Description

Bright Diamond Ring Solar Eclipse 2017. 3595×2701. Total solar eclipse showing the diamond ring effect, photographed from Corvallis, Oregon, August 21st, 2017. A total solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the sun and the earth, so that it casts a shadow on the face of the earth which travels in a path as the earth rotates and the moon orbits. Only a few people on the earth can see a total solar eclipse each time it occurs (as opposed to a total lunar eclipse, which everyone on the planet who can see the moon can witness). The diamond ring effect occurs when the sun is nearly completely eclipsed, at the beginning and the end of totality. This one was at the end of totality, and is just a fraction of a second after totality ended, with the sun just peaking through a lunar valley or past a mountain peak on the moon. The rays of light radiating out from that bright spot are a natural result of light diffraction around the aperture blades of the lens. This usually only occurs when the lens is stopped down to a tiny opening, but occurs here because a tiny point of bright light was being imaged. Some of the rays in this image have multiple spokes, likely the result of mutliple spots of bright light– the sun was peaking through a few lunar valleys or past a few mountain peaks. Often, solar prominences (solar flares) can be seen in images of total solar eclipses, as well as Baily’s Beads, which are bright portions just above the surface of the sun showing through lunar valleys (they show up red, instead of white). The real highlight of a total solar eclipse is the appearance of the corona, which is the superheated wispy atmostphere of the sun, streaming out in trails which follow the lines of the sun’s magnetic field. See my many other astrophotographs. See also my other version of this image, which has more detail evident in the corona, but at the sacrifice of brightness and control of the digital noise. Stock photo.