Always be skeptical for anything you see or read on the internet.
Last month I “took” the above, realizing seconds before, a plane was about to cross in front of the totally eclipsed moon. Having camera off mount, and scrambling for a combination of improbable shutter speeds and exposures, the above result later struck me as …interesting.
Speaking of interesting, you can purchase this masterpiece by contacting me anytime at 1-800-money$$
As usual, thank you for viewing, and comments are always welcome. M 🙂
March 7th, 1970: Jeanne and I, now engaged, traveled to Virginia Beach, Va., to see a rare total eclipse of the sun,
We chose to drive down the Jersey Shore; across the Delaware Bay by ferry; through the sparsly populated Del-Mar-Va Peninsula; across the recently opened 17 mile Chesepeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel to Norfolk, and then over to Virginia Beach to be in the center of the several-mile wide “path of totality,” or shadow of the moon.
As the the partial phase began, hundreds of spectators were already in place with telescopes, cameras, and blankets! (The cold Atlantic Ocean is to the left.)
Below: Using eye protection, viewers carefully watched as the moon slid across the sun, casting an eerie pale on the beach, which just a while earlier was bathed in brilliant sunshine. Note the twilight-like coloring near the horizon. This was about 1:00 PM
Below: The moments before totality were enhanced by silence from usually gabby shorebirds.
My equipment was laughable, and getting “text book” images was not to happen. But except for a slight double image, this was what appeared a second before totality – a pheneomena called Baily’s Beads, where the last rays of the sun pass through the mountain valleys and topography of the moon.
The Corona, not ordinarily visible, is the plasma atmosphere of the sun. It is seen here with the sun totally blocked by the moon.
Jeanne, tolerant of my varied and questionable interests, would put that to the test in the next few hours as restauranteurs did not anticipate the overwhelming flow of hungry travelers up the Eastern Shore later that afternoon. Finding a place to EAT was an unanticipated challenge.
A 10x “finder scope” with Neutral Density filter strapped to an EXA SLR – on a flimsy tripod proved interesting, but inadequate. It was only matched by my lack of experience in better capturing this event.
The filter needed to be removed for the total phase, which lasted an unusually long 3 minutes.
In a little under 24 hours, Jeanne and I drove about 800 miles in our 1967 MGB-GT to see the eclipse. Couldn’t get much better!
Final Note: There are usually several total solar eclipses visible somewhere on earth every year, but the next one passing along the Eastern US would be 54 years later, in…2024. A MAJOR correction here: 8/21/17 will see a TSE stretching across the US exiting off the South Carolina coast.
Thanks for viewing, and comments are always welcomed. M 🙂
2014, the New Year, starts next Wednesday. A year…. the time it takes Earth to circle the sun.
In these two weeks or so, two other planets will be lined up, stringing out almost in a straight line from the sun.
Therefore, for those peoples who have considered this particular point in our orbit as the place to be to mark the next cycle, we might as well invite Jupiter and Venus to join us this year in celebration.
SO, HAPPY NEW YEAR, Earth, Jupiter and Venus.
Venus will be “on the line” (between Earth and the Sun) on January 11th. In a small telescope, it currently appears like the crescent phase above, and to the naked eye, it is very bright in the SW sky after sunset, but quickly (apparently) closing in on the sun. On rare years, it passes directly in front of the sun as shown at right – in 2004.
Jupiter will be at “Opposition” (along that line) on January 5th. Since it’s “opposite “ the sun as seen from here (Earth!) look for it shinning brightly high above at midnight. The B/W images above were taken by myself many years ago when amateur expectations were far less than today; and at right, Jupiter and 4 of its moons as captured recently, where expectations are far greater!
I did not take the picture below – wish I had! But it is my favorite. From Apollo 8, 45 yrs ago this past Christmas Eve.
