Date: 2008-02-08 08:37:00
partial solar eclipse
Yesterday afternoon there was a partial solar eclipse visible from here in New Zealand. The weather cooperated and it was a bright sunny day. I brought out my telescope and solar filter, sat out in the sun, and took a few dozen pictures. Only after I had finished taking pictures did I have the idea of composing a video from the frames.

First, I took the timestamps from each of the photos I took and determined the best-fit interval that would give me approximately equal spacing between images used for frames. Then, I wrote some image processing that automatically cropped and centered each image. Finally, I used iMovie to take the sequence of images and compose a video which I uploaded to YouTube. Here is the final result.

[info]thecrazykiwi : Thank You!
2008-02-07T20:31:45Z
Hey!

Thanks for posting this. It was the first time I'd ever actually been able to observe a partial solar eclipse, as I'd have no hope of seeing them in real life.

Shon.
[info]ghewgill : Re: Thank You!
2008-02-07T21:18:23Z
Cool! I hadn't even thought about using video to make astronomical events accessible.
[info]thecrazykiwi : Re: Thank You!
2008-02-07T22:33:37Z
Hmmm. Neither had I until you put it like that. Hahaha.

I've always been interested in observing these sorts of things, but the only way I can get a visual perspective is through things like documentaries and cool videos like yours. Thanks again, very much appreciated.
[info]texaspatsfan : Most Excellent
2008-02-08T00:59:01Z
I just sent the link to the usual suspects and to my family.

Very cool.

I expect more of those. :)
Greg Hewgill <greg@hewgill.com>