Meme-Free Zone

Today's eclipse went reasonably well - mostly clear sky apart from a couple of intervals of light cloud. I ended up testing two lenses on two cameras - a Sigma 175-500mm f5.6 zoom on a Nikon body, and a Tamron 500mm f8 on a Sony A7 full-frame mirrorless body. I had to rule out the 28-300mm Tamron early, it just wasn't giving anything like as good results. This left me juggling two cameras and two lenses, both of which need the only 82mm eclipse filter I had, which led to a few problems as I repeatedly swapped them - fortunately I didn't quite point a lens without an eclipse filter directly at the sun, but I came pretty bloody close. There were a couple of problems with the Sony - I'm a lot less used to it than I am to Nikon and I was using it on a tripod, with the rear screen folded out, rather than at eye level, and I'd made a couple of idiot mistakes - I forgot to check that the clock was right (it wasn't) which is annoying for anyone who wants to check the timing of the eclipse, and there was a bit of grunge on the sensor that was visible in a couple of the photos. I was hand-holding the Nikon, mostly because I'm a lot more used to that and I only have one big tripod.

Results for both cameras were pretty good - the Sun looks bigger on the Nikon if I use the whole image, because of its smaller sensor, overall I think the Sony and mirror lens were slightly sharper but there really isn't much in it. Photos below are from the Nikon:

Just after the start



Maximum (some cloud)



Just before the end



Rest of the photos here

https://www.flickr.com/photos/150868539@N02/albums/72177720324741686/

I think that if I do go to Spain for the total eclipse next year the Sony and mirror lens might be the best choice, but I could get either camera and lens and a tripod into cabin luggage if I don't take too much clothing. If I go by a route that lets me take more than cabin luggage I'd take both cameras and lenses, a couple of sturdy tripods, and remote controls so I can use the cameras hands-off as much as possible.

There's going to be a partial solar eclipse visible from the UK on Saturday March 29th next year, visible from London for a while

I think this may be my best so far - Vivitar 100-500mm zoom + Jessop 2x converter on Nikon D7000



This isn't cropped. The full-sized image is here:
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52409324086_f2b99c6040_o_d.jpg

Just saw this recced on the Oolite forums:

Mars Trek - interactive zoomable etc. Mars map, lots of features etc.

http://marstrek.jpl.nasa.gov/