Astrophotography by Anthony Ayiomamitis

Solar and Lunar Eclipse Image Gallery

Solar eclipses have been regarded as mystical ever since man started to become aware of his environment. In spite of the fact the diameter of the sun is 400x that of the moon, its distance from earth is also approximately 400x that of the moon and, as a result, they exhibit a very similar apparent diameter. When these two celestial bodies are in perfect alignment with earth by forming a straight line, we see the moon virtually cover the sun from limb to limb, leading to a darkening of the daytime skies with totality lasting a number of minutes. Although lunar eclipses are relatively very common, solar eclipses are not only much more dramatic thanks to totality but also very rare. With a lunar eclipse where the moon is covered by the earth's shadow, the portion of the world in darkness at the time of the eclipse is able to see the moon go through the various stages of eclipse. In contrast, with a solar eclipse where the moon lies between the sun and earth, an event which occurs on average 70 times per century, the shadow cast by the moon on earth represents the path of totality which is never more than 200 miles wide and, inevitably, covers less than 0.5% of the planet's surface and frequently traverses open waters and very remote locations near the poles. Furthermore, since the distance of the moon from earth is variable, there exist occasions during a solar eclipse where the moon is slightly further away from the earth ("apogee") and is not able to fully cover the solar disk, thus leading to an eclipsed solar disk where a small ring ("annulus") around the sun's limb is visible, thus leading to an annular solar eclipse. The observation of a solar eclipse may be considered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and fully justifies the dedicated collection of eclipse chasers who trek around the globe marvelling a solar eclipse wherever it may occur.

Note: For an expanded presentation of the diamond ring effect, click here.
Note: For an expanded presentation of the ethereal corona, click here.
Note: For an expanded presentation of the ethereal corona with solar disk, click here.
Note: For an expanded presentation of the eclipsed disk with prominences, click here.
Note: For an expanded time series, click here.


Total Solar Eclipse: 2006-03-29
Stage
C-1
C-2
Max
C-3
C-4
Description
Umbra
(External Contact)
Umbra Complete
(Start of Totality)
Maximum
Totality
Penumbra
(End of Totality)
Penumbra
(Internal Contact)
Time (UT+3)
12:34:44
13:51:47
13:53:16
13:54:45
15:10:35
Az / Alt
165.50 ° / +56.44 °
200.34 ° / +55.65 °
200.97 ° / +55.54 °
201.59 ° / +55.43 °
228.45 ° / +46.56 °


Image Details
Total Solar Eclipse: 2006-03-29
Imaging Details
Body:
Sun

Mass:
332,900 x Earth

Mean Eq Diameter:
109.1 x Earth

Distance:
149 million km

RA / Dec:
00h 31m 38s /
+03° 24' 47"


Diameter:
32.04'

Magnitude:
-26.8

Saros Series:
139

Magnitude:
Ecl center1.009
Local1.050

Duration:
2h 57m 05s
Date:
Mar 29, 2006
13:54:35 UT+3


Location:
Kastelorizo Isl., Greece
(36.1483° N, 29.5933° E)


Equipment:
AP 160 f/7.5 StarFire EDF
Losmandy G-11 GEM
Canon EOS 300d
Baader ND-5 (full-aperture)


Exposure(s):
1/125 sec
ISO 100
RAW image format
3072x2048 image size
Servo Mode with EC
Manual Mode


Software:
Photoshop CS-II

Processing:
RAW to TIFF (16-bit) Conv
Unsharp Masking
Brightness/Contrast
Resampling
JPG Compression