OK, one more eclipse shot
I've posted a lot of stuff about Sunday's annular eclipse (see Related Links below), and I figured I was done... but then I got a pretty remarkable picture sent to me.
During the eclipse, in northern California, two men sent a small (6 cubic meter) helium-filled balloon up to 90,000 feet (roughly 27 km). Equipped with a camera and an ingenious system that used puffs of gas to orient the payload, they took this pretty amazing shot of the eclipse:
[Click to penumbrenate.]
That's the Earth on the left (duh), and on the upper right you can see the eclipsed Sun! They used a solar filter to cover half the camera's view so that they could get the correct exposure for both the Earth and the much brighter Sun.
I love stuff like this! Basic equipment, clever people, and a can-do attitude results in something remarkable. Well done!
P.S. My friend and fellow Boulder astronomer Stuart Robbins posted a series of lovely timed sequences from the eclipse that he took in Albuquerque. It's well worth a click!
Related Posts:
- A fake and a real view of the solar eclipse⦠FROM SPACE!
- Gallery: When the Moon ate (most of) the Sun
- The May 20, 2012 annular solar eclipse in motion
- Followup: Supereclipse