Red Sky Landing

 

I can't remember for sure, but I think this was coming in for a landing on a trip to Houston. The sky was on fire so got a cell phone shot out the winder. 

Two eclipses, 7 years apart

 

Two eclipses, two different cameras and two different styles, 7 years apart. Neither shot is better than the other in my opinion although I like the diffraction spikes in the earlier shot. The 2009 shot was stopped down to f14 on my Nikon D750 at 1/180 of a second with my ISO at 2000. I took that shot at 70mm on my 70-200. I took some close up shots as well. In any case, you get a lot of spikes with the shutter blades on the older cameras creating edges where light leaks to create the starburst. On the modern Z9, it is an electronic shutter so you don't get those spikes as much anymore as there are no elements between the lens and the chip. This is the case even though I am at a similar f -stop at f11 at 1/1000 of a second at ISO 8000. Even with the much faster ISO, the modern Z9 is a much cleaner file. This time out I shot some at 70mm but this one was with my 100-400mm with a 2x converter so at 800mm in this case. I ran both through a denoise filter to clean the file of some unwanted noise. 

So, there you have it. Two eclipses at the same location. Both successful and lots of fun with friends and family. 

Success!!!

 

Got it done. A plan that really started 8 years ago when I realized that my cousin's property near Goreville, Illinois was in the crossroads of the 2017 and 2024 eclipses. We were able to see both eclipses in full without getting clouded out. Luck broke our way, along with many, many locations in the United States. I can't believe that so many places got a clear eclipse. The shot down below is my last shot of the eclipse at around 99% eclipsed as the moon starts to move back out of the way. The last shot is our eclipse group enjoying the hospitality of Bob and Karen Sawyer. We got a last minute visit of James Viola and wife, who Stephanie and I met in our 2009 and two of their friends. Mike Haberer also joined at the last minute. What fun to see this event with friends and family.