British Astronomical Association
Reports and Images of the Annular and Partial Solar Eclipse of 2003 May 31
04/06/2003, updated 10/06/2003, 18/06/2003, 23/06/2003, 30/6/2003
Reports from around the country and abroad have been coming in. Sadly poor weather in Scotland prevented many from witnessing the annularity, though a few were successful. Reports of successful viewing from Iceland have arrived.
In other parts of the country and in Europe good views of the partial phases were obtained.
Anthony Ayiomamitis
Due to low-level clouds it was not possible to image in h-alpha so the back-up plan of using a Canon EOS 3 with 100-300 mm zoom (set at 300 mm) was adopted. The clouds seem to have been a blessing in disguise as they provided for some wonderful colors and effects around the eclipsed sun.
(Click
on the pictures for a bigger view in a new window)
Canon EOS 3, Canon EOS 100-300 USM II zoom (set at 300mm), Fuji Superia 100 film, 1/30th sec @ f/5.6
Maurice Gavin
From Worcester Park, Surrey. Maurice has more pictures on his website.
Eddie Guscott
Observing location: Burnham on Crouch, Essex, looking towards the North Sea.
(Click on the pictures for a bigger view in a new window)
Left: 80mm refractor with no filter, OM1 1/500 second on E200 slide film.
Right: 200mm Olympus telephoto lens with no filter, OM1 1/500 second on Provia 400 slide film.
Both taken about 13 minutes after sunrise on Saturday 31st May, 2003.
See also Eddies website: http://www.astropics.co.uk/eclipses.htm
Nick James, et al.
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on the picture for a bigger view in a new window)
From Durness, Scotland. Various images by Nick James, Denis Buczynski and Glyn Marsh.
Liverpool AS Members
Report by Dave Owen.
From Dornoch, just north of Inverness, Scotland, Dave Owen, Geoff Regan, Dave
Robinson, Dave Whittle, Lew Brown, Dave Thomson and his family, as well as about
100 other people were able to SEE THE ANNULAR ECLIPSE!
There was a lot of low cloud which obscured the sun until just before third contact. The Sun was so much dimmed by the cloud that the best views were with unfiltered binoculars (it was too dim to see through mylar).
It clouded over again not long after third contact but the view with the naked eye and binoculars was awesome.
Dave Owen took a few snaps with my digital camera and Dave Thomson took some telephoto shots.
Annular phase by Dave Thomson (click on the picture for a bigger view in a new window).
By Dave Owen
David Forshaw reports that the group observing from Nairn were clouded out.
Martin Mobberley
(click on the picture for a bigger view in a new window)
A few decent breaks in the murk of the morning and several images of the partial eclipse from
Suffolk. This is a composite of two.
The sunrise murk-break was amazingly lucky! Taken with Nikon Coolpix 5700 on 8x zoom (71.2mm f.l. = 280mm
film equivalent). Pics taken just after sunrise at 0355 UT & 0413UT, 1/30th sec and 1/250th sec
respectively at f/4.2, 100 ISO setting.
Between these times it was almost completely obscured.
No filtration used....murk was a great help in this respect!
John Rogers & Rafael Cruz
(Click on the pictures for a bigger view in a new window)
Taken at Cawder Scotland. John writes:
"Having got up in the foggy twilight of coastal Nairn, we ventured up towards the bleak moors, past Cawdor Castle hidden behind dark foggy forests, half-hearing the witches chanting 'Hail Macbeth, Thane of Cawdor', as we climbed above the forests and the fog, until we saw the grey haze of the horizon pierced by a blood-red dagger, which was one side of the almost-fully-eclipsed sun, and as the mists subsided, the complete red ring of the rising 'black hole sun' made its appearance, partly broken into tiny beads, for a brief minute or two, before breaking into an ever-brightening crescent that revived the landscape with sunlight.
Yes, it was a good show."
