All photos were taken on April 8, 2024 in Lake Placid, NY and are copyright 2024 Gary A. Donahue. And yeah, that’s me looking at the sun with hard plastic eclipse glasses from American Paper Optics.
- Canon 5DSr (50MP)
- Canon 500mm f/4L IS lens w/ 1.4X III TC (700mm f/5.6)
- Home made solar filters using Baader Solar Film
- iOptron AZ Mount Pro for tracking
- iOptron Pier Tripod
- Solar Eclipse Maestro (SEM) v1.9
- Custom script written by me
- 2015 Macbook Pro running Mojave because SEM is only 32bit
- Time GPS locked with Garmin 18x USB puck antenna and SEM
- Power provided to laptop via a Bluetti AC70
The main camera is from 2015, the secondary camera is from 2012, and the big 500mm lens is from 1999. Basically all of the camera equipment is old and end-of-life according to Canon. Oh – and the photos of me and the the equipment above was taken with my 2002 Canon 1Ds Mark II from 2002! My daughter Meghan took the pic of me.
Additional equipment shown but not used in any of these photos:
- Canon 5DM3 (22.3MP)
- Canon 400mm f/5.6L lens w/ 1.4X II TC (560mm f/8)
Partial Pics
First, here is an image of the full sun. Check out those sun spots! Scroll down for totality pics.
Sadly, that is the last photo that’s accurately focused. I have no idea what happened, but to say I am displeased would be an understatement.
10% occlusion: 
20% occlusion:
30% occlusion: 
40% occlusion:
50% occlusion:
60% occlusion:
70% occlusion:
80% occlusion: 
90% occlusion:
99% occlusion:
Totality
Baily’s Beads (C2):
Prominences (C2): 
Sadly, my cameras both had some failures at this point so I do not have a pic of the C2 diamond ring. Corona pic(s) will be at the bottom.
Prominences (C3):
Here’s a nice crop of those super-cool flares. The one on the bottom that’s shaped like a V was easily visible to the naked eye.
Baily’s Beads (C3):
Diamond Ring (C3):
And finally, the Corona
Since my cameras failed I didn’t get all the corona pics I wanted, but here are three stacks I made using different methods:
None of these corona pics do it justice. For one, the huge solar flare on the bottom was plainly visible and the corona was larger, but coronas are very difficult to get right. If I come up with a better stack I’ll be sure to add it here!
I’ll likely be adding an article about how I took all of these pics, but for now if you’d like to know more you can check out the article I wrote entitled How I Took my Eclipse Photos from 2017, much of which is still accurate.
Let me know what you think and feel free to leave a comment to your own 2024 eclipse photos!
April 11 2024 Edit: Now we’re getting somewhere.
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