Partial Solar Eclipse [June 2021]

 10th June saw a Partial Solar Eclipse in the UK. Naturally despite a period of hot, clear weather in weeks leading up, I woke up to solid cloud. Checking the weather apps there was a tease of possible period of clear sky but I was beginning to think this was unlikly. 

I was very lucky with period of 20 mins of partial clouds where I was able to see it. Thankfully this was just before the time it reached its maximum. The picture above is the taken using my DSLR with Solar Filter on. 

Settings used were:

F/8

Exposure Time: 1/250

ISO 200

Overall I'm pretty happy with how the image turned out, given I started the morning thinking there was going to be no change of seeing it. If I compare the image to the one below, which I took back in March 2015 but was using a different camera and didn't really know what I was doing. 

 

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ISS Pass & A Reminder To Us All To Plan Ahead

This evening there was an ISS pass visible, however, shortly before it's scheduled to cross over I notice clouds and I'm thinking it's unlikely to see this particular one. Now that wasn't too much of a big deal, I've seen a fair few passes in my time but whenever there's an opportunity, I still like to get out there and see it. 

One thing I've been trying to improve on is long exposure pictures to catch the pass in action. This is fairly straightforward to do and doesn't really require any fancy equipment, the fanciest and most useful bit of kit would be a tripod, apart from a camera of course. If I'm honest it's likely to be the make or break item between a good and not so good shot. 

With the threat of clouds I had pretty much written off my chances of getting a good shot of this pass, that's until I look out the window with a few mins to go and notice a chuck on the clouds had in fact cleared. Not a completely clear sky but enough to get the majority of the pass. 

Below is the very rushed image I managed to grab:

It's unedited and nothing special but it's a reminder of the important to have your kit ready because from time to the time the clouds aren't always against you!

For reference below is another picture I took back in the summer when I was a little more organised. It was taken in a local park. 

For those who would like to know the settings I've used, it was a Canon 100D on a tripod with the following:

F6.3

Shutter Speed: 30 Secs

ISO 200

Excellent resources for knowing when there's going to be a pass are:

VirtualAstro (@VirtualAstro) / Twitter

ISS sightings over your city | Spot The Station | NASA

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