Sunrise Solar Eclipse (continued):
From Michael Amato:
Before the eclipsed sun rose, my brother Anthony and I had the pleasure of enjoying this amazing sun pillar. It was the best sun pillar I have ever seen. Below is a photo of the partial solar eclipse Anthony took while we enjoyed observing the eclipse. As the sun broke the horizon, two horns appeared before the rest of the Moon-covered Sun came up. The two of us really enjoyed viewing the eclipse.
From Jim Mazur:
Laurie and I went into our backyard and wandered around to find a few small openings among the tree branches where the Sun was poking through. At first the Sun was in some thin clouds and we saw nothing at all through our eclipse glasses. After about 5:45, when the Sun was higher and brighter, I got a few glimpses of the crescent shape through the eclipse glasses, and Laurie was able to see the crescent using pinhole projection. Since we didn’t travel to a better viewing area we were happy to see what we did.
From Ray Kaville:
4am = Alarm. Grabbed a quick breakfast of Sausage and Eggs with toast and coffee and did my morning clean up. Out the door.
5am – 5:30 Beat it down the I91 to I95 and off at First Ave. As I made my way down Beach St. I happened to glance toward the boat launch and noticed the glow onthe horizon. A quick U-turn and I was joining two other cars already parked. Massive cloud covered the upper sky, but the bottom was fairly clear and brightening. Jumed out and grabbed my bag of optics stuff as the car closest chose to engage me in a te-te-te. No real pressure yet so we chatted and he was there for the eclipse also holding his camera. Of course our charter says Do No Harm (or is that someone else?) so I grabbed one of the three remaining solar glasses from the last one and handed it over. Set up my tripod and my 15×70 binocs, unfolded my chair and settled in for the show. It was getting VERY colorful before the edge of Sol raised it’s brilliant head. For future reference the boat launch platform is pointed exactly at the Lighthouse Park area, and exactly where the Sun was rising.
@5:40 (stopped watching time closely looking for the best breaks in the cloud bank) A young mom holding her camera brings her @7yr old daughter near me to watch the eclipse. Naturally I had to pry. She had no vision protection, so the second pair of glasses went to them. She was very nice and her daughter on the way to school had several questions. It was a lot of fun talking to them. Due to the clouds you could see very little through the glasses or the binocs while the clouds were there, but we did get lucky. For the first half hour or so it was a color show which went from blazing orange on the horizon to brighter yellows and oranges as the Sun climbed. We did get to see the crescent as the Moon passed and overall had a great time. Others showed up further down, one with a pair of astro binos and filters. He didn’t look familiar, but was gone before the event ended for us. By around 6am the clouds had mostly covered the Sun and most of us packed up and headed out. I had some time to kill so I ran down the coast to Anchor Beach and worked my way back looking for spots. Best view was around Woodmont Beach just into Milford. By then the Moon had completely disengaged, but the clouds were leaving.
There were some good views through the binocs periodically, but the lack of controls forbade me from getting good images of the event. Sorry, the Sun area is all washed out, but the colors were pretty and some phone shots came out pretty good.
Glad everyone had a good time. I sure did.
