Spectacular eclipse!!!

A group of about 40 international travellers, including 14 Canadians, were at the airport on Hikueru atoll in the Tuamotu chain of atolls in French Polynesia. Unfortunately, cloud moved in at the wrong time (just at second contact) and obscured the Sun through totality. Had the eclipse occurred 5 minutes earlier we would have seen it. People further down the island in the village did see the eclipsed Sun in the clear -- the cloud was that low and local. The fish-eye shot shows the entire sky (most of it clear and with stars showing) at the moment of second contact diamond ring.

El Eclipse del domingo 11 de julio, visto como parcial desde Asunción, Paraguay.

Six separate exposures from 1/500 to 1/15 second were digitally combined to create the image of the corona. I used a Nikkor 300 mm f/4 lens with a Nikon D300 at ISO 200. The third contaact and Baily's Bead images were 1/8000 second exposures. The diamond ring exposure was 1/500 second. For the wide angle image I used a Nikon D70 with a 18-200 mm f/3.5-5.6 lens working at 18 mm and f/3.5, with a 1/4 second exposure at ISO 400.

After an accident that damaged my primary camera just 22 hours before the eclipse, I was forced to learn a backup camera and use it to shoot the eclipse. Canon Digital Rebel XTi, 18mm-270 Tamron lens at 18mm, 400 ISO, 1/6s at f/5. Diamond ring shot at 1/40 at f/5. All were hand held... carefully!