The total eclipse

This was my second total eclipse (with one annular in addition) and the second time clouds cleared just in time and came back in when it was over!  I set up my Canon 1DX Mk II on an Orion Sirius tracker and shot the partial phases every three minutes with an intervalometer and downloaded to a laptop for monitoring using Lightroom’s Tethered Capture.  A few seconds before second contact the solar filter was removed and a bust of exposures made in hopes of catching the diamond ring or Baily’s beads.  At totality I quickly set the camera to an exposure bracket and captured a range of exposures while marveling at the sight.  By third contact (which came after what seemed more like 30 seconds than two and a half minutes) I had reset the exposure for the solar filter and captured another burst, hoping again for Baily’s beads and the diamond ring.  Then the filter was quickly put back on and exposures made every three minutes until the event was over. 

I got good captures of the diamond ring at C2 and C3 and Baily’s beads at C2.  The exposures were processed in Adobe Lightroom and then enhanced in Adobe Photoshop.  The best success for the corona at totality was using straightforward techniques for enhancing tonal detail on a single exposure of ISO 100, f/5.6, 1/15 sec.  Pushing for more tonal detail began to bring out banding from the sensor.

I had shot the star field behind the eclipse six months earlier when that region of the sky was in darkness, using the same equipment. Regulus and 31 Leonis were visible in some of the bracketed exposures, allowing me to align the star field correctly and composite it with the totality exposure.  The DO lens did not render the two bright stars pleasingly so I cleaned them up in Adobe Photoshop.  I could barely detect earthshine in the two second totality exposure but it was badly swamped by light flare from the corona, so I used an earlier exposure of the full moon, reduced the contrast to what seemed appropriate and layered it on the image in the proper orientation.

I was delighted to be able to both experience this amazing event and to preserve it!  Some of the other exposures are on my web site: https://dianemiller.smugmug.com/Photography/Skies/

Phenomenal corona shot Diane

So, the star field was shot 6 months ago, and the moon image is not from the eclipse on Aug. 21st. At least the corona is from the event that occurred on the 21st. Correct?
Hmmmm.... 

Beautiful! A very well thought out and executed composite image. Great job.

First time doing this. Had fun. But shooting an eclipse is a lot more work than you think.

Interesting idea to composite with an image of just the same star field. nice work.