# Eclipse in Nashville



## SCraig (Aug 21, 2017)

Nashville was one of the prime spots for viewing the eclipse today, and it was truly an event.  I didn't have a filter large enough for my 150-500 so I had to wait until "Totality" and even then I had to squint my eyes, get the sun in the viewfinder (camera was on a tripod) and trigger off a few shots.  Here are a few of the best:

13:27:42 — Almost there.  The bright spots at the bottom are all that’s left of the sun except for the corona around the edges.






13:28:00 — Closer still.  Look along the right edge and take note of the red fire that is visible.  Those are solar flares that typically extend thousands of miles out into space.





13:28:40 — As close as we got to “Totality”.  The solar flares along the edge of the sun are clearly visible in this shot.





13:29:00 — Starting to come out of it now.  The bright spot is the sun starting to work its way out of the eclipse.





13:29:17 — And this was as far as I was going.  Even this little bit of sun hurt my uncovered my eyes and I wasn’t going to push my luck.


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## ZombiesniperJr (Aug 21, 2017)

Great set


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## dascrow (Aug 21, 2017)

Awesome photos!


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## baturn (Aug 21, 2017)

Wow! Especially the 3rd and 4th.


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## fishing4sanity (Aug 21, 2017)

Those are great, thanks for sharing!


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## oldhippy (Aug 21, 2017)

Wonderful set, very impressive


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## Destin (Aug 22, 2017)

So you managed to photograph the eclipse without going blind or melting your sensor? 

Great shots! Manual exposure? Or how did you determine exposure settings?


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## Alan92RTTT (Aug 22, 2017)

Destin said:


> So you managed to photograph the eclipse without going blind or melting your sensor?


During "totality" its perfectly safe to use an unfiltered camera and look without glasses.  The second the sun pokes out from behind you need to stop or put your filter back on.


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## SCraig (Aug 22, 2017)

Thanks everyone, most appreciated.  It was a very unusual event for here so I was going to shoot something, unless the clouds got in the way, and they turned out better than I expected.



Destin said:


> So you managed to photograph the eclipse without going blind or melting your sensor?
> 
> Great shots! Manual exposure? Or how did you determine exposure settings?


They were all shot in manual mode.  ISO 200, f/8, 1/250 second.  500mm on a tripod (sort of as mentioned at the top).  I started at ISO 100 and 1/500 second as a guess but the first couple were underexposed.  I didn't have much time to mess with the exposure so I gave it two more stops of exposure and it was close enough to fix in post processing.

Truly a memorable event, and I do appreciate all the comments.


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## PropilotBW (Aug 22, 2017)

Wow, really really nice set!  Did you catch some solar flares in 3,4 as well?


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## SCraig (Aug 22, 2017)

PropilotBW said:


> Wow, really really nice set!  Did you catch some solar flares in 3,4 as well?


Thanks, I appreciate that.

There are some solar flares visible.   I did a quick-and-dirty calculation earlier by measuring the diameter of the sun on the screen.  Based on an 864,576 mile diameter of the sun those tiny little flares are extending out into space about 30,000 miles and about 93 million miles away.  If those flares had just died out immediately we wouldn't see the light go out here on Earth for about 8.3 minutes.  It's really hard for me to come to grips with distances of that magnitude, and based on astronomical distances the sun is close.


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## terri (Aug 22, 2017)

Great job!!


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## PropilotBW (Aug 22, 2017)

SCraig said:


> PropilotBW said:
> 
> 
> > Wow, really really nice set!  Did you catch some solar flares in 3,4 as well?
> ...



Yes, very fascinating and spectacular knowing how little we really are in this universe.  I had to do some more research scientific name: Solar Prominences.  (Largest one on record was 500,000 miles long!).


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## SCraig (Aug 22, 2017)

terri said:


> Great job!!


Thanks, Terri.


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## SCraig (Aug 22, 2017)

PropilotBW said:


> Yes, very fascinating and spectacular knowing how little we really are in this universe.  I had to do some more research scientific name: Solar Prominences.  (Largest one on record was 500,000 miles long!).


A tendril of fire 500,000 miles long just boggles the mind.  That's twice the average distance to the moon.  Amazing pyrotechnics


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## zombiesniper (Aug 22, 2017)

Great set.


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## yamaha pat (Aug 22, 2017)

Great shots! Yes it was an unusual event something I will remember a long time.


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## SCraig (Aug 26, 2017)

The last couple of posts slipped in without my noticing.  My apologies and my thanks for the comments.


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## weepete (Aug 26, 2017)

Very nice shots indeed! I love the solar flares, really quite amazing.


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## Dean_Gretsch (Aug 27, 2017)

Spectacular set. Those flares are great.


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## DriedStrawbery (Aug 28, 2017)

Awesome shots! Hope you had the time to experience it in the short duration. 


Sent from my iPhone using ThePhotoForum.com mobile app


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## SCraig (Aug 28, 2017)

Thanks everyone.

I didn't even notice the flares at the time, only when I got home and started post-processing the files.  Just thinking about the amount of energy involved amazes me as well.

And, yes, I did get to take a look around during the eclipse.  The light was just weird is about the only way to describe it.  Not like twilight as I expected and I don't really know how to explain it.  More like the twilight before a severe storm.


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