Follow-up to the April 8 Total Solar Eclipse

Photographing the Eclipse

I wanted to capture the solar eclipse photographically. At the 2017 total solar eclipse and again at last October’s annular eclipse, I took the Johnson Observatory’s 3.5-inch Questar telescope to which I attached one of my digital SLR cameras. I previously shared some photographs that I took at the 2017 eclipse and the 2023 eclipse. The Questar has superb optics, and being so portable, it travels very well (it fits in the overhead bins of airliners). A decade ago, we purchased the Questar primarily to use on my “geology by day, astronomy by night” Grand Canyon raft trips. However, the Questar is versatile, making it my preferred telescope to take on trips, as well as a part of our on-site Stargazer programs here at the Creation Museum. Therefore, there was no question of my photographing April’s eclipse with the Questar.

One drawback of the Questar is that when I take photographs, its field of view is only slightly larger than the sun. This is fine for the partial phases of a total solar eclipse, but during totality it can capture only the innermost part of the sun’s corona. Since where we viewed the eclipse was only a two-hour drive from the Creation Museum, I drove my car, so I was also able to take the bulkier 126-mm (5-inch) Televue refractor. This telescope has half the focal length of the Questar, which means it has twice the field of view of the Questar. Thus, the Televue is perfect for capturing the solar corona.

Furthermore, I wanted to make a time-lapse video of April’s total solar eclipse. When adjusting a camera attached to the Questar, the Questar tends to move a little bit. Thus, a consistent centering of the Questar is problematic. I included a 16-frame time-lapse video of the annular eclipse in my blogpost about the annular eclipse. Jim Bonser, who often does some clean-up work of my astrophotographs, was kind enough to recenter the 16 photographs so that I could make that video. However, I wanted to make a much smoother time-lapse video of April’s eclipse, capturing more than 3 ½ hours from before the partial phases through the ending partial phases. That would have required recentering many hundreds of photographs, a tedious operation at best. Thankfully, the heavy-duty mount of the Televue isn’t jostled so easily when adjusting the camera.

Fortunately, I have two Nikon cameras that I can attach to the telescopes, a D3200 and D5600. I already had a camera adapter for the Questar, but I had to buy a camera adapter for the Televue.

Additionally, the Questar comes with a solar filter, but I had to purchase a solar filter for the Televue. I attached the D5600 camera to the Televue and the D3200 camera to the Questar. The D5600 is programmable, so I set it up to record an image every 15-seconds, at least during the partial phases. Such uniformity is desirable for making a time-lapse video. Since I wasn’t going to make a time-lapse video from the Questar photographs, such uniformity was not necessary on the Questar. After a little experimentation, I settled on 1/4000 second exposures at ISO 100 on the Televue and 1/640 second exposures at ISO 100 on the Questar. We ended up taking more than 850 photographs with the Televue telescope, but we took only 88 photographs with the Questar.

Throughout the eclipse, the sun’s position in the sky changed.

Throughout the eclipse, the sun’s position in the sky changed. The mount of either telescope has a clock drive that turns the telescope at the rate of one rotation per day. This keeps the sun centered in the field of view, but this works only if the mount is oriented precisely parallel to the earth’s rotation axis. This polar alignment is best done at night when Polaris is visible. When I arrived at the location of the eclipse party the night before the eclipse, it was already dark, but there was light rain. That caused me concern. The forecast was for clearing skies the next morning, but would it clear in time for me to get a good polar alignment on the two telescopes? After much prayer, I was relieved to see a few stars between the clouds when I awoke at 4:00 a.m.

