2012 Solar Eclipse Photos

These are not photos of the moon people (well it actually is), but photos of the sun! A solar eclipse is when the moon passes between the Sun and the Earth blocking out part of the Sun seen from Earth. These photos were taken from Shadow Cliffs Regional Park located in Pleasanton, CA. Sadly, to see the full eclipse, you had to drive further north in California to Eureka. In the SF Bay Area, we only saw a partial solar eclipse. A partial solar eclipse is similar to a full eclipse but the moon doesn't line up directly so you can see the "ring of fire". You only end up seeing a crescent of the sun. Either way, being able to see this eclipse from the Bay Area is rare and I see it as a blessing.

Websites did warn you not to take photos with your camera with out special filters, but I did with a simple polarizer filter. Nothing bad happened. XD I also looked at the eclipse with only my sunglasses. Nothing bad happened too. I'm not saying you should do the same, but if you do, you do it at your own risk. You should know looking at solar eclipses with out the right equipment and protective gear can be dangerous and can even cause blindness. How did I cope? Short 2 second looks at the sun. It works well as I do that by accident several times everyday.

The following photos were taken with a Canon EOS 7D at 300mm with ISO set at 100, shutter speed set at 1/8000 of a second with an aperture of f/45. This is probably why nothing happened to my camera. Using an aperture of f/45 lets in very little light. Some of the photos were taken through a polarizer filter, some of them are not. The solar eclipse occurred on 5/20/2012 beginning around 5:30 PM.

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing here.

 5:58 PM

At first, I didn't want to risk damaging my camera, so I waited for some of the sun to be covered before I take my first photo. This was about the time I got to Shadow Cliff and parked.

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 6:14 PM

 6:24 PM

 6:30 PM

Things that has to do with solar eclipses.

 6:32 PM

 6:35 PM

 6:37 PM

 6:39 PM

 6:43 PM

 6:48 PM

 6:58 PM

 7:04 PM

 7:15 PM

The little dots in the photo are pollen. This is when I took off my polarizer filter. The filter filtered out the reflected light from the pollen, but since I removed it to take photos of other stuff, they started showing up.

7:27 PM

I hope you have enjoyed the solar eclipse photos! What a beautiful natural phenomenon isn't it? Anyways, again, if another solar eclipse occurs, don't stare at the sun with out special glasses (welding goggles may also work)! If you wasn't able to enjoy it, I hope you have enjoyed these photos! Please don't forget to share this blog post with your friends, family, and coworkers! Thanks for viewing!