Showstopping Photos of the Solar Eclipse Taken During ‘Once in a Lifetime’ Event
Total solar eclipses in North America are exceedingly rare and for those lucky enough to be in the path of totality for yesterday’s eclipse it may be the only one they ever see in their lifetime.
For photographers, it’s a gift from the Gods: an opportunity to capture a unique and spectacular image. Many shutterbugs planned for months for this celestial event. Here’s a roundup of some of the best photos seen by PetaPixel.
If you follow astrophotography then there is a strong chance you have come across Andrew McCarthy, a frequent contributor to PetaPixel and an all-round photography superstar. McCarthy traveled to Missouri to capture Totality and his final image combines data from five cameras compositing thousands of photos taken during the four minutes of totality. You can buy a print of McCarthy’s chef-d’oeuvre via his website.
Raghuvamsh Chavali made a last-minute decision to travel from his home in Guelph, Ontario to Hamilton where the eclipse was 100% totality.
“The decision to change locations proved to be pivotal, as Hamilton offered an unobstructed view of the total solar eclipse. Despite the initial disappointment caused by the cloudy skies, the moment the eclipse began was nothing short of magical. The sky darkened as the moon gradually obscured the sun, creating a breathtaking spectacle that left me in awe,” Chavali tells PetaPixel.
Staying in Canada, Brad Perry posted a poignant photo on X compositing the path of the total eclipse with his family beneath. His heartwarming message reads, “When the next total solar eclipse passes over Fredericton in 2079 and our son is 60 years old, I hope he looks back at this photo and remembers this day.”
While upstate New York was in the line of totality, Manhattan was not. But that didn’t stop Gary Hershorn from getting this creative and beautiful photo of the partial eclipse framed by the Statue of Liberty.
Dan Martland, who last week captured lightning striking the Statue of Liberty, captured the Moon blocking the Sun from Vermont. You can see solar filaments extending outward from the solar system’s star.
NASA released this composite image of multiple exposures showing the progression of a partial solar eclipse over the Washington Monument. In fact, the space agency released a sequence of spectacular photos shot in the capital, Texas, and Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
If you missed the eclipse then there’s no real way of sugarcoating it, you have to wait until 2044 before the next one can be seen in the U.S. And it will only be visible in Montana and the Dakotas.
Header image credits: Left to right: NASA, Andrew McCarthy, Brad Perry.