Rod Salisbury
We observed from near Olafsfjordur (Iceland), some miles north of Akureyri about half a degree outside the arctic circle, with views out across the sea. Sunrise was not visible because of cloud on the horizon but first contact around 3.08am was seen through thin cloud which enabled the sun to be viewed with the naked eye without filters. The cloud then thickened completely hiding the sun and we had practically given up hope. Then gradually the cloud around the sun lightened and the thin crescent became mistily discernible shortly before second contact - still without filters. The point of second contact could not be seen as that part of the sun was still behind thicker cloud (a video of the eclipse confirmed this fact later) although most of the eclipsed sun was now visible through a small hole in the cloud. For the rest of annularity the entire ring was stunningly visible - I'm sure the fact that we could view it with the naked eye made it outstandingly spectacular. We didn't need to use filters that would have reduced the intensity of the sun, so to me the entire ring sparkled with the brilliant light that I normally only associate with the diamond ring before and after totality. It was quite breathtaking - I had completely underestimated the effect of an annular eclipse - and I stared at it spellbound for the entire 3 1/2 minutes of annularity although the brightening sun (as the cloud cleared slightly) made this increasingly difficult. It was becoming a little too bright for the naked eye, but not yet bright enough to penetrate filters. For this reason, the moment of 3rd contact was also unobserved by me, but afterwards the brighter sun became visible through the filters so the "horns" of the near-annular partial eclipse were now seen as they hadn't been beforehand.
Only then, with annularity over, did I start to look around for other eclipse effects. Because of the cloud before second contact, there had been no sign of the usual "eclipse light", but this was obvious after 3rd contact - we don't usually notice it after totality because it's always anticlimax then, but on this occasion we were still calm enough to enjoy the post-annularity effects. Soon afterwards though the cloud thickened again and the sun disappeared for the rest of the eclipse. We had been extremely lucky.
Kevin Smith
Some images of the Annular eclipse as seen from Burghead – Moray – 31st May.
The weather was cloudy to start off with, but a couple of seconds after annularity the sky gave way to reveal the event.
A sequence of images taken using a video camera attached to a camera lens. The chip size is one third of an inch, and the zoom lens was set at 235mm.
There was a slight problem with the intensity of the sun, some images used no filter, and then as the sun increased in height above the horizon a solar filter was employed.
Ray Smith
Location: the Island of Unst, Shetland at 60.49N-0.47W.
I used an 80 - 200mm zoom plus a 2x and 3x multiplyers in line giving a focal length of 1000mm. at maximum zoom. Film was Fujicolor Superia 200. Exposure times commenced at 1/30 sec.switching to 1/60 as it got brighter. Aperture f2.8 inceasing to f8 as necessary.
(Click on the pictures for a bigger view in a new window)
I cannot claim absolute precision regarding the time the exposures were made as I was accompanied by my wife and three other local islanders who had accompanied me up from the Shetland mainland the previous day and somehow in the excitement of the moment the bit of paper with times on is still up there somewhere! I have therefore put what I consider the degree of error is for each exposure, with any comment I may have.
Numbering the Photograph's 1 to 6 from the top:-
No.1 02.45 UT +/ - ! Minute Looking NE, Waiting for sunrise.
No.2 03.10 UT +/- 3 Minutes My favourite - looks like the front page of an SF Mag.
No.3 03.30 UT +/- 3 Minutes Rising into a ridge of cloud as the NE breeze nears the land (Oh for another couple of degrees of sky)
No.4 03.35 UT +/- 2Minutes Its going!
No.5 03.38 UT +/- 2Minutes Nearly gone (Spectacular Sky). Disappeared behind cloud 03.43 UT
No.6 03.48 UT +/- 30 seconds ANNULARITY! Is that the dark centre of the eclipse that can be seen reflected in the sea about a mile or so offshore?
Julian Taylor
It is with some disappointment that I cannot give you pictures of the recent annular eclipse because we were completely clouded out in Orkney. Nevertheless we did experience a very real darkness around mid eclipse. The scenery and sights of Orkney however made the trip worthwhile - if interested you can see how we got on at http://www.racingshadow.com/SEclipse/2003May31/2003May31Report.html
Alan Tough
(Click on the picture for a bigger view in a new window)
Taken at Lossiemouth.
Date: 31st May 2003
Subject: Solar eclipse through low cloud (post annularity)
Camera: Canon EOS 300 with Centon 500mm f/8 mirror lens
Filter: None required
Film: Kodak Royal Gold 100
Other Websites
Oliver Staiger's High Moon:
http://eclipse.span.ch/2003asepix.htm
Carl Koppeschaar's ASTRONET:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~carlkop/zoneclips/eclipse.html