TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE

by Kosmas Gazeas

Snyagovo, Bulgaria, August 11, 1999

Kosmas Gazeas took these photos from Snyagovo, a small village in north-eastern Bulgaria, 7 km south of the Romanian-Bulgarian border, during an excursion organized by the Friends of Astronomy Society of Thessaloniki.

All photographs at the Partial Phase of the Eclipse were taken with a 1000mm f/10 Maksutov lens, covered simultaneously by a yellow filter and a Mylar filter. During the Totality, the two filters were removed. For the Solar specrtum a 135mm f/3,5 refractor lens with a grating in front of the objective were used. Finally, the guiding of the lenses and cameras was done by simultaneously observing through a 300mm f/4,5 refractor lens and an 18mm eyepiece. The cameras that he used were a Practica and a Vivitar XC-3. All the above equipment was fixed on a 50 kg tripod with a motor mount, supported by a 12V battery.

The photos are in a jpeg format with resolution 300dpi. All of them are oriented so that north is up. The Universal Time (UT) that the photos were taken is included in the name of each file in "hh_mm" format.

The last image of the Solar Corona (fil11_11.jpg) is a composition of 12 different images of the Totality, processed in Adobe Photoshop by the author. The method used to produce this image, is described in detail in the January 1998 issue of Sky&Telescope, page 117. In this image, one can see the fine structure of the Corona, with filaments of the Solar Wind emerging from the Solar surface.