At good weather conditions I observed the total solar eclipse on March,
29th 2006 in Kumköy near Side / Turkey. Although the duration
of totality and the weather prospects would haven been better in Libya
I decided to go to Turkey, especially because of the "Eclipse tax" which
was introduced by the Libyen governement in October 2005.
The place where I observed the eclipse was the hotel Cesar's Resort, which opened because of the eclipse observers one week earlier after winter closing. |
The picture at right shows the terrace of the hotel where I observed
the eclipse together with other eclipse observers.
With a GPS-mouse I found the following coordinates:
Using those coordinates and an improved version of my WinEclipse program
I was able to calculate the instants of 2nd and 3rd contact:
(The 2nd contact determines the beginning of totality and 3rd contact its end.) |
Because exact timing of the exposures depended on the system time of
the computer this was set to GPS-time about 4 hours before the eclipse,
on the morning of march 29th.
I switched on the computer about 8 minutes before totality, connected
the two cameras to USB and finally started the program which controlled
the cameras. About 2 minutes before 2nd contact I removed the
solar filters from the objectiv lenses.
With some relieve I noted the clicking of the cameras 30 seconds before
2nd contact, which convinced me that the controlling program
worked.
Keeping this in mind I observed the eclipse very relaxed and casually
made some pictures with a camera with a 500 mm lens on a 200 ASA film.
The picture at left was made 6 seconds before 2nd contact. Digital camera Olympus C2100 Exposure time 1/800 s, aperture 3.5 One can see two red prominences up and right of the last bit of sun. |
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The picture above was made at 13:56:54 local time
Digital camera Olympus C740 Exposure time 1/8 s, aperture 3.7 Because of the low activity of the sun the corona has its maximum extension in the plane of suns equator. |
The picture above was made at 13:56:59 local time (exactly 2 minutes
after 2nd contact)
Digital camera Olympus C2100 Exposure time 1/250 s, aperture 3.5 One can easily recognize the magnetic poles of the sun. |
After 3 minutes and 47 seconds totality ended with remarkable bailey
beads which can be seen in the picture at left.
This was taken at 13:58:47 local time, about 1 second after 3rd contact. Digital camera Olympus C2100
Left of the first sunlight one can see the red chromosphere and a small prominence. As one can see, the sun reappeared exactly opposite to the point where it disappeared at 2nd contact (see above). This shows that the observing site was very near the center line of the eclipse.
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Since a number of digital cameras, especially digital reflex cameras
can be remote controlled by a computer (as far as there is support from
the camera's manufacturer) every eclipse in future can be photographed
automatically. The only additional equipment needed is a notebook computer
with USB connection (USB 1.1 is sufficient).
With the reflex camera with the 500 mm, f:8 lens, the picture at right
was made.
Exposure time: 1/2 second, 200 ASA film It shows the remarkable streamers of the corona, which were also a dominant feature when observing the eclipsed sun with the naked eye. The picture below shows the planet Venus as well as the orange-red coloured
horizon during the total phase of the eclipse (from a video which was made
with an Olympus C765).
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The picture above shows the last rays of sun and prominences at second contact. 500 mm lens, 200 ASA film, 1/1000 second |
Above picture shows baileys beads and the chromosphere at third contact. When you compare this with the picture at left you see that the western fringe of the moon is more mountainous than the eastern one. Because of this, there are more beads visible at third contact. 500 mm lens, 200 ASA film, 1/1000 second |
Additional results follow as soon as available !
See also: Solar eclipses 2006 till 2009, pictures of the total solar eclipse on 21. Juni 2001 .