it didn’t look good For those interested in yesterday’s annular solar eclipse in the East Kootenays.
Thick cloud cover prevented most of the area from seeing the rare phenomenon until it suddenly broke at Cranbrook.
Rick Nowell, a Astronomy Laboratory Technician at the University of the Rockies, took the opportunity to photograph the event.
“I rushed to the university, assembled an 11-inch Celestron telescope, and finally managed to take a few photos,” he said, outlining the effort required to capture the eclipse.
“I was looking for something I needed, like an AF/6 focal reducer, visual back, and Crayford focuser. The lat bolt on the tripod was loose. Why would a student have loosened it? I set it to 49 degrees. Adjust the finder scope on the Mount Baker radio antenna. Next, attach the camera. Even if the focus knob hits the edge, it still won’t focus. Ok, remove the Crayford and move it to Mount Baker. Refocus and focus the camera. Hooray! It works,” he explained.
“Finally, I put on the solar filter, set it to track the moon’s surface, and circled pretty close. Next, I found the shadow of the telescope on the ground and projected the lid of the white filter box. I use it as a screen. The clouds were teasing me and I was trying to set the camera’s brightness level just right. It would go dark, then brighten. When the sun was in my eyes, it would appear on the camera’s display. I could barely see the dim histogram.”
“That’s why this photo was the best. It also captured two sunspots,” Nowell explained.
On Saturday, October 14th, the partial solar eclipse began at 9:11am. At its peak, the moon covered 67% of the sun at 10:25 a.m.
Rick Nowell Photo
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