Behind the moon

This is the longest solar eclipse of the century according to the astro gurus. The whole family woke up with much anticipation for this event. After breakfast, it was time to go outside for a little sunshine... literally that is. Joji got the camera and the tank of a tripod she bought and we set it up on the street in front of the house. Once outside, we started hunting for the sun using a 300mm lens. It was an ardous task as I don't want to look at the viewfinder and risk hurting my eyes. So I have to do it instinctively. At an aperture of f45, the sun was still so bright and I need to pull the shutter down to 1/8000s to get a useful image. At a little past 9AM, I was able to capture the sun already eaten by the moon. As clouds cleared, I have to use my wifey's sunglasses to further reduce the light entering the lens.

After a while, wifey asked our eldest to find the old X-ray film she has. It was taken years back when her hand needed to be checked and she kept the film all this while. After getting it, we tried it in front of the lens and viola, we got a very defined capture. The image is warm though but then the edges are clearly very defined. The sun is now behind the moon, well at least partially. The kids were so elated to have witnessed this phenomenon for the very first time.

So when is the next one?