Dear Fan of Lookout Observatory,
I wanted to share with you the first astronomical event recorded at Lookout Observatory (LO). Luckily, LO was situated within the narrow band in which the complete annular eclipse could be observed, but it was not precisely in the center of that band, so at maximum eclipse the moon was still slightly off-center from the sun. We had rather poor transparency and seeing. Occasionally clouds blocked out the sun, but most of the time it was thin clouds that the sun shone through,so I got some decent shots (but not crisp). All photos were taken with my new Canon DSLR camera attached to my little 90mm diameter 1000 mm focal length telescope mounted on a 30-year old equatorially driven mount.
There were the usual hassles: very hot and sweaty standing in the afternoon sun; plastic lens cap had expanded in the heat and was stuck inside the metal tube and had to be pried out with an awl in my Leatherman pocket tool; very hard to focus looking in the direction of the glaring sun; batteries that ran the clock drive died and had to be replaced; mosquitoes biting;etc. This is the usual stuff for astronomical photography.
The first image (#57) was taken at 6:27:55 pm PDT, very close to the center of the eclipse as seen from LO. The second photo (#64) was taken just as the moon started to leave being completely in front of the sun, and it is my favorite because it shows the irregular contact of the sun and moon edges due to the mountains and valleys at the Moon’s edge. It was taken at 6:30 pm PDT. Finally, is my last photo (#74) at 7:02 pm PDT. Unlike the two previous photos, it was not compromised by thin clouds, so it is sharper and shows some sunspots fairly well (but not great due to generally poor seeing).
I hope you enjoy these photos, and I hope to be able to share more photos of other objects and events with you in the future.
Best regards,
Carter, (occasional) Resident Astronomer 🙂
Lookout Observatory
Lookout, CA
