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  • Partial Eclipse at Sunset

    Solar eclipse will take ‘big bite out of the sun’
    Sally Apgar, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, October 12, 2004
    In the hour before sunset tomorrow, a partial eclipse of the sun will be visible to anyone facing west in Hawaii. The eclipse is expected to begin about 5:14 and will be visible until sunset at about 6:09, according to Carolyn Kaichi, planetarium manager at the Bishop Museum.
    I'm not sure if I can still see the sun from where I live by that time of day, but I imagine thousands of Honolulu commuters will enjoy it from their cars. I don't expect traffic to move very well during rush-hour tomorrow!

  • #2
    Re: Partial Eclipse at Sunset

    I'm a sucker for these kinds of things. Today I went to Kaakako Waterfront park to check this eclipse out.

    Here is the link to the only picture I have right now of the eclipse.

    I will have more photos (hopefully) of this partial eclipse posted by next week. (You have to look at the above link to figure out why so late).

    I still have my sun peeps and mylar lens covers that I made in 1991 which I used for viewing the eclipse today. Worked fine.

    There were several people at the park watching the eclipse. These natural phenomenons are wonderful.
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    • #3
      Re: Partial Eclipse at Sunset

      Cool, Mel. Do share your images when you get them developed and scanned. As predicted, I was in rush-hour traffic at the time and forgot entirely to look for it. I'm pretty sure there were obstacles between me and the sun at the time, anyway.

      KHON had a pretty neat live shot during their 6 p.m. broadcast, and our own Richard "Dick" Walker nabbed a neat photo for the Star-Bulletin, but I haven't seen much else.

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      • #4
        Re: Partial Eclipse at Sunset

        Originally posted by pzarquon
        KHON had a pretty neat live shot during their 6 p.m. broadcast, and our own Richard "Dick" Walker nabbed a neat photo for the Star-Bulletin, but I haven't seen much else.
        That photo is freakin' awesome. He has a very, very big lens. My photos will not come very close, but hope springs eternal that something will come out (I used the same techniques and same camera as I did in 1991).....
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        • #5
          Re: Partial Eclipse at Sunset

          >>>He has a very, very big lens.

          That's what she said (insert comical drum rimshot here).

          Anyway, it was big, and heavy. And the shot almost didn't happen. I figured I wanted the sun huge, with a silhouetted figure in the foreground. So I pulled out the 600mm f4, and put a doubler on that making it a 1200mm f8. I had to stand about 3/4 the way to the Diamondhead side of Magic Island to make the people walking on the Ewa path small enough to fit in the frame. I got there at about 5 to set up the shot. I found where I could shoot through without having lampposts/trees in the way. I also new the eclipse would be right at sunset when the sun is dim enough to shoot sans filter (I think the final exposure was something like 1/4000 at f22. Of course I had to line up the shot using the preview screen of my D1. At about 5:50 I realized I miscalculated where the sun would set, and as I had it set up, it would drop behind a tree. Panicking I moved to an alternate view, but just as I had set it all up, a sunset dinner cruise ship pulled into my frame. And parked. Feeling queasy and ready to vomit, I realized I now had about a minute of sun before it slipped into the horizon. I moved to another place and aimed wildly, letting the sun light up the viewfinder (that way I knew the sun was in view) and shot wildly. I chimped a few times to make sure I had something. Then it was over. By sheer luck someone paused in my angle of view with their arms up.

          I needed serious beer after that debacle.

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          • #6
            Re: Partial Eclipse at Sunset

            Thanks Dick for your detailed behind the scenes work to get that shot. You may call it a debaucle but after the hassle you went through to set it up, 1. the shot made the front page* in the paper and 2. I think everyone who saw it thinks it is just totally awesome.


            * It was front page in the morning edition we had at the office, but my home final edition has it on page 4. Still it was the front page on the SB website.
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            • #7
              Re: Partial Eclipse at Sunset

              Originally posted by pzarquon
              Cool, Mel. Do share your images when you get them developed and scanned.
              First of all I am too lazy to scan photos these days unless I have to. Even with film you can opt to have your film processed so that you also get a CD of JPGs (Kodak picture disc) which is what I did.

              2nd, no way are any of my pictures as good as Dick's awesome photo.

              That said here they are (click on the links):

              Black and white conversion, filtered

              Filtered Color

              Don't Let The Sun Go Down on Me: Color unfiltered

              Eleven photo series clickable for bigger images

              And that's all there is. Enjoy.
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              • #8
                Re: Partial Eclipse at Sunset

                Gosh, Mel, those are still pretty awesome shots. Did you have your lens... er, forgetting the technical term at the moment, "zoomed" all the way out for those? Or were you keeping wide on purpose? I figured the sun would be pretty large right on the horizon, but maybe it's the season.

                I guess you were right when you said Dick had to be using a big honkin' lens for his glorious shot.

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                • #9
                  Re: Partial Eclipse at Sunset

                  The lens only looks impressive. The thing is a fixed focal length 135mm coupled to a 2x converter. My brother who has the same camera as I do has the 70-210 zoom, but alas that lens and camera is in Vegas......

                  BTW, Dick said he had a 600mm zoom. I would consider that a big honkin lens. I could tell just by looking at his picture.
                  Last edited by mel; October 16, 2004, 09:15 PM.
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                  • #10
                    Re: Partial Eclipse at Sunset

                    >>>BTW, Dick said he had a 600mm zoom.

                    Technically speaking, it's not a zoom, but a fixed focal 600mm f4. Then I attached a 2x extender making it a 1200mm f8.

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                    • #11
                      Re: Partial Eclipse at Sunset

                      My mistake... ha. Still 600 is a big lens, and of course a 2x extender doubles that. Kind of what I did except on a smaller scale.

                      BTW, there is a lunar eclipse coming up next Wedneday I believe just around sunset as the moon is rising. I believe the moon will already be eclipsed as it rises and will probably be coming out of it as we begin to see it.
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