Annular Solar Eclipse

[Juanito200]

Hi all- Sunday May 20th was the Annular Solar Eclipse, visible to parts of Asia, the Pacific and Western and Southwestern United States. Unfortunately the Dallas area wouldn't be able to see the entire event, so I decided that it would be worth trading an on-call day to travel to west Texas to photograph the entire event.
I drove to an area near Lubbock, Texas, but I was hampered by heavy clouds, and rain in the forecast. I pushed into New Mexico, to an area that had a forecast of clear skies, and was along the central path of the eclipse. My drive was rewarded with perfect skies and a desolate dirt road to photograph the event!
It was a 23 hour, 1400 mile odyssey to shoot it, but absolutely worth it. Enjoy!

[Juanito200]

I was so excited when I started to see the Moon cross in front of the Sun. Photos taken with a700, 70-200G, Sony APO2X teleconverter, and Marumi 100,000 ND filter.

[Juanito200]

And of course the Annular Eclipse, or Ring of Fire eclipse. Plus I took one final shot without the filter. John

[David Kilpatrick]

Alamy put out a special request for photographers to upload examples of this. You would have done well. Amazing timing.

David

[Juanito200]

Thanks David- I just checked the website, and I guess they have enough. Oh well, it was great fun anyway!

[sury]

Extremely well done. Love them. Thank you for sharing.

With best regards,
Sury

[DennisG]

Very nice indeed, loved them all
i have to look up that filter u used always wanted to take pictures of the sun

[Birma]

Thanks for sharing John - great to see the pictures of this amazing event. An amazing round trip as well

(As an aside, the map you have shown now means I have that Prefab Sprout song stuck on my mind!)

[Dr. Harout]

Last shot is fantastic.

[Greg Beetham]

I think you did a great effort driving all that way John, I really liked the shots (well done) and the location (map was brilliant), no bustle and jostle from anyone else…or aliens? You do realize that Roswell where the famous sighting happened was just down the road from where you ended up? And Alamogordo was not far away either, where the A-bomb was developed, I’m sure they exploded at least one in the area before the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.
Greg

[Juanito200]

Thanks everybody-
Greg- I drove through Roswell to get to my location. There are plenty of UFO museums, gift shops with all kinds of "alien artifacts" for sale. I didn't stop in any this trip, but even the cheap hotels have aliens holding the entry exit signs, and one had a 'spaceship' in the parking lot! As I drove through the desert, I couldn't help but think of the Manhattan Project. I tried to imagine what it must have been like, working during a global war, on a weapon of unknown, but immense power. As much as I feared nuclear war as a child, I always wanted to witness an above ground test of a nuke.. The Trinity test happened not too far from Alamogordo, and I'd love to tour some of the remains of the facilities.
As an aside, years ago, I was traveling through Alamogordo, and passed Holloman Air Force Base. I saw several stealth fighters doing maneuvers with some T-38 trainers, at very close proximity. I decided to turn around on the highway to get some photos. It was then that I noticed the several Chevy Suburbans in the median, with MP's inside. I decided that if I stopped to take some photos, I might end up in a windowless room, having a long conversation with some FBI agents...
It is a neat area, and I love to get out there when I can.

[aster]

John;

Absolutely stunning!

Thanks for sharing your efforts for getting the perfect results; A perfect fire ring you've got there.


Yildiz

[Greg Beetham]

Oh ok John, I thought you might have come down from the Fort Sumner direction, but yeah I have seen lots of TV stuff (and books) over the years about Roswell and also the crashed ‘weather balloon’ that happened somewhere in the State, (can’t remember offhand exactly where it was) boy it must have been an important ‘weather balloon’ for that huge response, the place crawling with armed guards and the area cordoned off and also visiting locals all around to see if they had any ‘souvenirs’ of the downed ‘weather balloon.’
And I don’t blame you for not stopping to take pics of the Stealth fighter at that time with the MP guards on the alert for obvious ‘secret agents’ like yourself, governments tend to get edgy about their secret squirrel stuff when it’s supposed to be still secret but everyone knows about it anyway.
I remember one air display here (the Townsville Airport is basically a military airbase with a civilian section tacked on the side) a few air displays ago, ( might have been around the time of your F117 sighting) a good one that had lots of military hardware on display and in the air, helicopter gun ships with mini guns, F111, FA18, F15, F16 etc. and a couple of black B52’s cordoned off (I was talking to the aircrew and joked if they had any nukes in the bomb-bay, one of them said ‘I could tell you but then I’d have to kill you’ ha ha) but one part of the display proved that the military mind still had a sense of humour, a section of the tarmac had been cordoned off with the usual signs that said do not cross and a black imprint full size of a stealth fighter was painted on the concrete, it was so stealthy you could only see it’s shadow ha ha.
Greg
Ps It might be exciting to feel the earth move and experience the shockwave of a nuke going off but you can’t look at it directly mores the pity, I heard stories of people at the time of the nuke tests who were facing away with their hands over the back of their heads at the moment of the brilliant ignition flash could ‘see’ the bones in their hands from the x-rays, gamma rays etc. that penetrated through their hands, skull, brain then the back of the eye from behind.

[cosmonaut1959]

Amazing stuff.

[DrScottNicol]

lovely series of photos in general but that last one with with the windmill is breathtaking - nice.