One of the most spectacular "bucket-list" events in nature, a total eclipse of the sun, occurred in a narrow band across the entire United States on August 21st, 2017. The path of totality (where the sun is completely covered by the moon) was about 40 miles wide and lasted for around 2 and a half minutes at best. If one was lucky enough to be in this path AND the sky was clear of clouds, the event was one that few people get to experience in their lifetime.
The eclipse starts slowly and unless one has the proper viewing equipment, it isn't obvious to the casual observer. However, as the eclipse approached 80% around 1pm, sunlight levels were noticeably subdued. At 90% - 98% sunlight levels were much like dusk, although the sky was still radiating the full bright blue of mid-day. As the last 2% of the sun was slowly covered, sunlight became more orange and dim while the sky still radiated its normal (although somewhat reduced) blue light. The planet Venus became bright and clear to the west, and other planets were probably visible as well although I was too busy to look for them at the time.
During the very short period of total eclipse ( starts at 1:18 ), I yanked the filter off of the camera while the intervalometer kept clicking away, and tried to take in as much of the event as possible. Solar prominences (the large, red "flares" seen on the right side of the sun were clearly visible to the naked eye and especially noticeable under magnification. While the insects are particularly noisy during the day in Tennessee, the chorus changed noticeably - crickets began singing and other nightly noises slowly increased, too. The lighting was particularly strange - like dusk but with a weird orange and blue tint. It's one of those things you just have to experience to see the full effect.
Just prior to the start of the event, I strapped a GoPro Hero5 Black to a tree on the hill and let film a time lapse ( starts at 4:11 ) at 5-second intervals of the whole event. Unfortunately, the GoPro kept adjusting its settings to maintain a consistent exposure level, so the gradual darkening and lightening of the sky and earth is not so apparent. However, the short duration of totality does show up well, as does the passing of the moon's shadow across the sky and clouds ( seen at 4:35 ), giving this sequence an interesting perspective.
Finally, as the eclipse waned, I spent a few minutes marveling at the crescent-shaped shadows all over the ground. One interesting effect of a non-circular light source is that any object which casts a shadow with a hole in it acts like a pin-hole camera, and projects an image in the shape of the light source (eclipsed Sun). A few of these images can be seen at 5:10 .
These scenes were filmed with a Canon 5D Mk2 (equipped with Baader Planetarium Solar Film filter), GoPro Hero5 Black, and Canon HS300 Digital Elph.
The soundtrack is "Neptune Orbit (Alien City Mix)" from the "Mission Control" CD by Technician (yours truly), MP3 album and single track available on iTunes at: [ Ссылка ] full artist discography and CDs available at HTTP://technician.jcmdi.com
Contains JCMDI Catalog#: V22706,V22707, and various still images
Note: The audio and video material contained herein is copyright 2017 JCM Digital Imaging, however, you may download this footage directly from YouTube and use it free of charge in your own non-profit/non-commercial YouTube videos, school projects, etc. The full free usage policy and YouTube copyright notice/ad info can be found here (please read before using JCMDI material): [ Ссылка ] [ Ссылка ]
