Derby and District Astronomical Society

Partial Solar Eclipse
Saturday 29th March 2025

Left to right: DDAS members Chris Lewis, Anthony Southwell and Elliot Fountain observe the eclipse through eclipse glasses and solar filtered binoculars at the Society's Flamsteed Observatory. PLEASE NOTE: NEVER look at the Sun through ordinary binoculars!  Picture Credit: Mike Lancaster.

Left to right: DDAS members Elliot Fountain, Anthony Southwell and Mike Lancaster observing and photographing the eclipse. Elliot is using Anthony's special solar filtered binoculars. NEVER look at the Sun through ordinary binoculars! The dome of the Flamsteed Observatory is in the background at right.  Picture Credit: Russ Pollard.

Russ Pollard brought along his H-Alpha scope setup on a EQ6-R-Pro mount to observe the eclipse. Background left to right: Elliot Fountain, Anthony Southwell, Mike Lancaster and Tony Razzell.  Picture Credit: Russ Pollard.

Chris Lewis (left) and Tony Razzell project an image of the partial eclipse onto white paper using Tony's Celestron telescope.  Picture Credit: Russ Pollard.

The next two photos provide closer views of Tony Razzell's eclipse projection. Note sunspot region AR4046 is visible near the upper right-hand edge of the Sun's disc.  Picture Credit: Top: Chris Lewis, Bottom: Tony Razzell.

A close-up of Tony Razzell's eclipse projection showing detail of sunspot region AR4046, including the central dark umbra and outer penumbra (not to be confused with the same terminology in respect of the Moon's shadow!). Some lighter faculae are also visible around the sunspot.  Picture Credit: Chris Lewis.

A final close-up of Tony Razzell's eclipse projection showing another sunspot group close to the lunar limb in the upper middle of the image.  Picture Credit: Chris Lewis.

Jim Sarsgard took this picture of the partial eclipse through an Acuter Solar Telescope from Sunnydale Park, in Littleover, Derby.  Picture Credit: Jim Sarsgard.

Jim Sarsgard also took this picture of the partial eclipse using pinhole projection, from Sunnydale Park, in Littleover, Derby.  Picture Credit: Jim Sarsgard.

Pete Hill produced this animated GIF from photos he took of the eclipse using a Canon EOS 77D camera on a tripod with a Sigma 150-500 zoom lens and Baader solar film filter. The focal length was set to 500 mm, using ISO 100, f/8, and 1/4000 second exposures. A shutter release cable was also used. The images were processed in Photoshop CS6 and animated in Paint Shop Pro Animation shop. Large sunspot region AR4046 is visible in the top left quadrant.  Picture Credit: Pete Hill.

Peter Branson and his wife Val were visiting their son Tom in the Netherlands when the partial solar eclipse took place. Peter writes: "While we were visiting our son on a recent trip to the Netherlands, Val and Tom and I went out for a walk in the Dutch countryside. It was a lovely sunny day and we hoped that we would catch a glimpse of the partial solar eclipse. We all like bird-watching as well and took pairs of binoculars with us. There was intermittent cloud through the morning but during the time of the eclipse we decided to use the binoculars and project an image of the eclipse onto the nearest flat surface - our son's hand! (see the following two images)".   Picture Credit: Val Branson.

When the cloud cover reduced the intensity of the Sun, Peter Branson's wife Val was able to point her phone at the Sun through the clouds to get another view of the eclipse.  Picture Credit: Val Branson.

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