The first step was to level the telescope mounts. I was amazed when I was able to level the mounts faster than I ever had. By the time I leveled the mounts, the sky to the north was mostly clear, and so Polaris was readily visible. The Televue mount has a small telescope that fits into its polar axis. A reticle in the small telescope when lit with a red light shows the location of the Big Dipper and Cassiopeia, along with the location of Polaris to get a perfect polar alignment. All I needed to do was adjust the altitude and azimuth of the mount to center Polaris as seen through the small telescope. I’ve done this before, but never was it so critical to get this right. A look through the main Televue gave me the orientation with respect to Polaris necessary to get an excellent alignment for the Questar. All I needed to do was achieve the same position of Polaris through the eyepiece of the Questar that I had in the Televue. I was very thankful to get this critical step completed in the dark because it made tracking the sun very good that afternoon. Praise the Lord!

We expected a large crowd, so we spray painted a perimeter around these two telescopes, and we placed some stakes and strings along this perimeter as well. This was a “no-go” zone because we didn’t want anyone tripping over the power cords or bumping the tripod legs that would interfere with the perfect centering that we had. We buried a long extension cord that brought power to the two telescopes from a power outlet in a nearby barn.

The Other Telescopes

Lest you be concerned that we didn’t let people look through telescopes, a short distance from the “no-go” zone, we set up several other telescopes for public viewing of the partial phases of the eclipse (a telescope is not necessary during totality). I took two telescopes along for this (yes, I packed up four telescopes for the trip—the trunk and backseat of my car were full). One of the telescopes was an 8-inch Dobsonian that had belonged to David Durham, who worked in the bookstore at the Creation Museum. Unfortunately, David died three years ago (we all miss him very much). Shortly after his death, David’s widow donated his telescope to Answers in Genesis, where it has joined Johnson Observatory’s fine collection of telescopes. Since David’s telescope is relatively portable, I thought it suitable for viewing the eclipse. I tried the observatory’s 8-inch solar filter, but it didn’t fit, so I ordered a solar filter for David’s telescope. Once I set it up, I dragooned Eric Glover, my Red River Gorge hiking buddy and member of the Creation Museum’s housekeeping staff, to man David’s telescope. I chose well, because Eric did a superb job keeping the telescope centered on the sun.

I also brought along my 60-mm refractor that I’ve had for nearly 55 years. This was particularly memorable for me because it has a connection to my first solar eclipse on March 7, 1970, albeit only a 70% partial eclipse. As I previously explained, the April 8 eclipse was three saros cycles after the earlier eclipse. Therefore, this year’s eclipse is in the same Saros family as the 1970 eclipse. My refractor doesn’t have a good solar filter, so for both eclipses I projected the partial phase of the eclipse onto a solar projection screen (those seem to be a thing of the past, but they are excellent for group viewing). In 1970, I used a 126-instamatic camera (does anyone else remember that format?) to take some B&W photographs of the earlier eclipse. I used my cell phone to take some color photographs of the recent eclipse. I’ve included here two images for comparison. So, my trusty old telescope and I have gone full circle on this eclipse.

Early in totality, the slightly larger-appearing-than-normal moon blocked the view of this large prominence, but as totality progressed, more and more of it was exposed.

Several people brought along their telescopes to fill out the collection that day. Of note is Glen Fountain. He and his family drove up from Georgia for the eclipse, and Glen brought two telescopes with him. Glen and the previously mentioned Jim Bonser were the two amateur astronomers whose astrophotographs made my recent picture book The Heavens: A Different View possible. One of Jim’s telescopes was equipped with an H-alpha filter. An H-alpha filter allows viewing of solar prominences. Prominences normally are visible during totality. The view of prominences with an H-alpha filter is not nearly as good as the view during totality. Before the partial phase of the eclipse began, we noticed a large prominence on the sun’s limb (edge). I said then that that prominence would be the showstopper, and indeed it was, but not until near the end of totality. Early in totality, the slightly larger-appearing-than-normal moon blocked the view of this large prominence, but as totality progressed, more and more of it was exposed.

Totally Total!

