Eclipses
The air cools. The light dims. The diamond ring appears. 360-degree twilight. Watching a total solar eclipse live is a life-changing moment. But even less dramatic eclipses are spectacular events to observe and photograph. I watched a deep partial lunar eclipse in 2022 under a dark sky. As the moon dimmed and turned red, stars reappeared and filled the sky. What a wonderful sight.
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The Beginning of Totality
This composite image shows the stages of the solar eclipse on April 8, 2024. From left: 1. 50% partial eclipse, 2. 90% partial eclipse 5 minutes from start of totality, 3. diamond ring, 7 seconds from start of totality, 4. Bailey’s beads, 1 second from start of totality, 5. totality.
The drastic change in brightness during a total solar eclipse requires the use of protective equipment and a wide range of exposure settings. The first two images were taken with a solar filter, placed in front of the lens, that allowed only 1/100000 of the light through. Images 3 and 4 were taken at similar exposure settings, but without the solar filter. The last image was taken with 4 stops of additional exposure to capture the details of the corona.
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Bailey’s Beads, 2024
Bailey’s Beads, signifying the beginning of totality during the April 8, 2024 total solar eclipse. The last rays of sunlight shone through depressions on the lunar surface – valleys or craters – forming the Bailey’s Beads on the top of the eclipsed sun.
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Corona, 2024
Corona, observed during the April 8, 2024 total solar eclipse. The corona is the outer layer of the sun’s atmosphere and extends millions of kilometres from the sun, with temperature reaching a million degrees Celsius.
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Diamond Ring, 2024
Diamond ring, captured at the end of totality during the April 8, 2024 total solar eclipse, when the first rays of sunlight shone through depressions from craters on the lunar surface. The bloom from the strong sunlight formed the “diamond” on the ring of corona.
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Total Solar Eclipse, 2024
A 3-image composite of the April 8, 2024 total solar eclipse shows the entire duration of the totality phase, which lasted about 4 minutes.
1: Bailey’s Beads, signifying the beginning of totality. The last rays of sunlight shone through depressions on the lunar surface – valleys or craters – forming the Bailey’s Beads on the top of the eclipsed sun.
2: Totality, showing the corona which can only be seen during a total eclipse. The corona is the outer layer of the sun’s atmosphere and extends millions of kilometres from the sun, with temperature reaching a million degrees Celsius.
3: Diamond ring, captured at the end of totality, when the first rays of sunlight shone through depressions from craters on the lunar surface. The bloom from the strong sunlight formed the “diamond” on the ring of corona.
Captured at Lake Magog, Quebec, Canada.
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The Grand Finale
Do you remember watching the April 8, 2024 total solar eclipse? For a short 4 minutes, Earth slipped into the shadow of the moon. The sky turned dark while the horizon basked in twilight. As totality ended and the diamond ring reappeared, the crowd cheered wildly. The “diamond” turned blindingly bright quickly. Darkness on Earth was replaced by the soft, golden glow of sunlight.
This composite of 16 individual frames, taken at one-second interval, captured the end of totality of the 2024 solar eclipse. The first 2 frames showed the last seconds of totality, the corona brightening as the moon inched towards the edge of the solar disc. In frame 3 the Bailey’s Beads emerged. The diamond ring appeared starting from frame 4 and grew in brightness.
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In the Shadow of the Moon
A composite of the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024, photographed at Lake Magog, Quebec, Canada. This composite covers 3.5 hours duration in total, including the entirety of the eclipse, with individual solar images 5-6 minutes apart. All elements of the image were taken at 28 mm focal length from the same camera position, therefore reflecting their true relative sizes and positions.
During a total solar eclipse, the sky turns dark. Near the horizon, however, one can see the distant atmosphere that is outside the shadow of the moon and is lit by the sun, creating the twilight effect much like during sunrise and sunset, except that this happens in the middle of a sunny day!
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Annular Solar Eclipse, 2023
This composite image of the October 14, 2023 annular solar eclipse was captured from Kodachrome Basin State Park in Utah. The landscape was taken just before the rising sun cleared the hoodoo, and then 58 exposures of the sun (captured with solar filter), taken 4 minutes apart, covering the entire duration of the eclipse, were added. As with all my astro landscape images, all exposures were taken from the same camera position, using the same lens, therefore accurately reflecting the actual unfolding scene. An annular solar eclipse happens when the moon goes between the sun and Earth while near its apogee (furthest point from Earth in its elliptical orbit), and therefore does not complete cover the sun. While not as spectacular as a total solar eclipse, the “ring of fire” is still a sight to behold.
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Blood Moon, 2022
This image of the totally-eclipsed moon was taken in the pre-dawn hours of November 8, 2022. Unlike a total solar eclipse that is viewable only along a narrow path of totality, a total lunar eclipse can be seen from the entire night side of the Earth.
A total lunar eclipse is also called a “blood moon”. The eclipsed moon is not totally dark – sunlight can reach the moon via refraction by Earth’s atmosphere. The reddish colour of the moon is due to the blue part of sunlight being scattered by Earth’s atmosphere, leaving primarily red and orange light reaching the moon – the exact same reason why the sun is orange during sunset.
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Partial Solar Eclipse, 2021
A partial solar eclipse during sunrise on June 10, 2021.
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Total Lunar Eclipse in Toronto, 2019
This image captured the progression of the total lunar eclipse on January 20-21, 2019. The winter full moon was high in the sky and that made it hard to compose an eclipse shot with an interesting foreground … unless the foreground is pretty tall, like the CN Tower! With lunar trajectory information available online, Google Maps, and a bit of calculation using high school trigonometry, Simcoe Park on Front Street, Toronto turned out to be the location where the eclipsed moon could be seen passing exactly behind the tip of the CN Tower. The entire sequence lasted about 3 hours with images taken approximately 5 minutes apart, and was taken on a frigid night when the temperature plunged to -22°C.
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Re-emergence, 2017
The Bailey’s Beads signified the end of totality in the 2017 total solar eclipse. As the moon receded towards the top left, the first rays of sunlight shone through depressions on the lunar surface – valleys or craters – forming the two Bailey’s Beads on the lower right of the eclipsed sun.
Also visible in this image are all three layers of the sun’s atmosphere. The white part of the image is the corona, the outer layer of the sun’s atmosphere which extends millions of kilometres from the sun, with temperature reaching a million degrees Celsius.
The red area on the right side of the eclipsed sun is the chromosphere, the thin middle layer of the sun’s atmosphere. The chromosphere is red due to the large amount of hydrogen present in this layer.
Through the Bailey’s Beads we get a small window to peek at the photosphere, the bottommost layer of the sun’s atmosphere, where sunlight comes from.
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Total Solar Eclipse, 2017
This composite image captures three different views of the total solar eclipse of August 21, 2017.
“Prominence” (left), the red flame-like structures, is plasma erupting from the solar surface. While they look small in the image, multiple Earths can fit into each of them.
“Corona” (middle) shows the delicate features of the sun’s corona. The corona is the outer layer of the sun’s atmosphere and extends millions of kilometres from the sun, with temperature reaching a million degrees Celsius.
“Diamond ring” (right) was captured at the end of totality, when the first rays of sunlight shone through depressions from craters on the lunar surface. The bloom from the strong sunlight formed the “diamond” on the ring of corona. The same phenomenon can also be seen at the beginning of totality.
These images were captured at Rock Island State Park, Tennessee.
