Total Eclipse Pictures Feb. 26 or 27, 1979

I tried to correct it, but I guess I have to also clean up the slides of the 35mm picture on Kodachrome 64 (it gives you those nice, bright colors - ba ba, ba ba - some song that was popular)

which they did not tell me or I guess I thought they would do that before making them digital.

The reason for the correction is that a Solar Eclipse is not as Bright as they always show it, it is duller and the sky is not totally dark and black. Afterall it is daytime when it takes place and depending on the time

of day it depends also on the type of day and color of the sky. But it is not as dark as they show it. Too much contrast but my eyeballs are tired and it is a bit brighter but at the same time

 like above, still different a little and afterall the picture cuts out the detail of the Sun first appearing through the walls of either mountains or craters on the Moon which can be seen, at least a long

time ago when I projected the slides onto a projector screen (and not a big one.) Well, back to the drawing board so to speak and re-doing and cleaning the slides first. Lack of communication

I guess.Also the shadow bands are brighter but the corona is still duller. I doubt if I get it back to the way it should really be, and in the end, I guess that is why amateur astronomers end up

developing their own pictures. I am surprised that they turned out as well as they did though, for the duplicates have green in them from increasing probably the contrast or one of the factors

still when I had a lab do the duplicates. Bah! (but the pictures are a very large size - something like 2700 x 2000 or so and as big as a projected slide on a smaller projection screen for those

who ever saw one years ago.

If you look good you can see a cloud trail (or is that exhaust from an airplane where the shadow bands are). If airplanes are still flying with the future upcoming ones then I suppose they also

will be in the way. Afterall, this is prime focus through a 10" mirror telescope and not a camera, although a camera can work, this telescope mirror collects 900 times as much light as your eyeball can.

I think I had the errie factor better earlier in the process but then other things in the picture happened. I will get it all together soon though with the landscape pictures that show the errie sky as I call it

when it is all done and the slides cleaned and of course edited in the pictures to reflect as close as I can on how it really looked to the naked eyes during a Total Eclipse.

The colors of a Total Eclipse are more subtle and finer in tone then what the top picture is, and more like the bottom top picture but still - a little brighter and the hue a little different - more pinkish.

The images are cut way down in size and do I need to say, this picture was sent into Astronomy Magazine or Sky and Telescope and considered to be in the magazine but other pictures were used finally instead.

No doubt, you will see very few pictures of Shadow Bands on the Moon with the current crop of pictures shown of an Eclipse, but none the less, capturing those Shadow Bands are hard to do, and I guess

the first time is just that way, for to actually try and take a picture during an Eclipse probably would never happen, and I have only seen one other picture that showed shadow bands in some Astronomy Book.

Oh, well! (The sky is too redish in the bottom top picture anyway, but the rest is closer but still not quite correct.

10" telescope prime focus Total Eclipse picture below. (Yes, the image at prime focus is - big, big, big, big, big!) Same way with bottom pictures as the top pictures.

Never ever looks that way, except perhaps for people who imagine things during an Eclipse.

That is why you should see one in person while you live if you possibly can.

The errie end! (So a little out of focus - lucky I got anything at all doing pictures at prime focus anyway.)(The Reds - Solar Flares and I have some of those at

too long of an exposure also - they wrap all the way around and back to the Sun.)

At least it is close to the way that I saw the Eclipse!

The sky is not totally dark and I call it the - "Errie" Sky!