoto lens operating at f/11. We saw the eclipse through thin clouds that required exposures to be increased by at least 2-3 f/stops and also created a pronounced halo around bright points of sunlight.
You can click on the links next to the thumbnail images to get higher-resolution versions. Please note that the high-resolution images are fairly large files, typically a few megabytes each.
Some travel images from the trip are posted on a companion page.
Another page has pictures from the same trip by my wife Louise.
All images below are copyright (c) by Bert Halstead, 2009.
Second contact
These images show the "diamond ring" just before the beginning of totality.
Six seconds before second contact. Shutter speed 1/250 second.
|
Medium-resolution image
High-resolution image |
Four seconds before second contact. Shutter speed 1/15 second.
|
Medium-resolution image
High-resolution image |
Mid-totality
This image is a composite of three images taken in mid-totality at 1/4 second, 1 second, and 4 seconds, respectively. The images have been combined and processed to show the texture of the coronal streamers as they extend out from the sun, becoming progressively fainter. This image was published as the cover image for Astronomy magazine's Sky Guide 2012, distributed with the January 2012 issue of the magazine.
|
Medium-resolution image
High-resolution image |
For comparison, this is what a single exposure of the corona, processed in a conventional way, looked like. Shutter speed 1/4 second.
| Medium-resolution image |
Third contact
This picture shows the chromosphere 12 seconds before the end of totality. Note the two prominences at around the one o'clock position. Shutter speed 1/60 second. This picture was published on p. 65 of the November 2009 issue of Astronomy magazine.
|
Medium-resolution image
High-resolution image |
Less than one second before third contact. Shutter speed 1/15 second.
|
Medium-resolution image
High-resolution image |
An enlargement taken from the previous image to show the prominences more clearly.
| Medium-resolution image |
Only one second after the previous image, three beads of sunlight had already appeared. Shutter speed 1/60 second. This photograph has been published on p. 56 of the June 2015 issue of Astronomy magazine and on p. 70 (top left) of the November 2015 issue of Discover magazine.
|
Medium-resolution image
High-resolution image |
Just two seconds later, the diamond ring had already become very bright. Shutter speed 1/15 second.
|
Medium-resolution image
High-resolution image |
More images
These are the three images that were used to create the composite mid-totality image above. The shutter speeds were 1/4 second, 1 second, and 4 seconds, respectively. Note that these images have been rotated 90 degrees, compared with the above images.
| Medium-resolution image |
| Medium-resolution image |
| Medium-resolution image |
