May 20, 2012 was the date of an annular eclipse that was fortunate enough to pass right over the city of Albuquerque.  It’s called “annular”, not because it occurs “annually”, rather it is a “ring” eclipse where the somewhat elliptical orbit of the moon is around its furthest distance from the earth, so it doesn’t quite cover the sun’s disk as it would if it was closer during a “total” eclipse.  The moon orbits the earth approximately every 27 days, yet we do not have an eclipse very often because the moon’s orbit is at a slight tilt and the shadow usually misses the earth either above or below.

The eclipse centerline was toward the south of Albuquerque, which put it about 20 miles away from home.  I could’ve watched the complete eclipse from home, but opted to find a location near centerline to get an ideal picture. 

I scouted out a great location a couple of days prior and was the first one set up on location.  However, as you can see, it quickly filled up since I wasn’t the only one who found that ideal location!

I set up four cameras.  One was on timer every 15 seconds to create a video animation of the eclipse.  Another camera was set up to create a single, composite picture and I had one camera for the telescope.  The final camera was aimed to capture the action!

Here is the first “bite” of the eclipse as the moon makes contact on the lower right.  The three spots on the sun are in fact sunspots.

Here the eclipse is almost at maximum.

This is a 100% crop of the previous picture.

The eclipse is at its fullest.  It is a perfect ring since I am set up on centerline.