2024 Solar Eclipse

Total solar eclipse photos from Poplar Bluff, Missouri on April 8, 2024. 

Bobbie and I traveled to Poplar Bluff, Missouri to view our second total solar eclipse. This first one was in 2017 in Wyoming. After a lot of planning and watching the NOAA website on where the clouds were not on April 8th, Bobbie and I traveled to Poplar Bluff, Missouri to view the eclipse. It was an almost perfect day. There was just a slight haze in the sky which in the end did not matter. Here are some of the pictures I took with a Cannon EOS R50 camera and a Canon RF 600 F-11 IS STM Lens with a solar filter.

This is the initial part of the solar eclipse where just a small sliver of the sun is obscured. This was photographed with a solar filter over the lens.

This was the start of the total solar eclipse.

The moon is now obscuring almost half of the sun. There is a sun spot just in front of the moon.

This is the total solar eclipse when it is approximately 40% obscured.

The moon is now obstructing 90% of the sun. On the ground the ambient temperature is dropping and it is noticeably darker similar to the amount of light at dusk.

This is the crescent just before totality

This is totality where the moon completely covers the sun. This lasts for four minutes. The white is the corona of the sun which is not visible except during a solar eclipse. A solar prominence is barely visible at the bottom of the photo. During totality the solar filter over the camera lens can be removed.

This is a view of the corona extending from the sun. The only way to see the corona is to block the sun during an eclipse.

This photo shows the solar prominences at the bottom and right side. The shutter speed of the camera is increased to eliminate the corona.

This is an image which shows the solar flares at the bottom and bottom right of the image. The shutter speed is increased to eliminate the corona so the solar flares stand out.

The totality is just ending and the first tiny part of the sun is showing from behind the moon. This is called the “diamond ring” since it looks like one. This only lasts for a few seconds before the solar filter must be placed back on the camera lens. 

When the eclipse is just ending totality you get the "diamond ring" effect where the first sliver of the sun is seen. This lasts for a few seconds.

With the solar filter back on the camera lens, the first sliver of the sun becomes visible after totality. The ambient light now quickly returns to almost full daylight and the ambient temperature noticeably starts to increase.

This is the crescent of the sun 15 seconds after totality. This requires a long exposure time which makes the photo slightly blurry.

About 10% of the sun is now visible. The ambient temperature is now back to the level prior to the start of the eclipse, which demonstrates the enormous amount of energy radiating from the sun.

This is about 5% visibility of the sun after totality.

By now, more than half of the sun is visible, and the conditions have returned to pre-totality levels.

This is more than half of the sun visible after totality.