Pictures on this page were taken in the east of France, in the town of Vouziers near Reims. This town was lying on the center of the path of totality whose median line is yellow colored on the map below. On the morning of 11 august, weather conditions were rather worrying. Nevertheless, observers posted in that town, were lucky to assist the phenomenon in good conditions through a miraculous sunny interval which began shortly before the total phase.
Photographic equipment
Eclipse pictures were taken through following equipment:
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- MEADE LX10 8"
telescope - EPSON PC600 digital camera 1024x768 - eyepiece projection with a home made adapter - THOUSANDS OAKS OPTICAL 1/10000 sun filter for partial phases - light adjustment with polarizer filter - electric power supplied by a 12V-220V inverter plugged on a mobil home battery |
Partial phase after first contact
A few sun spots are visible, despite the cloudy layer which was soon to disappear.
Changing shadows
The light of the eclipsed sun coming through the tree leaves draws small crescents on the ground.
Last moments before the total phase
Only at that moment, you must prepare yourself to withdraw the sun filter. An earlier withdrawal of the sun filter would have involved permanent damage to the digital camera by overheating the CCD chip.
Total phase
The phenomenon was no longer than 2 minutes and 15 seconds. A narrow corona ribbon is visible here. Seen with naked eye, the corona is larger and stretches on several sun diameters. Along the north-west limb (north is up), several notches reveal lunar reliefs. Red prominences are visible. A prominence on the right seems to escape from the corona. This prominence might contain twice the earth volume.
The movie below showing the moon translation, is made of two pictures taken with one minute separation.
Partial phase after third contact
On the right, a sun spot appears again behind the moon. Clouds were quickly coming back, masking the sight, after that instant.
Eclipse
movie (640x480 .AVI format 923K)
This 1 minute movie is made of
about 50 pictures. Time scale is not constant.
Satellite movie of the eclipse