Solar Eclipse April 8th, 2024
I had become aware in 2017 that our place of domicile, Norfolk County, Ontario would be in the path of totality for the solar eclipse of April 8th, 2024. So I was hoping to live long enough to see that day...
And, indeed, I did make it. My preparations for viewing the eclipse started a few weeks before the big event. Of course, clear weather is very important for a proper eclipse experience, so as soon as the first weather forecasts were available, (10 days) I started monitoring them. Sunny weather is by no means guaranteed here in early April, so I kept a close eye on various forecasts from different sources. As the day got closer, they all seemed to say something different, e.g. Niagara will be fine, but points further west might be cloudy. Others said it will just be high, whispy clouds, still other predicted sunshine. Who to believe?
Meanwhile, I did the usual YouTube search and viewing of various videos pertaining to other people's experiences during previous eclipses, with a specific interest toward the photography aspect of things. Initially, I had just thought of projecting the sun's image on a piece of white paper using binoculars, as I had done during the partial eclipses of 2012 (in California) and 2017 (here at home). I soon came to the realization, however, that during a total eclipse, that was not going to work, as the corona probably would not be strong enough to be visible using that method. So I started thinking about using my DSLR with zoom telephoto lens to directly photograph the sun's corona during the full eclipse.
I wasn't too interested in the partial portion of the eclipse, as I had seen this quite a few times before (snob that I am). But, in order to be ready to photograph the full eclipse, I needed to have my camera already aimed at the sun. Having the camera look directly at even a reduced portion of the sun's surface is a very bad idea (burnt out sensor could be the result), so I created a filter out of some cut up eclipse glasses and a roll of packing tape. The shape of the roll fit snugly over the telephoto lens and was easy to remove once the eclipse had started.
I had also decided to remotely control my camera from my laptop using a USB cable. For software I used the Canon EOS Utility. The user interface on the laptop is much easier to use than the controls on the camera themselves. Plus cranking your neck through a viewfinder in dark conditions does not sound like fun.
I had looked up the exact times of when the eclipse was to occur here. It was to start at 3:16:53 and last for 2 minutes and 39.5 seconds. I wrote a small application in Visual FoxPro that announced various important times relating to the eclipse, e.g. "Full eclipse will start in 5 minutes". This application made sure that I would be well prepared for the start and end of the eclipse.
I had also decided to put my second DSLR on a tripod in the backyard to film the entire event. I synchronized the times of cameras to the current date and time.I also synchronized the time used by my laptop with that of the internet.
On the eventful day, I woke up and immediately ask Google "OK Google, what's the weather going to be like." I couldn't help but laugh when she replied "Rainy with a high of 16". However, looking on the Environment Canada website's image of clouds over our area, I noticed, yes it was cloudy, but this band of clouds stretching from north west to south east was slowly moving northeasterly, with Windsor, Ontario already being in sunshine. So, with a bit of luck, we would be in sunshine by early afternoon...
When returning home from getting some groceries, I noticed quite a stream of cars westbound on Hwy 3, probably coming from Niagara Falls area, trying to find the sunshine. And yes, the sun came out around 1:00 and things looked perfect. Nephew Chris Peake phoned from Toronto, asking how things were here, I told him in all likelyhood we'd be fine, so he decided to come down. At about the same time, Wendy, Greg and their kids Brock, Amaryn and Marek arrived.
At 2:05 there was the first sighting of the moon encroaching on the sun's territory: the partial eclipse portion was starting. We all got out our eclipse glasses and had a look. Nephew Chris arrived at around 2:45. Next, I set up the tripods in a good spot with full view, mounted the cameras, put a table with my laptop next to the main camera, tethered them, aimed the camera (with filter) at the sun, started the timing application. General laughter ensued when it immediately announced all important times in very quick succession. Oops, software glitch, quickly fixed. I then started the camera filming in the back yard.
As the eclipse became more prominent, it got darker and darker, with the sunlight becoming a kind of grey. However, I was unprepared for how quickly the light level dropped off from 99% eclipse to 100%. Literally within 30 seconds in became dark as night. I had to make a switch on the camera from 'Program' to 'Manual' and for a very brief moment, panic struck me, as I didn't know whether I would be able to see it in the dark. Fortunately, I was able to so, in quick succession I shot images of the corona, keeping aperture at f8 and ISO at 100, but successively stepping down the speed starting at 1/1000th, down to 1/100th.
Following that I decided just to enjoy the spectacle, as someone had advised on YouTube. And a spectacle it was. Standing in the middle of the backyard, in the middle of the day with the sky as black as ink. You could clearly see planet Jupiter to the left of the sun and Venus off to the right. I didn't notice too much about the animal life, except for the mosquitoes: they came out immediately and started to bite us!
Soon it was over and the light coming back was equally impressive as it was fading beforehand. My granddaughter had made a little video of the fading light when the full eclipse set in, which was most illustrating.
To celebrate the event, we immediately broke out the beer and toasted one another to our good fortune of having been able to watch such a spectacular event in our lifetime. In sunshine, nonetheless. At the time of the full eclipse, Niagara Falls was still clouded over.
The backyard eclipse video was a success as well, although I did some adjustments, brightening it up and raising the sound level in Photoshop. When viewing it, I discovered the planet Venus was visible as well.
My corona effort:
