North American Total Eclipse of 2024

Like approximately 50 million other people in North America, on April 8, 2024, I watched a hole appear in the sky. Maybe you were one of them; so many people traveled to see totality that you could track the moon's shadow by AirBnB occupancy rates. I was fortunate enough to have a view from my folks' backyard.

And like approximately every single one of those 50 million people, I was determined to make some pictures of the phenomenon. Astral photography isn't my game, but I had a cheap solar filter and a borrowed tripod and wasn't going to let this chance go unchanced.

The day was overcast, but the partial eclipse was occasionally bright enough to be viewed through the cloud cover. When it wasn't visible to the naked eye my camera acted as an acceptable telescope and let us keep tabs on the moon's progress. Five minutes before totality the clouds broke entirely and we had clear skies for the entire four minutes and eighteen seconds.

This picture -- with a strong corona, a Baily's Bead, and a hint of solar prominence (at bottom) -- became my favorite of the day. I even went to the trouble of converting the digital image to film so I could make some darkroom prints for everyone present.

Finally, this is the last post-totality picture before I replaced the solar filter. With the lessened corona the structure of the solar prominences become clear.

All of these images were captured using a 70-300mm telephoto lens on a mirrorless camera with an APS-C sensor, giving an effective focal length of 450mm (although they've also been slightly cropped in post).