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My eclipse journey was one of delight and woe. I traveled to Killeen TX which is right on the totality center line with two of my sons and much to my delight we had an Airbnb house all to ourselves. This house had a sizeable backyard with an unobstructed view of the eclipse from beginning to end. The day before had clear skies at the time the eclipse would be occurring, but the eclipse day forecast was not so pretty.
The skies before the eclipse were mostly cloudy with a few breaks so getting a perfect focus on the sun was difficult, to say the least. As the eclipse neared, the holes got bigger and gave us longer periods of view time. There was that lovely sunspot group near the center of the disk to give us something to focus on. Well, the eclipse happened and fortunately most of it was cloud-free.
I had two cameras set up, both were Canon T3is. The first camera was imaging through my ES 80mm APO with a Daystar filter for protection, and the second camera used a Canon 300mm telephoto lens also equipped with a Daystar filter.
We gave ourselves a full 2 minutes of inactivity to do nothing but stare at the eclipse and the phenomena that occurs during totality. Afterward, we inspected the 300-plus images we had taken between the two cameras and discovered to our mutual dismay that focus was not perfect, in fact, it was far from perfect from both cameras. I was filled with woe!
Here is a 4 second (ISO 100) image from the 80mm f/6 scope I've tried my best to present as somewhat in focus.
Thanks for looking,
∞ Primary Scopes: #1: Celestron CPC1100 #2: 8" f/7.5 Dob #3: CR150HD f/8 6" frac ∞ AP Scopes: #1: TPO 6" f/9 RC #2: ES 102 f/7 APO #3: ES 80mm f/6 APO ∞ G&G Scopes: #1: Meade 102mm f/7.8 #2: Bresser 102mm f/4.5 ∞ Guide Scopes: 70 & 80mm fracs -- The El Cheapo Bros. ∞ Mounts: iOptron CEM70AG, SW EQ6R, Celestron AVX, SLT & GT (Alt-Az), Meade DS2000 ∞ Cameras: #1: ZWO ASI294MC Pro #2: 662MC #3: 120MC, Canon T3i, Orion SSAG, WYZE Cam3 ∞ Binos: 10X50,11X70,15X70, 25X100 ∞ AP Gear: ZWO EAF and mini EFW and the Optolong L-eXteme filter ∞ EPs: ES 2": 21mm 100° & 30mm 82° Pentax XW: 7, 10, 14, & 20mm 70°
Searching the skies since 1966. "I never met a scope I didn't want to keep."
That is a great shot JT. The main thing was you enjoyed it with family and ended up with decent weather. I'm still bummed my wife was unable to travel with me but I did enjoy the event in the company of 4 great friends.
Stephen
- - - - - Telescopes: Questar 3.5 Standard SN 18-11421; Stellina (EAA); Vespera II (EAA) Solar: Thousand Oaks white light filter; Daystar Quark (chromosphere) Hα filter Mounts: Explore Scientific Twilight I; Majestic heavy duty tripod Local Club: New Hampshire Astronomical Society
