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 alternate presentation of the ethereal corona, click here.
Note: For an expanded presentation of the diamond ring effect, click here.
Note: For an expanded time series, click here.


Total Solar Eclipse: 2008-08-01
Stage
C-1
C-2
Max
C-3
C-4
Description
Umbra
(External Contact)
Umbra Complete
(Start of Totality)
Maximum
Totality
Umbra
(End of Totality)
Umbra
(Internal Contact)
Time (UT+7)
16:41:35
17:44:15
17:45:25
17:46:36
18:45:20
Az / Alt
242.96 / +38.72
257.87 / +30.23
258.12 / +30.07
258.38 / +29.90
270.79 / +21.51


Image Details
Total Solar Eclipse: 2008-08-01
Imaging Details
Body:
Sun

Mass:
332,900 x Earth

Mean Eq Diameter:
109.1 x Earth

Distance:
152 million km

RA / Dec:
08h 47m 54s /
+17° 51' 56"


Diameter:
31.52'

Magnitude:
-26.8

Saros Series:
126

Magnitude:
Ecl center1.038
Local1.000

Duration:
2h 03m 45s
Date:
Aug 01, 2008
17:44:49 - 17:46:29 UT+7


Location:
Institute of Nuclear Physics
Novosibirsk, Russia
(54.8490° N, 83.1116° E)


Equipment:
Takahashi FSQ 106/f5
Celestron CG3/EQ2 GEM
Canon EOS 350D XT
Baader ND-5 (full-aperture)


Exposures:
15 x (1/500 - 1/15 sec)
ISO 100-200
RAW image format
3456x2304 image size
Servo Mode with EC
Manual Mode


Software:
Photoshop CS2

Processing:
RAW to TIFF (16-bit) Conv
Layers and Masks
Radial Blur
Unsharp Masking
Resampling
JPG Compression