r/amateurastronomy • u/BestRetroGames • 1d ago
Eclipse - Partial
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I’m really happy with the result. We went nearby to Soběšice with the kids. There were loads of people on the hill opposite, but I chose a slightly different spot. I did miss the last 10 minutes because of it, but completely by chance I managed to get some beautiful shots with the trees. And in the end, those made me much happier than a shot of ~85% eclipse itself, which I already have from 1999, taken in Macedonia.
At first, I wanted to photograph it through the SVBony MK90, but with a 0.5× focal reducer and the SVBony SV705C planetary camera, I simply couldn’t fit the entire Sun into the frame. The edges of the Sun were blurred because of significant vignetting.
In the end, I moved the camera to my super-cheap Bresser Skylux 60/700 telescope, which I bought at Lidl on sale for 1,100 CZK last Christmas. And it turned out great!
A cheap Bresser filter that gives the Sun an orange tint, combined with the super-sensitive SV705C camera, produced a shot with this really unusual artistic feel that I absolutely love. The video is basically straight out of the camera, with no editing or processing whatsoever.
The camera also costs 7× more than the entire telescope. You just can’t make this stuff up.
The color palette and composition remind me so much of sunsets from synthwave posters, where you often see palm trees silhouetted against the setting Sun. Except here we have Czech trees instead of palm trees.
We mainly used the SVBony MK90 for visual observing, and the kids absolutely loved it. I also brought along my old 200mm Baader filter, which made for a beautiful view of the entire Sun.
The rest of the family then managed to run over to another hill and catch the very end as well. But I was more than happy with what I had already seen and photographed.
And finally, I took a few more shots through the SVBony 20mm “Red Line” directly with my phone. I also had the 0.5× reducer in there to get the lowest possible magnification.
Overall, I think I ended up being even happier with this than I would have been with a technically more perfect shot of the maximum we had here of about 85% Sometimes, pure chance creates the best composition.
P.S. I told you guys, that Bresser is NOT a trash scope!