Onset

Description

Onset is a composite image made with three photographs to present the annular eclipse that took place in New Mexico in October 2023. The image shows the sun with sunspots, the sun’s corona, and the shadow side of the moon. An annular eclipse occurs when the moon is slightly smaller than the sun. When the moon is aligned directly over the sun, most of the light from the sun is blocked and the corona flare around the sun becomes visible. Obviously, the extreme range of brightness from the sun’s surface to the shadow side of the moon is far beyond what any sort of viewing or image capture process could contain in a single exposure. So, this is a composite of three images to present the key elements of the annular eclipse.
For those familiar with the technical side of photography: The photographs were made with a full frame DSLR using an 800mm Rokinon mirror lens, with a lot of post processing with Photoshop and Topaz Labs software to enhance sharpness and contrast. A white light filter sold by Baader Planetarium in Germany was used to reduce the sun’s brightness to 0.001% of it’s actual intensity. This type of filter renders the actual color of the sun as white with a slight bluish color cast. The color was shifted to the more familiar orange color in post processing.