Scope Diagram Astrocamera.Net - Astrophotography by Dave Kodama

Total Solar Eclipse - 22 July 2009



 
The eclipse started out with the sun visible, but with clouds clearly drifting by as you can see in the eclipse time-lapse sequence. But luck was with us for the most important phase of the eclipse.

As we approached totality, the clouds thinned and we ended up viewing totality in a hole in the clouds! There was still a fair haze layer, making it impossible to shoot the outer corona, so I elected to concentrate on the inner corona and chromosphere for my shots. Here, however, we were unlucky in that there were only small prominences at the sun's edge. The haze layer also scattered enough light to interfere with photographing pinhole images.

But overall, we consider it a success! We fared much better than some other groups which were clouded out and even rained on.

Pinhole Projection Image
 
 
Eclipse time-lapse sequence
including partial phases.

Preliminaries  |   Arrival in China  |   Eclipse Day  |  Eclipse Views  |  Photos from Tibet
 
See also Full trip photo album