Partial Solar Eclipse

Perfect Weather

for observing the partial eclipse of the sun.

Taking photos with a fisheye lens is not the best thing to make direct photos of the sun.
So I played a bit with things I found at home to get a magnified image of the partial solar eclipse to make it visible for my pano.

Finally I got a self made telescope projecting the sun on a piece of cardboard. A close-up (+2) lens from one of my first digital cameras, a cardboard apperture, an old eye-piece of a microscope and a cardboard screen did the job. The hardest part was to mount the optical bench with the wodden plank (total 14.5 kg) on two tripods. And of course, I needed Joakim Löber to do the tracking of the sun for me. The earth is really fast!

And as a second method I found a multi pinhole camera: It was not difficult to build: I was just taking a colander from the kitchen and a white cardboard with me. Look at the shadow at the nadir: All the holes of the colander became sickles!

The maximum coverage was at 10:38 with 75%. This panorama was taken 15 minutes later. I liked this viewpoint more than the one at the maximum.

Equipment:
an old optical bench with carriers and lens holder
a close-up lens +2
one eyepiece 18x from an old microscope
2 tripods
a colander
some screws and cable ties

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Europe / Germany

Lat: 49° 59' 34.6" N
Long: 8° 33' 39.9" E

Elevation: 110

→ maps.google.com [EXT]

Precision is: High. Pinpoints the exact spot.

Nikon D300 with Nikkor 10.5mm, Novoflex VR-System PRO II, SNS-HDR Lite (bracketing: three steps), PTGui Pro and GIMP.