Ecumenical Sunset

Fabulous shots Anthony. A couple of dust bunnies in the Selene shot you should clone out.
You are so lucky to have a Sun to photograph.

John,

You have the eyes of a hawk (or was it an eagle?). Thanks for pointing out the small areas due to dust and which I just removed from the hires versions.

As for the sun being visible, we are fortunate to have very mild temperatures at the moment, certainly warmer than normal, and I would love to see this situation continue right to the end of the year. In fact, I remember 7 to 8 yrs ago when people were swimming at the beach in mid-December! Go figure.

Anthony.

I prefer the second shot.
The eye is focused on the center of the sun with the
cross in the middle.
You did exceptionally well to not burn it out.
The exposure is bang on.

As for the vignetting...
'artisic effect'
I must remember that one!
:silly:

Frank,

I purposely used a 1.25" nosepiece to create the vignetting and I am having second doubts about this aspect. I should have gone ahead with my 2" nosepiece and have bypassed the vignetting.

As for exposure, the sun was around 0.7 degrees altitude (first photo) and which explains the absence of a burnt core.

Anthony.

Yeah,
I'd forget that nosepiece and shoot straight.
I personally don't think it adds anything extra to the shot
and if anything pulls the concentration away from the
focal point...
IMHO the area going from center to edge should be dark...
this would give a 'tunnel' effect..
Again...
I feel like I should just shut the **** up offering
you advice on astrophotography!
:lol:
BUT I gota say what I see.!

Frank,

I need the nosepiece (1.25" or 2") due to my use of the Baader UV/IR-Cut filter.

As for feedback, it is always welcome and irrespective if it is positive or negative ... and I agree that I should NOT have used it. Bonehead move on my part but I now have a location for a repeat visit in the future and for a better result.

With this result, I also discovered how to shoot the Sun and to also have detail (!) in my foreground, namely by catching the Sun under one degree above the horizon.

Anthony.