Pictures of the Sun
Why the Sun? Anyone can take pictures of the Sun.
But sometimes it’s right there in your window, and the atmosphere is juuust right and you can see all the way to the mountains of Kobe…
In retrospect, I’ve always liked photographing the Sun…
The Day the Sun Almost Died
We interrupt this broadcast for something momentous!
On May 21st, Osaka experienced an annular solar eclipse. Something like this hasn’t been seen here in 280 years. That means the last Osakans who saw something like this in 1732 swore their allegiance to the Shogun; and the people who see the next one in 2292 will either be directly uploading holograms of it to each other’s neural nets, or feral lizardfolk fearing that devils will eat up the sun. Depending, of course, on the future of humankind.
I joined my lady and her friends after 6 AM, and we got onto the roof of their apartment. At first, we were real disappointed at all the overcast, because it made our eclipse glasses mostly useless. It turned into a real blessing thoug, as it meant not only could we take easy point-and-shoot pictures of the event, but look right into the damn thing.
In small doses. It still was the sun, after all.
6:47 AM. Taken by putting the eclipse glasses over the camera lens.
7:09. This is when I realized the clouds meant I could take pictures without the filter. This is what it looked like to the naked eye.
7:18
7:23
7:27. Approaching alignment, a slight “diamond ring” effect can be seen
7:28. The moment of annular eclipse.
7:31. Another ring effect as the moon exits the eclipse.
8:18. One last photo through the filter before the moon gets on with its regular life.
I’m not really sure how to follow all that up. I just can’t believe I was there for it.
perihele 