Solar Eclipse — Part II

In Part I, I described the solar filters used to protect the lens to be able to capture photos of the sun. However, when totality was reached, these filters block too much light to capture the event.

As soon as the light faded, I ripped off the solar filters and began capturing images of the total eclipse — using my Sony Alpha 7 III camera with a 300mm lens.

The reddish-pink spots surrounding the moon are massive solar flares erupting from the sun, and you can see the light just starting to peek around the moon's edge. Absolutely incredible to witness in person and to be able to capture.

With enough planning, I believe a larger lens (400mm) would render even better pictures. The images through my telescope showed the same details with incredible clarity — about twice as good as captured here.

Some mild post-processing was done in Lightroom to increase the contrast so the solar flares would be more visible.

For comparison, I highly recommend Andrew McCarthy's photography work — his photos are by far the best I have seen taken during this event.