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Annular Eclipse

Nobuo YAMAMOTO
(If clicked, you can see by expansion.)
Fig1 Most simple apparatus with a pin hole

    An annular eclipse was seen in the Japanese wide area in the morning on Monday, May 21st in 2012.   It was around 7:36 in Hitachinaka, Ibaraki where we live.   As I had no interest in it particularly and also I took it lightly that we wouldn't be able to see that for the blur or rain, I didn't equipe a glass for observations.
   However, it was a clear sky on the day contrary to expectation, so in a hurry, I made a pinhole in the flank of the cardboard box, which lay on a kitchen, by a needle and came to a parking lot of the super mall around here with a digital camera to observe the annular eclipse.
   By the very careless way to install a cardboard box in a trunk of a car as shown in the right figure, I took pictures of the annular eclipse projected from a pinhole blankly by a digital camera from the slanting top.   The projected sun was below 4 mm of diameter and moreover lacked clearness, so a clean picture wasn't obtained of course.   But still the pictures which seemed to be those of the annular eclipse somehow were obtained, so those were arranged according to the time process as shown in the following.

6:59 a.m.
7:00
7:04
7:08
7:11
7:17

7:19
7:20
7:22
7:26
7:27
7:28

7:30
7:31
7:32
7:33
7:34

7:35
7:36
7:37

7:37
7:38
7:39
7:40
7:41

7:42
7:43
7:44
7:45

7:47
7:50
Continuous
representation
Fig.2 Annular eclipse observed in Hitachinaka, Ibaraki, Japan
From 6:59 to 7:50 a.m. in May 21 (Mon.), 2012
The pictures were projected through a pinhole.
The scales of these projected pictures are about 5 mm.
[Notation] it's because I took a picture of a digital camera from a slant direction
manually that the size and the warp of these pictures are not fixed.

    Thin cumulocirrus covers the sun.   When Annular Eclipse starts and the sunlight becames the weakest, direct zoom lens photography of Annular Eclipse by a digital camera was taken as shown in Fig.3.   The annular eclipse in the rear of thin clouds is still taken brilliant overall by the halation due to the influence of brightness of the sun.    But, occasionally, a small circle comes out in the right in the each picture.   It is ghost.   It seems that this ghost is a fairly accurate copy of the annular eclipse of the fact.   Unfortunately, direct zoom lens photography of annular eclipse by the digital camera is only these following three.
    All the photographs taken in the other interval are without zoom lens as an example is shown Fig.4.   In such case, the ghost of a circle does not apper as seen in Fig.4 because of relatively large halation on clouds.

(If clicked, you can see by expansion.)
TIME 7:36 a.m.
7:37
7:38

Fig.3 Direct zoom lens photography and Ghost of annular eclipse
which appears as a small circle shown in the upper right
At from 7:36 to 7:38 a.m. in May 21 (Mon.), 2012
(As a thin cumulocirrus covers the sun, choosing the time sunlight becames a little weak,
direct zoom lens photography of Annular Eclipse was taken by a digital camera.)
It seems that the ghost (which is situated in the right in the each picture)
is fairly accurate copy of the annular eclipse of the fact.
By the way, the image of the each picture remains in a state that was stored
in a digital camera and brightness, color and so on are not changed at all.
The used digital camera is a popular product purchased in 2007 named "Pentax Optio W30" (7.1 Megapixels).


               (If clicked, you can see by expansion.)

Fig.4 An example of direct photography
of annular eclipse without zoom lens
May 21 (Mon.), 2012 7:36 a.m.
(to be compared to 7:36 a.m. in Fig.3)
In this case, the ghost of a circle does not apper
because of relatively large halation on clouds.
By the way, the image of the each picture remains
in a state that was stored in a digital camera
and brightness, color and so on are not changed at all.

   If we expand these ghosts and add the simultaneous pictures shown in Fig.2, we can arrange those as in the following.   They seem almost as the same as the predicted annular eclipse in the city of Hitachinaka (Part 2) and also as the same as the observation results.


                              (If clicked, you can see by expansion.)
Ghost of
the annular eclipse
(Expansion of the
small circle in Fig.3)
Simultaneous
picture in Fig.2
TIME
7:36 a.m.
7:37
7:38

Fig.5 Ghost of the annular eclipse [in the upper row] which appears
as a small circle in a digital camera, and Simultaneous picture
[in the lower row] which is shown in Fig.2
Each picture in the upper row is made to be expanded
from each small circle on Fig.3 and so on.
Around 7:36 a.m. in May 21 (Mon.), 2012
[Notation] Only when setting the digital camera as a zoom lens, clear ghost appeared
by the lens or CCD surface reflection accidentally.

    The scenery of the circumference of eight minutes later of the annular eclipse is indicated in the following.   It did not become so dark that I thought.

               (If clicked, you can see by expansion.)

Fig.6 The scenery of the circumference at 7:44 a.m.
It did not become so dark that we thought.



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Updated: 2012.05.25, edited by N. Yamamoto.
Revised on June 14th, 2012, Mar. 20, 2014, Mar. 16, 2015, Apr. 30, 2020, May 04, 2020, Jan. 31, 2021, May 15, 2021 and Mar. 22, 2022.