Experiencing the Annular Eclipse at the Eldorado Star Party

By Randall Light, MD

Each year the Eldorado Star Party is held in October on the X-Bar Ranch between Eldorado and Sonora, Texas. The ranch has been in the Meador family for well over 100 years. They are warm and welcoming. This year about 200 people attended the star party to see the eclipse. The line of annularity for the October 14, 2023, eclipse would pass very close to the X-Bar Ranch at the end of the star party. I made a presentation about the annular eclipse and options for how to photograph it. It was well received, and there were many questions. Much to my surprise, another speaker was Dan Davis, PhD coauthor of "Turn Left at Orion." It was a pleasure to meet Dan and visit with him.

On Saturday morning I wanted to exercise three options for photographing the eclipse. A camera with a wide field of view was setup to capture the march of the eclipse across the sky. Two cameras were setup side by side on my Mach II telescope mount. One camera captured images from a Daystar Scout 80mm solar scope with a Nikon D850. The other camera, a Nikon D810, captured images from a Nikon 600mm lens with a 1.4x teleconverter for a focal length of 840mm. A Thousand Oaks solar filter was used on the front of the lens.

Lee Smith joined me on Thursday before the eclipse on Saturday. We were excited and ready to go. The forecast was for clear skies. Photos of us and our gear are shown below. Much to everyone's distress, clouds appeared before the eclipse began. Fortunately, the clouds had mostly cleared by the time the annular eclipse began. Images were made for almost 3 hours. The partial eclipse before and after annularity was about 1:15 in length. Total annularity lasted almost 5 minutes. It was a great outing with a group of friendly astronomers. My photos of the annular eclipse and two animations can be seen on my website at: https://RandallLight.com

Lee Smith (left) Randy Light (right) setting up mount, telescope, and camera equipment

Lee Smith (left) Randy Light (right) - Waiting for the annular solar eclipse to begin

Randy Light with his mount, telescope, and camera equipment

Lee Smith with his mount, telescope, and camera equipment

Eldorado Star Party participants observe and photograph the annular solar eclipse.

Solar sequence

Maximum annularity with multiple solar prominences.

About the Author:
Randy is a retired medical neurologist who became a photographer in 1979 and an astrophotographer in 2013 when he retired. He has written articles, given talks, and received awards for his astrophotography.

Website: https://RandallLight.com

Contact: contact@brazosvalleyastronomyclub.org

Fall 2023 Newsletter