This page is entirely dedicated to the June 21, 2001 Solar Eclipse in Zambia. The only thing you'll find here are pictures made during the partial phases and during totality. An impression of this day can be found on another page within this site. Click here to get there.

The entire eclipse photographed at 10-minute intervals

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To capture the entire eclipse, from first contact till fourth contact 166 minutes later, a picture was taken every ten minutes. Except for totality a protective filter was used to dim the otherwise dangerously bright sunlight. Because of the movement of the Sun in the camera's viewfinder, a readjustment was necessary before making each picture.

In Lusaka, our viewing location, the Moon first encroached on the Sun at 13.42 hours. This moment is known as first contact. Hardly noticeable in the beginning, the Moon increasingly covers the Sun until 87 minutes later the Moon has drifted fully in front of the Sun. This is second contact, the onset of totality. Because the sunlight is now completely blocked by the Moon, the otherwise invisible corona can be seen as a pearly-white aureole surrounding the black disc of the Moon. Only 3 minutes and 14 seconds, than the Moon started to drift away again from the Sun. Third contact. Light returns to Earth again and during the next 74 minutes the part of the Sun covered by the Moon becomes smaller and smaller. Fourth contact, at 16.27 hours, is when both discs finally part.

Totality photographed at different exposure times

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From the moment of the Diamond Ring's appearance it is safe to view at the now covered Sun with the naked eye and pictures can be made without using a strong protective filter. Because the brightness of the corona varies widely with the distance from the Sun, it is necessary to make pictures at a range of shutter speeds to capture the corona in its entire glory. Due to the effective focal length of 600 mm and the movement of the Sun, the largest shutter speed that could be used without blurring was half a second. Our eyes, however, have a much more dynamic range and do not need these kind of artificial measures.

Diamond Rings

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During the last minutes before totality, daylight disappears fast and stars and planets (e.g. Venus) become visible in the sky. About 15 seconds before totality bright specks of light appear around the dark disc of the Moon. Looking similar to a string of pearls, these are called Bailey's Beads, the last rays of sunlight shining through valleys on the edge of the Moon. They swiftly disappear until one remains, a dazzling light set on top of a ring formed by the corona. This is the so-called Diamond Ring, visible for a few seconds until this last ray vanishes as well and totality is complete.

At the end of totality, 3 minutes and 14 seconds later, the Diamond Ring appears again at the opposite side of the Sun as before. In a few seconds the amount of light that reaches Earth again quickly increases until after a few seconds it is no longer safe to watch it with the naked eye. Time to remount the protective filter on the camera again and start using protective glasses again.

Prominences

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Just before totality a huge prominence is visible on the Sun's right edge. A prominence is a huge jet of gas stretching outward from the surface up to one-twentieth of the Sun's diameter. Altough a lot more prominences could be seen with the naked eye all around the Sun's edge, only this one was captured on film. As the different phenomena accompanying an eclipse vary widely in brightness, it takes the right shutter speeds to capture prominences.

Sun Spots

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A little bit difficult to see but when found clearly visible, three spots just below and left from the middle of the Sun mark areas on the Sun's surface where the temperature is lower than its surroundings. That the spots are real solar spots and not just artifacts becomes evident on the three pictures shown below taken 20 minutes (middle) and 150 minutes (right) apart from the first one.

Photographic equipment used

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All the pictures above (except for the two Diamond Ring pictures) were made using a Minolta Dynax 700si SLR body, a 75 - 300 mm (f 4.5 - 5.6) telephoto lens and a Kenko x2 teleconverter. This resulted in an effective focal length of 600 mm. During the partial phase, the lens was covered by a homemade black polymer filter that was removed a few minutes before second contact and remounted just after third contact. The pictures were captured onto a Fuji 200 ASA film. To reduce vibration while making pictures, the camera was mounted on a sturdy tripod and a cable release was used. The Diamond Ring pictures were taken out of hand with a Minolta Dynax 5000 SLR body with a 80 - 220 mm (f 4.5 - 5.6) telephoto lens. The Diamond Ring just before totality was taken with a focal length of 80 mm (by accident) while the Diamond Ring just after totality was taken with a focal length of 220 mm.

Before the eclipse the diaphragm and shutterspeed were determined by using the camera's built in spot meter. A diafraphragm of 11 and a shutter speed of 1/60 of a second were chosen as the optimal combination. During the partial phase three pictures at different shutter speeds (+1, 0, -1 stop) were taken every ten minutes. A few minutes before second contact the shutter speed was set at 1/4000 of a second to capture Bailey's Beads and 8 pictures were made only seconds apart. During totality a series of pictures with increasing shutter speeds were made up to 1/2 a second after which a series in the opposite direction were made up to 1/250 of a second. This shutter speed was maintained and 5 pictures were made, again only seconds apart, to capture the diamond ring. After remounting the solar filter the 10-minute interval series of three pictures during partial phase were continued.