Partial Solar Eclipse - Friday, 20th March 2015

Derby and District Astronomical Society

Adrian Brown took this picture of the maximum of the partial solar eclipse on the 20th March 2015 from his observatory in Derby at 09:32 am. He used a Skywatcher 80T refractor (400mm @ f/5), white light solar filter and a Canon 400D camera. The exposure details are ISO100 and 1/500th of a second exposure time. Adrian also also made a short video of all the pictures he took, from 09:03am to 09:45am. This video used the same equipment and exposure details as the main picture and he used Windows Movie Maker to make the video which may be downloaded here. Image and Video © Adrian Brown.

Adrian Brown also took this picture of the partial solar eclipse on the 20th March 2015 at 09:56 am from his observatory in Derby using a Samsung Galaxy S4 phone, and looking along his skywatcher 80T refractor used for the above picture. The cloud makes a nice filter! Image © Adrian Brown.

The following chart shows the temperature changes during the partial solar eclipse on the 20th March 2015 as logged by Adrian Brown from his observatory's outside temperature sensor. It shows a definite temperature drop of around a degree as the maximum eclipse approached. Adrian comments that he could feel the temperature drop as well as he was sitting in his observatory watching the eclipse! © Adrian Brown.

Mike Lancaster took the following pictures of the partial solar eclipse of the 20th March 2015 at 09:27, 09:32 and 09:38 am respectively from Belper in Derbyshire. He used a Canon EOS 50D camera with a 17-85 mm zoom lens at maximum zoom. No filter was used except for a standard Hoya UV filter as the clouds provided a natural filter on this occasion (not recommended unless you know what you are doing). The camera was just left on automatic exposure settings. Image © Mike Lancaster.

Mike Dumelow and Graham Ensor took the opportunity to spell out our Society in a novel way while taking the following images of the projected sun during the partial solar eclipse of the 20th March 2015. The telescope in the bottom two pictures is the 8.5 inch Dobsonian constructed by Mike Dumelow using a mirror set donated by our founding member Jane Kirk. Image © Mike Dumelow and Graham Ensor.

The following three images of the partial solar eclipse of the 20th March 2015 were taken by Chris Newsome before, during and after the maximum phase. Chris headed to the Orkneys to capture a 96% coverage at maximum eclipse from a vantage point at the Ring of Brodgar. Chris comments "Clouds were there but it remained relatively clear for the initial and post partial phases but, bang on cue, the cloud rolled in at maximum coverage. However, even with the cloud cover, the whole area was dark. The clouds provided a natural filter for the maximum phase and I was able to take normal photos. The pre and post phase were taken with a 10 stop neutral density filter." Chris used a Canon 7D camera with a 300mm ISO lens for these pictures. Image © Chris Newsome.

Pete Hill recorded the following data on light levels and temperature between 8 and 11 am during the partial solar eclipse of the 20th March 2015 from the Rosliston Forestry Centre - as well as photographing the eclipse itself. The upper plot shows light levels and the lower one temperature. For these recordings Pete used a Philip Harris DL Plus data logger, a light sensor and a thermistor based temperature sensor. The images of the eclipse itself were taken with a Canon 450D camera, Sigma 150-500 zoom lens and Baader film (ND3.5D) as a filter. Pete comments that "Interestingly the temperature data represents the temperature of the instrument, the variation is due to the effect of absorbed radiation and heat loss to surroundings. Local amateur meteorological readings showed that the air temperature bottomed out at approximately 6.9 deg C during the eclipse before rising after it". Image © Peter Hill.

The following two pictures of the partial solar eclipse of the 20th March 2015 were taken by Dave Maynard using a Canon PowerShot SX240 point and shoot camera with a 20X optical zoom. The second photograph shows projection of the eclipsed sun onto a white card using one side of a pair of binoculars. Image © Dave Maynard.

John Weaver took the following picture of the partial solar eclipse of the 20th March 2015 from Milford in Derbyshire using a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ20 camera and the clouds as a natural filter. Image © John Weaver.

The following three images of the partial solar eclipse of the 20th March 2015 were taken by Malcolm Neal using a Canon 7d camera with a 100-400mm zoom lens and Canon 1.4 extender. The first two images were shot through a Jessops solar filter and the third just used the cloud as a natural filter. Image © Malcolm Neal.

[Top]