Annular eclipse

The British weather, if nothing else, is almost guaranteed to wreck any chance of viewing celestial events when they happen: eclipses (solar and lunar); comets; meteor showers; planetary conjunctions -  you name it, the cloud's got it covered.

Observing - and photographing - today's annular solar eclipse almost fell foul to it, but in the end it worked in my favour. Okay, the eclipse was never going to be as spectacular as that experienced by other countries, but I wanted to at least try to get some something.

Undeterred, I set my camera up in the garden in anticipation as the phenomenon began, but at the same time silently cursing the dense cloud cover that stretched across the entire sky. It was beginning to look hopeless... then I got a break. The eclipse was already well underway when the blanket of cloud suddenly thinned and the pale disc of the sun appeared through the haze above.

I took 63 frames in all, and had it been a clear sky as I'd hoped for, then the whole shoot would have been a disaster. I was struggling with exposure in spite of the cloud, and I don't have a strong neutral density filter to block the light with the lens I'm using; not that one is likely to be commercially available in that size anyway. The Nikkor does have a slot for adding 21mm filters into the optical train, but then again I never thought for one minute I'd ever need one.

Today I got a lucky.

Nikon D500/300mm f/2.8 AF-S Nikkor and TC-14EII converter. 1/8000 second at f/11. Matrix metering. -0.33 EV compensation. ISO 50. Tripod and remote release.

© 2021

Nikon D500 with 300mm f/2.8 AF-S Nikkor and TC-14EII converter.  1/8000 second at f/11. Tripod and remote release.

Nikon D500

Nikon D500 with 300mm f/2.8 AF-S Nikkor and TC-14EII converter.  1/8000 second at f/11. Tripod and remote release.

Nikon D500 with 300mm f/2.8 AF-S Nikkor and TC-14EII converter.  1/8000 second at f/11. Tripod and remote release.

Nikon D500 with 300mm f/2.8 AF-S Nikkor and TC-14EII converter.  1/8000 second at f/11. Tripod and remote release.Nikon D500 with 300mm f/2.8 AF-S Nikkor and TC-14EII converter.  1/8000 second at f/11. Tripod and remote release.Nikon D500 with 300mm f/2.8 AF-S Nikkor and TC-14EII converter.  1/8000 second at f/11. Tripod and remote release.

 Nikon D500 with 300mm f/2.8 AF-S Nikkor and TC-14EII converter.  1/8000 second at f/11. Tripod and remote release.Nikon D500 with 300mm f/2.8 AF-S Nikkor and TC-14EII converter.  1/8000 second at f/11. Tripod and remote release.