Speaking of Glen, I had given much thought to how I would operate two cameras during the four minutes of totality. Since Glen is an accomplished astrophotographer, I asked him to operate one of the cameras during totality, and he graciously agreed to step into the “no-go” zone and help me. During totality, it’s important to change the exposure times to capture different things, such as the corona and prominences. Since I was familiar with the Questar’s tendency to move a bit while adjusting the camera settings and releasing the shutter, I thought it best for Glen to operate the camera on the more solidly mounted Televue. Glen did an excellent job of quickly taking photographs while bracketing the exposure times. He took more than 200 photographs during and around totality. I had made a check list for us to follow with respect to exposure times and ISO settings. We reviewed the check list several times as we approached totality. I had left one thing off the check list – removing the solar filters! In all the excitement, I forgot about this, but fortunately Glen had a clearer head, and he reminded me. Thank you, Glen!

After totality, I put the solar filters back on the two telescopes, and I resumed taking photographs throughout the rest of the partial phases of the eclipse. As I expected, people began to leave after totality. By the time the partial phases ended, there were few people left on the farm. It took some time to pack up, so I left more than two hours after totality. That was good because much of the heavy traffic had cleared by the time I left.

Once home, it took some time to go through the photographs. I used all the partial phase photographs before and after totality to make a time-lapse video, but what was I to do with the photographs taken during totality? They had varying exposure times and ISO settings. I experimented with several totality photographs. I finally settled on duplicating one good corona photograph 15 times. When I make time-lapse videos, I normally use a speed of 16 frames per second. Since the partial phase photographs were taken at the rate of four per minute, each second in a time-lapse video would correspond to four minutes of real time. Since we had nearly four minutes of totality, the 16 frames of the corona would match the real time expressed in the time-lapse video. I also selected a few diamond ring photographs on either side of totality to simulate the brief appearance of the diamond ring. I’m sharing the finished product here.

Conclusion

Totality is the most incredible natural phenomenon that I have experienced. It shows God’s creativity and artistry.

Over the past six months, I’ve had many discussions with people who saw the total solar eclipse. All the newbies agreed that it greatly exceeded their expectations. Totality is the most incredible natural phenomenon that I have experienced. It shows God’s creativity and artistry. As Psalm 19:1 states, the heavens declare God’s glory.

Where do we go from here? Well, there is a deep total lunar eclipse in less than six months, on the night of March 13–14, 2025. It will be visible in the Americas, though the time may be a bit inconvenient for some people: the time of mid-eclipse is close to 3:00 a.m. in the Eastern Standard Time zone. This is a deep eclipse, with totality lasting a little more than an hour. I previously mentioned the saros cycle and how an eclipse is repeated in roughly the same part of the world after three saros cycles. The second lunar eclipse that I saw was on the night of February 9-10, 1971, and it was in the same saros family as the 2025 lunar eclipse. So, I hope that I can see this eclipse too and go full circle on the 1971 eclipse. I remember that night well. It was very cold, with temperatures near zero degrees Fahrenheit. Perhaps this time I’ll be able to make that time-lapse video of a lunar eclipse. I hope that it won’t be nearly as cold as last time. Why don’t you join me that night? We have scheduled an eclipse party (weather permitting). You can register for this free event here.

The next total solar eclipse is on August 12, 2026. The path of totality sweeps past Greenland, a part of Iceland, and the northern part of the Iberian Peninsula. I’d like to go to Spain to see this one. After that, the next total solar eclipse is on August 2, 2027. This one is visible in north Africa, with greatest eclipse in Egypt. This one is significant because with 6 ½ minutes of totality, it will be the longest totality until the next century. And with Egypt’s dry climate, the probability of good weather is nearly 100%. I’d like to see this eclipse too. Finally, there is another total eclipse on July 22, 2028. The path of totality passes over Sydney, Australia, where there will be 3 ½ minutes of totality. With an Answers in Genesis office in Australia, I hope that we can arrange an event there for this eclipse. I could go on to 2030 and years beyond, but that is more than five years into the future. I’ll say more about those eclipses as we get closer.