Partial Solar Eclipse on 25 October 2022

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On October 25, we could enjoy a small solar eclipse from Belgium.  At the maximum, 19.5% of the Sun was obscured.  The weather was not perfect, but most of the clouds only appeared after the maximum.  

The eclipse around maximum

As the Sun was not high enough in the sky yet to be seen from our backyard, we set up everything in front of our house.  We invited some of the neighbours to have a look through our eclipse glasses.  

In full action

I used Solar Eclipse Maestro to automate taking the pictures to make a timelapse.  Sadly, Solar Eclipse Maestro does not work anymore with newer versions of macOS, so I had to install an old version of macOS in a virtual machine.  I used my Canon EOS 80D with the Canon EF70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM.  I fear that I did not focus good enough, so that is something I have to take into account during the next solar eclipse!  Anyway, the pictures are still good enough to make a timelapse.  

I also tried the Skywatcher AZ-GTi mount for the first time to take pictures during a solar eclipse.  While the mount does a good job following the Sun when I use my small refractor, this was not the case at all for taking pictures.  I think that the L-bracket I used to mount the camera was the problem here.  I need to find the correct settings of the mount to make this work before the total solar eclipse in 2024 in the Mexico.

The timelapse can be seen here:

Location: Roosbeek, 3370 Boutersem, België

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