Timelapse of the eclipse taken from the Ridgeway at Bury Down
Some notes on what I did, so I’m ready again for the next time on 23 September 2090.
First, check out the location and camera setup the night before. 5 mins from the Bury Down car park, the footpath just off the Ridgeway gives a clear view west, with no chance of people getting in the way.
Next to apply a solar filter. Too late to get a proper glass filter, I was lucky that the solar glasses I ordered late in the day came with a filter for phones, big enough to cover my 35mm lens. Wide angle good, so as to get the full trail.
Point the camera at the sun. Top left of the frame. Lock everything down so there’s no movement between shots. Also time to find the best manual settings so that the sun is properly exposed. Same setting every shot. With this filter this worked: 1/100, f8, ISO 100
Every 5 mins, check the focus, and avoid any shake by using a remote control. The sequence runs from 19:00 to 20:10. Afterwards, throw them all at Photoshop to “auto-blend layers”
Meanwhile, have fun with the colander. Works best with a bit of distance betwen the colander and the white surface.
Behind us the sheep were blissfully unaware of the crowds on Bury Down
Although a hare showed some interest.
At the end, time to remove the filter, and wait for the sun to approach the horizon. I took a wide variety of shots, not knowing what would work best as background. I chose this one because it shows the iconic two trees of Bury Down (well, side-on you can only see one)
A final visit to Photoshop and we have the full picture.
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5 replies on “Solar Eclipse 2026”
Pleased to say that my photo features in the Oxford Clarion.
Throwing Shades on Oxford
(scroll down)
Brilliant, David! Can’t wait* for September 2090
*Literally!
That was brilliant….made sense to what I had seen through my
glasses from 6.35pm to 7.30pm at The White Hart. Thankyou.
Really good to see the full track during the eclipse, and to read the illustrated commentary. Took me back to my time lapse work on cloud development using video tape in the ’80s … difficult with primitive results by today’s standards but satisfying at the time! I was successful yesterday with two pieces of card using compass point to make holes of various sizes in one of them. Total failure thpugh in trying to take photos using mobile phone!
Thanks for sharing that David, great photos.