Originally I was planning on taking a silhouette of the Sun, Venus, and the
Capitol -- I'd scouted it out and found a place near Eastern Market that they
should all be visible together at the same time and with the Capitol sized
properly. But due to the weather I gave up that plan, which would have been
completely clouded out anyhow.
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As of 6:30 PM, this is the cloud situation were we looking at. Pretty dismal. Emile, Michele, and
Saffron pose with their eclipse glasses and pizza. The Sun is... right in the
middle of the picture. So we played on the hill and talked with others there
as the clouds rolled over. |
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But then after most of an hour of waiting, the sun finally found a low
optical-depth patch and was visible! We could see it for about one minute. We
were still looking through many many clouds, but I was able to take a few
pictures. As a bonus, due to the clouds there was no solar filter necessary!
(Actually, I'd tried it out beforehand and realized that with my camera at on
its least-sensitive settings, it can take a pic of the direct solar disk
without saturating. Nikon D4, 1/8000, 340 mm, f/45.) |
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Venus!
There were maybe 50 people on the hill with us (a few with telescopes),
though I think we may have been the only ones to actually see it. |
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Venus! There are apparently some good sunspots on the disk, but none visible
here! |
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The eclipse glasses make for good pics, but were totally useless. They were just
too dark. Good for mid-day eclipses, but not when nearing sunset, or with
clouds. |
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Pop Tart wrappers (6 for $2.79 at the Brookville Market) were much more useful.
They have maybe 10x the transmission of the official solar glasses. |
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Fin force-feeds me the rest of his raspberry Pop Tart. |
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And then Fin goes on to eat the telescope! Mmmm.....
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