Be sure to scroll down to the bottom for the DSLR picture gallery and a video sequence!

This was not my first time experiencing an Annular Solar Eclipse. Back in 2012, I had witnessed one over Cedar City, Utah, which only favored the western half of the United States. So I already knew how NOT-AS-spectacular the eclipse would be compared to the 2017 Total Eclipse.

But back then, I was not an astro-photographer. When I knew about the eclipse for October of 2023, which unironically would also be visible over the same state I saw the 2012 eclipse over, I would be ready to cross off “Annular Eclipse” off my list of accomplishments as an astronomical imager.

Plus I felt this served as an “Opening Act” to the spectacle that awaits on April 8, 2024.

Unlike the April 2024 total eclipse, where a lot of fellow staff are planning on traveling to the midwestern to eastern United States to witness, it seemed that most of my colleagues were staying local in Southern California for it. The Observatory after all, was going to stream the partial eclipse as it happened while hosting a major public viewing event. Understandably so, many felt “oh it’s not a total so it’s not going to be as amazing.” Others I knew had already witnessed enough annular eclipses in the past and didn’t feel the need to waste the money on gas, food, and lodging expenses.

But because I had not properly imaged an Annular Eclipse yet, I knew I had to do go image it. “Once I image such an eclipse, then I know I don’t need to image another one,” I thought.

Utah was chosen simply for convenience, and Beaver was chosen because the lodging wasn’t too expensive for my budget. While the Friday night rooms were all sold out, I saw that Saturday night, after the morning eclipse, still had vacancies. So the initial plan was to drive up Friday, stargaze all night, image the eclipse in the morning, and then go to sleep.

But unfortunately, it was too cloudy Friday night for me to do any serious deep sky imaging, so I merely waited and briefly napped in my car until dawn when I started setting up – in an empty dirt lot by the motel I was staying at. I scouted the spots looking for any nearby trees, which I could use to capture any pinhole phenomena – and it just so happened to be behind the parking lot of a McDonald’s drive-thru.

While I was told that parts of the actual town drew larger crowds at their parks and along their main roads, the spot I was set up was not that crowded and it was very peaceful. As my telescope wasn’t hard to miss, there were a few nice people and families that came up and pondered at the setup, and I was happy to explain what to expect for those who had never experienced an Annular before.

The Eclipse

By the time the morning sun rose, the clouds that hindered my ability to do any serious imaging were thinning out. Any high altitude clouds that remained were too thin to do anything to the Sun’s light shining through… so once more the weather was ideal.

Even though I had planned for the times of when to start imaging the eclipse… the moment of “first bite” actually happened earlier than I expected… possibly due to little time zone and latitude differences… but either way, with my DSLR camera ready to capture, and displaying a 2″ preview screen… people enjoyed watching snippets of the eclipse through it, and would often return at various stages.

The annular eclipse of course went on as expected… with not enough cloud interference to ruin the experience, and unlike 2017, this time I didn’t encounter any bratty kids nor worried about them bumping my telescope on purpose.

Of course, I had to make sure I captured the pinhole phenomena that only occurred during partial eclipses.

As the moon obscured more of the sun’s light, the effects of course became noticeable on the ground: a clear fair bright morning sunny day above had an eerie dimming landscape, as if the landscape was experiencing a late cloudy afternoon.

But the thing about the noticeable dimming effects, plus the cooling of the air, is that one has to BE THERE to see it and experience it… pictures of the dimming landscape never do the scene any justice, especially when done using a cell phone camera which automatically adjusts the ISO, aperture, and shutter speed to account for the levels of light.

Once the moon eclipsed the sun by about 90% – which was the max amount for this particular annular eclipse, then those of us who were there could easily see a slight dimming to the bright blue sky, and the shadows on the ground visibly had less contrast compared to a normal day.

But the Sun on the other hand was still very bright, and if one looked at it without protective viewing glasses or solar filters… then one would not be able to to tell the Sun was being eclipsed. But because of the noticeable effects on the ground and the slight dimming to the sky… one can imagine what an ancient agrarian society, or a random citizen in a civilization that existed BCE must have thought they were seeing and experiencing before the knowledge of eclipses and the celestial phenomenon became widespread.

Other than the pinhole projections on the ground from the fauna, the only other way such people could observe the eclipsed sun is if it happened to be behind clouds or smoke that was thick enough to filter the light, but thin enough to see the photosphere safely, or whenever the sun was low on the horizon behind thick haze and dimmed to safer levels.

As soon as Annularity happened, there of course were some excited reactions from the people I was around… but I wasn’t anywhere near any large crowds where cheering could be heard.

But, as expected, even during the annular eclipse “ring of fire” phase, the sun was still too bright to see without any filtered protection…

After over four minutes, the “ring of fire” display was done. most people that had arrived to see the eclipse understandably called it a day and left the area… while only I remained along with 2 or so people, because I was photographing the ENTIRE eclipse from the moment the moon “touched” the Sun to the moment it moved on.

Obviously, because an annular eclipse does not have even close to the same effects as a Total Solar Eclipse… there was not much of a “post-eclipse high” once it was over. The town went on business as usual, and I’m sure there were even a few people working their scheduled shifts who didn’t even bother to go outside to check it out.

In conclusion… this being the second time I experienced an Annular Eclipse, coincidentally from Utah both times, this eclipse simply served as a “bucket list” for me as an Astro photographer. Now that I have taken pictures of the entire sequence of an annular eclipse, now I now I don’t necessarily NEED to go travel to experience another one.

And now… for what you’ve been waiting for… the large gallery of images from this eclipse!

Keep Looking Up!

-Anthony