This Morning’s Solar Eclipse: a Post-Mortem

Despite meteorologists’ promises of a clear morning, the Arlington area was snuggled under a thick grey blanket of clouds when eclipse time arrived around 6:29. Your humble author took a look around and went back to bed, but, fortunately, other members of our Board of Directors, noticing the thin band of cloudlessness near the Eastern horizon, were more determined to make something of it.

Board member Andrew Clegg captured these images from the top of a building in the Ballston area. They were all taken with a 250 mm lens on a Cannon T1i body.

The first image shows the National Mall just before sunrise:

Nov. 2013 eclipse; 2 sec @ f/8. Credit: Andy Clegg.

Here is the sun close to peak occlusion:

Nov. 2013 eclipse; 1/500 @ f/16. Credit: Andy Clegg.

And here is the shadowed sun as it slips behind the clouds:

Nov. 2013 eclipse; 1/10 @ f/16. Credit: Andy Clegg.

Board member Maria Dittrich notes that she

chose the steps of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in DC, but unfortunately, we were not able to see the sun at sunrise. This was partly because of the cloud cover, and partly because we were just not high enough off the ground. By the time the sun did peek through a little open pocket of clouds, I estimated that there was only about a 4% occlusion remaining.

Here she is demonstrating proper eclipse-viewing safety:

Maria Dittrich safely viewing the Nov. 2013 eclipse. Credit: Maria Dittrich's creative director.

Finally, here is a lovely collection of images of this morning’s eclipse from around the world, and one taken from 44,000 feet.