Friday, August 25, 2017

Photos From The Great Eclipse Ride (TGER) 2017, Elkton, Kentucky, August 21, 2017

OK, here are the pictures from the eclipse. We rode down from Indiana into Kentucky trying to get as far into the zone of totality as possible before the Eclipse started. I used the Eclipse2017.org app to see where we were with respect to totality. We stopped in Elkton, KY which was not to far from the center line. The town looked quite prepared. The town square had a festive look to it with a small crowd congregating about the Town Hall. Everyone was very friendly and having a great time. (And it was a sincere good time since they are a dry county!) There was music piped in for the occasion.




 Note: All photos of the sun/eclipse were taken with my Google Nexus 6 phone! (I fried my GoPro, but that is another story for another day). I used the Manual Camera App from Geeky Devs Studio (a great app). This app lets you adjust all of the functions you would find on a 35mm camera (ISO, F-stop, shutter speed, focus, etc.). I used an ISO/CE certified Silver-Black Polymer Sheet solar filter from Thousand Oaks Optical over the lens. I cut a square from the sheet and placed it inside my phone case wedging it over the lens so it was held in place. The morning of the eclipse, I did a test shot of the sun rising over our breakfast spot.
For the actual eclipse, before totality, I set the ISO very low, to about 50, otherwise the glare/flare from the remaining sun 'blossomed" on the image. I tried to keep the shutter speed around 1/250 so as to avoid motion.  So the early eclipse looked like this:




As the sliver of sun got progressively smaller, I progressively adjusted the ISO up.
 I was only disappointed that I didn't get the 'diamond ring' shot either coming or going.
 I used the 4X optical zoom for all the photos.
For this next shot, I zoomed out to get the eclipse and, I believe, Venus, just as a point of light in the lower right.

My friend Aaron, had taken a few pictures of the surrounds during totality:

And I managed to remove my filter and grab one as well.

Then, I reversed the progress as the moon withdrew:


Then we went to the local post office to get our envelopes and first day covers canceled:


Overall, a great ride and a great eclipse experience. Planning is under way for 2024 though we won't have to travel far in upstate NY for totality!




1 comment:

airmail said...

Nice job, Dave. Eclipse 2024 is right here!