Partial Solar Eclipse
Date : 25th OCtober 2022
Location Epsom , Surrey
Began: Tue, 25 Oct 2022, 10:09
Maximum: Tue, 25 Oct 2022, 10:59
Ended: Tue, 25 Oct 2022, 11:50
Duration: 1 hour, 42 minutes
Equipment
NIkon Z6 camera
18-300mm lens
Tripod
Baader Solar Filter Film
Partial Solar eclipses are not that common, so you’ve got to try to make the most of them when they occur.
I was in Epsom in Surrey for this ecplise, and had hastily taped some solar safety film onto the lens hood of my 10-300mm lens in preperation.
As you can see from the images though, I had made a complete mess of it. The front of it should have been nice and flat with no wrinkles, so I wasn’t even sure if it would work!
Setting up
With the camera on the tripod, and the lens with the safety filter in place, I extended the lens to 300mm
Then I switched on live view so that I could focus, and view my images, on the monitor.
(Even with the solar safety fim attached to your lens hood, don’t view the sun through the eyepiece)
I then put the camera into manual focus, and used live view to adjust the focus until it was pin sharp on the sun.
The best way to do this is to zoom into your subject when you are in live view, as this really helps to ensure that it is as sharply focused as possible.
The images
At first my settings gave me images that looked clear, and sharp, and although I thought I wouldn’t see any detail on the sun, I tried a faster shutter speed just to see what would happen.
As it turned out, at faster shutter speeds I was able to make out two large sunspots which was a real bonus.
I managed to grab quite a few images, and video, before the clouds begand to drift across the sun and eventually obscured it completely.
It was a good learning curve, and I’ll be more perpared for the next one, which is some time away!
Images
ISO 100
Aperture F6.3
Shutter 1/320
Too bright
ISO 100
Aperture F6.3
Shutter 1/4000
This was underexposed and brightened in LIghtroom.
Two sunposts are visible (see below for clearer image)
Sunspots at 2 o’clock and 8 o’clock
Clouds begin to move across the sun but the sunspots are still visible
And finally … a short video …