The solar system is an amazing place. It just so happens that the Moon is about 400 times smaller than the Sun and 400 times closer to Earth than the Sun – about a quarter of a million miles. This coincidence means that every once in a while the Moon blocks out the light from the Sun: an eclipse. From where I was standing in Northumberland, it wasn’t a full eclipse, only partial, but it’s still an striking phenomenon as the temperature plummets, the birds stop singing and the sky darkens.

These images were taken with a Nikon D800E and a 600mm f/4 lens with a 2x teleconverter. So, that’s 1200mm. Not quite a telescope, but good enough to get decent pics. I had to use 1/8000 sec with f/32 and ISO 50 to avoid too much light frying the sensor. I also used Live View rather than looking through the viewfinder of the camera. That’s because the viewfinder looks through the lens at wide open aperture: 1200mm of magnification of the sun’s rays directly onto the retina? That’s like a laser in the head!

Regarding sharpness, the Earth’s atmosphere lends a certain amount of fuzziness to the end result, which is a shame. But it was worth doing regardless.

Now then, all I have to do is book myself onto the International Space Station to get a clear view of the next one…

K