Monday, May 21, 2012

Light...Texture Tuesday and Moving Pictures

I thought I had already taken photos for the Texture Tuesday LIGHT challenge, but I changed my mind after Sunday evening. Yesterday, May 20th, was the annular solar eclipse. From the S.F. Bay area, it was only a partial eclipse, but still very exciting.
My sister and I went up to Mt. Diablo to view it with the Mt. Diablo Astrological Society, but we were running late, and by the time we got there the campground was packed. The park rangers told us we would have to drive up to the summit to view the eclipse. We only had minutes to spare before the eclipse reached its peak, so we hurried up the mountain.
Well when we got to the summit it too was full, and the park rangers weren't allowing anyone else to park in the parking lot. My hopes of viewing the eclipse were dashed! Fortunately, I remembered a parking lot just a bit down from the summit, so we went there to park. Although it didn't appear to have much of a view, we got out to look around.
My sister is much more outgoing than I am, and she went up to the other photographers and asked them how they were photographing the eclipse. She called me over to let me in on their secret. The photographers didn't have any special solar lenses to photograph the solar eclipse, they were using mylar! Huh? Yes, mylar! One couple was simply using the silver lined wrapper of a breakfast bar. That mylar wrapper gave the sun a very yellow and orange appearance. Here is the wonderful couple that allowed me to use their breakfast bar wrapper to take the following moving picture.

(Edited with Kim Klassen's texture, Wonderful Magic)



Then there was another photographer who had gone to a telescope shop to buy a special type of mylar to make a telescope filter. He bought extra to make filters for his camera lenses, and some sunglasses too. He was just as generous and let me borrow his homemade lens filter so I could take pictures of the eclipse. The mylar he used made the sun appear white and is the second of my moving pictures.



The "icing on the cake" was being able to view the solar eclipe through the telescopes of a person who parked in the lot also.  This man brought two   telescopes with him to view the eclipse. He was allowing everyone to use the telescopes, and was a wealth of information because he is one of the ambassadors for the NASA Solar System Program.  His telescope allowed us to see sunspots and solar prominences along with the eclipse. It was very exciting!

It was a strange evening. I thought everything was going against me as I tried to get to where I was going to view the eclipse, but in reality it was taking me exactly where I needed to be to view the eclipse : )

(Also edited with Kim Klassen's texture, Wonderful Magic)



O.K. I'm heading over to hook up with
and
kimklassencafe

14 comments:

  1. Oh my! They are all SOOO wonderful! But I especially love the last image of the partial solar eclipse. What a capture to be sure! Lovely!

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  2. Great photos Cathy! I watched it from the Peninsula but didn't have special items to really see it or photograph it. I"m not quite sure how you used the breakfast bar wrapper but I love the photo!

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    1. Sorry that I didn't explain how we used the wrapper. It was simply opened and flattened, then my sister held it over the lense as I shot the photos. At first I thought there was a pin-hole in the wrapper, but there wasn't. Mylar is a bit opaque and only lets in strong light such as the sun. We could see the sun perfectly thru both types of mylar : )

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  3. Awww, what a fabulous event you captured on camera, lucky you! :)
    Thanks for sharing.

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  5. Great story and photos!
    Love it when things don't work out - but do!!

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  6. Wonderful post and great photos, things often happen for a reason, obviously you were meant to view the eclipse here and meet all these people too who shared with you. Just love the last shot. Great edit and a wonderful Texture Tuesday post.

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  7. really lovely... i especially love that last one.

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  8. What a wonderful event to have captured! That last shot is beautiful.

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  9. How fun!!! LOVE the last one...frame and all.

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  10. Ahh how fun, really great images!!

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  11. These are so interesting, I love the moving images, very creative! Life's like that isn't it? It knows what we need even when we don't :)

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  12. oh, wow! that is so cool, cathy. what an incredible night that sounds like. not just because of what you saw and captured, but because the journey to get there and how you got to meet other photographers in the process. i would have loved to have been there and been one of the photographers you met!... and to see what you saw. i love the moving pictures! did you just zoom in each frame? so fun... like taking a little mini trip to the moon.

    and that last shot! love the processing. the first shot... WOW. just wow! beautiful.

    thanks for linking it up today! =)

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