2023 Annular Eclipse

Tiff and I wanted to make the 2023 eclipse our first major trip in the new camper, so we set out originally to meet some friends in Nevada. After a blowout 50 miles into the trip, a set of new tires, and a steep “camper life” learning curve, we decided that Nevada was out of range for our time table, but making it to New Mexico would be doable. We landed in time to scout out a location in the New Mexican wilderness and wait for the celestial alignment.

Annular eclipses occur when the moon is further from the earth, preventing it from completely covering the entire sun, leaving a “ring of fire” around the moon. This is why this type of eclipse is called “annular” because annular is defined by Merriam Webster as “: of, relating to, or forming a ring”. I totally knew that before and didn’t just look it up.

For this image, I knew I wanted to find an oculus to shoot through. I hiked for about 12 miles before finding this specific location. The oculus had to be oriented correctly to see the sun at the proper time, have an interesting shape, and allow ample room to zoom in to enlarge the sun but still maintain the “window” of the rock.

The final image is a result of 83 total photographs stacked together to capture the various stages of the eclipse, as well as a foreground and sky plate. My favorite part of the image is the first stage to the right after the full ring, which shows the ring being interrupted by a couple dots on its bottom portion. This is caused by the uneven surface of the moon, just as it begins to close the bottom portion of the ring.