Total Eclipse of the Sun – April 8th, 2024

Well as you may have heard, we here in Central Texas just happened to be right in the middle of the totality path for the eclipse of April 8th, 2024. Weathermen were telling us we could have cloud cover, but I think some powerful prayers must have been prayed because the clouds parted just in time for us to be able to view the total eclipse.

I decided to photograph this “once in a lifetime event” as who knows if I will ever have the opportunity to view it ever again in my lifetime. For all you photo buffs, I used my Olympus OMD-EM1 Mark II camera with a 300mm micro four thirds lens (equivalent of 600mm in 35mm format). I used a Hoya Pro ND 100000 (5.0) filter so that I would not damage the sensor on my camera.

Ok, enough of that technical crap. I took a total of 54 photos during the various stages of the eclipse. But I am not going to post all of them as it would probably crash the website! Here’s the sampling of my photos:

Ok here is the whole sun prior to start of eclipse

At this point about 1/2 of the sun is covered

And here is the money shot (filter removed from camera lens)

A bit of a better shot of the corona. I started playing with aperture, shutter speed, and ISO

Ok, so here is another photo of the corona with a faster shutter speed (eg less overall light). If you look, you can see the red solar flares on the edge. The faster shutter speed allows you to catch the solar flares without being covered by the total light of the corona.

Hope you enjoy the photos! I enjoyed playing with my camera to get these shots. Plus it gave me an opportunity to work on my tan!