Desert Gecko Loc: desert southwest, USA

You almost had some nice Sun shots. Too bad the Moon photobombed them.

OldCADuser Loc: Irvine, CA

OK, I've modified the sequence shot so that it looks a bit more pleasing. I basically 'compressed' the spacing so that all of the increments were consistent.

A composite of 19 images to show the complete 3-hour cycle of the annular eclipse taken at Hobbs, New Mexico - October 2023 - Sony a6000, 18-135mm (set at 29mm), f11.0 @ 1/125 sec, ISO 100

OldCADuser Loc: Irvine, CA

A comment about my images. So far several people have asked why wasn't the Sun Orange? I've tried to explain to them that the color of the Sun, particularly when it's high in the sky as it was during the eclipse, is White. But everyone shows images which are Orange because they use Mylar-based filters, which blocks the UV, while I was using neutral density filters, which, by definition (i.e. 'neutral'), does NOT change the color of the subject.

OldCADuser Loc: Irvine, CA

Anyway, we leave tomorrow morning, early, for Texas to see the April 8th eclipse. We're going to our son's house in Katy, Texas and will drive over to the area of maximum occlusion Monday morning, about a three-hour drive. In addition to my wife and I, our son will be joining us as well as granddaughter #2 and her boyfriend and perhaps granddaughter #3, if she can get off work (she just started a new job). My son and the two granddaughters met us in New Mexico in October for the annular eclipse, and he and granddaughter #1 met us in Nebraska back in 2017 for that eclipse, so it's become a sort of family thing.

Anyway, we're hoping for good weather both along the road and on Monday.

Our first stop on the way out will be in Lordsburg, New Mexico and the second night in Boerne, Texas (where we'll have dinner which some old friends). We used to make this trip with only one night on the road, usually El Paso, but as we've gotten older, we don't push as hard as we once did. On Wednesday, after the eclipse, we're driving up to Waco to have lunch with a friend up there. We're starting back on Thursday, and will be home on Saturday.

If all goes well, I'll post my pictures.

Sidwalkastronomy Loc: New Jersey Shore

Make sure you get gas because in 2017 big traffic jams and you might sit for a bit

OldCADuser Loc: Irvine, CA

Our son live out away from Houston and we intend to avoid places like San Antonio and Austin on Monday, but we'll definitely fill-up Sunday night.

hpucker99 Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

We found about the traffic jams after the eclipse ends in 2017. One of the members in our party had to go to work the next day, so we left the viewing site near Fort Laramie WY about 2 hours after it ended. It took us 5 hours to drive from Boulder Co to the site. Took 9 hours to get home. NE Wyoming is sparsely populated except when all the scattered parties converge on the roads leading to I-25 or other major arteries, I-25 was like a parking lot.

This time, we're spending the night at the viewing site about 25 miles NW of Austin. Thinking most of the traffic will be going towards the coast to Austin, San Antonio, etc.

OldCADuser Loc: Irvine, CA

For the 2017 eclipse, we watched from the grass next to our hotel in York, Nebraska, where we stayed both the night before and night after, that way we just sat back and watched the traffic clear out. Our hotel was across the street from a WalMart where the allowed RV's and truckers to park overnight and of course to watch the eclipse the next day (I suspect that they sold out of lawn chairs and coolers to say nothing of sun hats).

OldCADuser Loc: Irvine, CA

We never made it out to the area of totality since most of Texas was covered with clouds and rain was predicted, so we stayed at our son's house as it would have been a four-hour drive (one way) and with the weather, we felt it wasn't worth it. Now at our son's house, it would have still been 95.2% occluded. But all morning the sky was completely overcast. We couldn't see the Sun at all. And then at exactly 1:39, the moment of maximum occlusion, the clouds thinned for just a couple of minutes and I was able to get the first shot below. Then it clouded-up again but about 20 minutes later, the sky cleared-up completely and I was able use my good set-up, for that second shot.

Note that the first image below was shot hand-held since the clouds cleared-up so quickly that I didn't have time to set-up a tripod or even put on my filter. By the time that I took the second shot, I had time to set-up my tripod, switch to my long telephoto, install the ND 100000 filter and use bracketed shots.

The solar eclipse as seen from Katy, Texas - April 2024 - Sony a6500, 18-135mm (X2), f5.6 at 1/60 sec, ISO 100


The solar eclipse as seen from Katy, Texas - April 2024 - Sony a6500, 400mm, f11.0 at 1/750 sec, ISO 100

Sidwalkastronomy Loc: New Jersey Shore

One of these seems rotated. Moon goes in same one direction

OldCADuser Loc: Irvine, CA

Well, the first shot was quick and dirty, hand-held while trying to keep an eye on where the sun was ducking in and out of the clouds. The second shot was from a tripod aligned with the Sun as it was moving.

OldCADuser Loc: Irvine, CA

Speaking of the Sun, there appears to be a lot a Sunspot activity recently, as shown in this shot I got earlier today:

Shot with my Sony a6500 and a 400mm lens plus an ND100000 filter using Sony's ClearImage Zoom feature, which doubled the effective length of the lens to 800mm. Shot at f11.0, 1/5000 sec at ISO 100

Sidwalkastronomy Loc: New Jersey Shore

If you look at spaceweather.com there is a photo of today's sun

OldCADuser Loc: Irvine, CA

Yes. I have that site bookmarked as that's why I knew that there's been Sunspot activity this week

Sidwalkastronomy Loc: New Jersey Shore

We are getting neR max but lot of sun activity
I have a 60mm LUNT H Alpha scope to break out if it every sunny again. Clouds and rain here in NJ