Partial Solar Eclipse

On 1st August 2008 parts of the Earth experienced a Total Solar Eclipse - probably nature's greatest spectacle. Unfortunately the path of totality started in Northern Canada, extended across the Arctic then down into Siberia, Mongolia and finishing at sunset in China. Here in Northern Ireland we experienced a Partial Eclipse with just 19% of the Sun's disk being covered - this equating to 30% of its diameter at maximum eclipse. The weather prospects weren't so good, but in the end we did very well.

Being at work I set my ETX70 and camera up outside - both were filtered with Baader film. Here's the setup....



Looking the other way shows the weather problem - we started out with 80% cloud cover which increased to 100% before the eclipse was over....



At 0923 BST a dent appeared in the Sun - the Moon had arrived!



Things progressed further....



By this time we were dipping in and out of the clouds...





Shortly after maximum eclipse I took a shot through the telescope - hence laterally reversed...



I sent this to the BBC and was very pleased that they used it on the weather forecast that evening - Here's Cecilia Daly...



So all in all a successful morning. Many of my colleagues observed the eclipse through my 'scope and for many it was the first time they'd seen anything through a 'scope, so it was a bit of an outreach session.

Here's to 22nd July 2009 in China!