News, tutorials and photography tips from The Photographer's Ephemeris
So, it finally happened. After months of prep and work to add solar eclipse features in Photo Ephemeris, we finally got to see the April 8 total eclipse! We traveled on a no-frills tour to a location near Torreón in northern Mexico.
A lot of eclipse chasers are rightly concerned by the weather forecast for April 8. It’s looking to be cloudy or partially cloudy over some fairly large areas of the path. You’ll likely to fall into one of two groups: you’re mobile or you’re not.
Photographers of the upcoming April 8 total eclipse have much at stake. I was trying to think of an analogy for people who haven’t photographed a total eclipse previously. The closest I came up with was to imagine you’re charged with shooting the1500m Olympic final. It only lasts a handful of minutes.
With April 8 fast approaching, levels of interest in the last total solar eclipse to cross North America in the next 20 years are skyrocketing. There’s a lot of terminology that gets bandied around relating to eclipses, so here’s our guide to some of the main terms you’ll likely encounter.
One solar eclipse phenomenon prized by photographers is Baily’s Beads – the “ string of pearls ” that can appear in certain circumstances around C2/C3.
In certain circumstances, during a solar eclipse, instead of the light of the Sun diminishing to a single point - the classic “ Diamond Ring ” - it lingers in two places giving the elusive “ Double Diamond Ring ” effect.
“ Will you be adding solar eclipses to TPE? ” I was asked in March 2023. A good question. With two eclipses passing over North America within a year (more or less) it was high time to grasp the nettle and get to work.
In May 1836, astronomer Francis Baily travelled north in the UK to observe an annular solar eclipse. What he saw that day inspired him to write a paper which has made his name, peculiar spelling and all, part of astronomical history.
In March of this year, I spent a week in Venice. On my last day I found myself at lunch at a restaurant on the northeast side of the city, on the Fondamente Nove, enjoying the views towards Murano, S. Michele, and the Arsenale.
Our friends at Rocky Nook kindly offered the opportunity to write a short article about The Photographer’s Ephemeris to be published in conjunction with a webinar they offered last week, presented by Glenn Randall.
You’ve probably read: there’s a lunar eclipse coming up next week on Nov 7/8 (depending on your location). It will be visible in the Americas, across the Pacific, and in east Asia, Australia, NZ. Sorry Europe, Africa…
Congratulations! You’ve just upgraded to Photo Ephemeris Web Pro. What next? You have a wealth of new features at hand. This post makes a few suggestions on what to check out first.