Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Christmas Eclipse

Click on image for large view
Eight years ago, Christmas day 2000, there was a partial eclipse of the Sun. When I awoke that morning the sky was completely overcast. I was going to set up my telescope to get a picture of the event but decided not to do it because of the cloud cover. After the Christmas gift giving frenzy, Gloria happened to step outside for one reason or another, looked up and saw the partially eclipsed sun through the clouds. I looked at it, then ran back inside, grabbed my camera, which at the time was an Olympus 35mm film camera, attached a 200mm telephoto to it and ran back outside. The eclipse was peaking in and out of the clouds and I could see that much heavier clouds were heading this way, so I had no time for a tripod. Not knowing what exposure to use, I instinctively set the camera to it's highest shutter speed and shot off a few hand held pictures. Sometimes luck is all you have (and a few photographic instincts).

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