Solar Eclipse today ... My Captures... Birmingham UK

[James G]

I 'built' a solar filter recently, using Baader AstroSolar Safety Film. It fits over my Sigma 500mm telephoto. I was interested in capturing sunspots, but proved useful to record today's Solar Eclipse.
Here are some of the captures.

#1 Shortly after start (very very light cloud clearing from west)



#2 Cloud build up about 30 mins in.



#3 Just about max coverage ... 85% in Birmingham (52 deg North)



#4 about 15 minutes before the end



#5 All done and the world did not end!



Post processed using Adobe ACR and PS6. I deliberately shifted the temperature up to emphasise the texture of the 'surface' of the sun, although it is difficult to be sure what real detail is being brought out apart from the suns spots (both 'dark' and light).

Slight sharpening applied using a home built wavelet/frequency action using the noise filter.

Canon EOS 7d Mk2 with Sigma 50-500mm Telephoto @ Baader filter. Tripod mounted and Mirror lockup used.
C&C welcome

[Rebel]

Nicely documented James, it wasn't that spectacular where I was.

[Texas Dave]

The clarity of your photos is unreal. Very well done! Thanks for sharing!

[DigitalScape]

Excellent series, James - looks like you caught a sun spot as well.

[tbob]

Very fascinating. One of my ambitions is to see an eclipse.

[Barbara Ponder]

Nice!

[chauncey]

Thanks for the series...nice work there!

[Shadowman]

Nicely done, too cloudy in my area.

[DEAN01]

Nice series/

[HaseebM]

Excellent series, James - looks like you caught a sun spot as well.

Indeed very good images and the lone sunspot he captured. well done!

[Ndukes]

Excellent! You used the breaks in the clouds well. Thanks for sharing.

[bnnrcn]

Nice series

[IzzieK]

Very fascinating. One of my ambitions is to see an eclipse.

Trevor, if you do something naughty that wifey-do dislikes, you'd get hit with a frying pan at the back of the head and you will see an eclipse. (Sorry Trevor...I am in the mood this morning...better go back to bed before someone pick on me too...).

[IzzieK]

James...all excellent shots...is this the blurring action shot you mentioned on the other post? 'Made your images pops out some more...

[James G]

Hi Izzie, Yes, I used an action to sharpen the suns disk using a duplicate layer which was first blurred using the Noise filter.
Depending on the image I also use Gaussian blurr or Surface blurr filters as alternatives.

I developed them a few years back and use them to provide first stage selective sharpening out of ACR, in combination with luminosity masks to 'target' specific types of detail.

Dan's post yesterday is similar, and looks like it will be useful.

I'm going to have to post the actions with a bit more explanation sometime

[IzzieK]

Hmm...I asked because I am interested. It will be nice if you can discuss this action that you made...