Thursday, May 31, 2012

Went to New Mexico to View the Eclipse

I'm actually ramping up my practice routine, believe it or not, but I thought the annular eclipse of May the 20th would be a great reason to take my f-car on an overnighter.

The best place in the US to view the eclipse was Roswell, New Mexico: The weather was to be perfect and the maximum coverage of the sun by the moon would happen near sunset, when the sun was low.

Well, it was spectacular.

The Ferrari looks underexposed because the sun was about 80% covered by the moon when I snapped the shot. It was a very eerie atmosphere. The folks in the background were at the rest area west of Roswell with a telescope to view the eclipse. The scope was only a 6" reflector, but the sun looked the size of a pie plate through the eyepiece. Sunspots were easily visible, as was the jagged edge of the moon.

I took this with my camera through the eyepiece. It is very slightly clipped on the left, but pretty amazing nonetheless. This was about 10 minutes before the, "ring of fire" effect, which was goosebump inducing.

All in all, a great trip and the Ferrari is amazing for touring like that.