Solar Eclipse

[Mike Farley]

At the start of what is a rambling and disjointed article, at The Online Photographer there is an image of the total eclipse on Sunday, 1 January 1889 and a description of how it was taken. The attention to detail by the photographer is impressive, as it needed to be given the rudimentary nature of the equipment and film available at the time. Not everyone who attempted to shoot the eclipse that day got a satisfactory result. As the article describes, a degree of luck was involved as well, as both events and the weather nearly prevented the eclipse from being visible.

http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.co ... index.html

[Mike Farley]

To follow up, the same blog has now published an account by someone who shot the most recent eclipse. It makes an interesting comparison. Some aspects remained the same, but the differences in technology are marked. In 1889, it was possible to produce just a single image. Neither photographer's experience was entirely smooth and each faced their own problems to resolve.

http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.co ... lipse.html

[Mike Farley]

LensRentals has just published an article describing some of the damage caused to its equipment by those who failed to take precautions to protect their rented gear against the heat of the sun while shooting the eclipse. Despite some people's best efforts, nothing was totally destroyed and LensRenatls was able to repair everything in house.

https://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2017/0 ... e-of-2017/

Incidentally, I enjoyed Graham Cluer's great article about his experience of the eclipse in the latest edition of the club's Bulletin, which has just come out. There is a good joke at the start, as well.