Eclipse Sequence
June 19, 2002
Provided and copyright by: Joe Orman, Joe Orman's Photo Pages
Summary authors & editors: Joe Orman
The above photograph shows the entire June 10 partial solar eclipse, as it was seen in the western sky from Phoenix, Arizona. This multiple exposure (not a composite) was taken completely in the camera on a single frame of film; the camera was firmly held on a fixed tripod the entire time. Exposures of the Sun were taken with a solar filter every 10 minutes for 2 1/2 hours. This shows the Sun progressing from uneclipsed, through maximum eclipse (which was 72% in Phoenix), then back to uneclipsed just before it set. Then a final single exposure without a filter was taken 40 minutes after sunset to add the twilight sky and the planets Venus (upper, between the 5th and 6th Sun image) and Jupiter (lower, between the 8th and 9th Sun image).
What can we learn from a multiple-exposure photo such as this? For one thing, we can dramatically visualize the Moon slipping past the Sun. We can also see that the sun and the planets lie on the same line in the sky, called the ecliptic. Since the ecliptic lies north of the celestial equator this time of year, the Sun traces out a shallow curve as the earth turns -- an arc centered on the north celestial pole.
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