These eclipse images are from a video taken with a ZWO ASI120MC I used on a short-tube 80mm f5 Orion telescope. We observed from a site on Halmahera Island, Indonesia. Control of the camera was done with FireCapture V2.5 (Beta). I was unable to get a good recording of 2nd contact, but have a video of totality and of 3rd contact. I did not have much experience with the ZWO or with FireCapture, certainly that contributed to the difficulties I experienced.
The telescope was mounted on a very lightweight alt-az mount designed and built by John Broughton of Reedy Creek, Australia. These mounts work quite well as long as their limits are respected– such as, leaving sufficient adjustment space on the altitude screw for the solar motion over the period immediately before and immediately after totality.
For the ZWO, I used a C-mount focal reducer so that the entire Sun would fit into its FOV. The focal reducer is held in the eyepiece holder, and attaches to the ZWO with a C-mount to T-2 adaptor provided with the ZWO. That adaptor easily works loose. I assume a telephoto with a T-2 thread would fit the ZWO and might be a better choice for eclipse photography than the 80-mm telescope.
During testing on March 7 the recording stuttered (i.e., stopped for 5-7 seconds multiple times and then continued). The computer clock had been set to be on UTC, and the eclipse practice was over the 0h, possibly being impacted by some process scheduled to start around at midnight. I couldn’t find any, but changed the clock to local time and did not see that occur again. . Computers that control cameras should not do anything but control cameras. That means, however, travelers need to carry multiple computers and that is not always possible.
Early in the morning on eclipse day, March 9, the skies looked good from our location in the Gosowong Gold Mine Village, but not later. So we left for a wild ride towards clearer skies, with the equipment tumbled into the back of a SUV. We did get to see the eclipse while they did not at Gosowong, but that drive and general disruption caused us problems that significantly reduced the amount of data we were able to get.
Our site was south of a small village Tapa Noma in a wide spot on the side of the road. Not an especially great place, it looked flat because the vegetation was all cut to one height, but it wasn’t. The Sun went in and out of the clouds as we set up the equipment, but we did see and record the beads and totality.
There was one really large prominence visible for the entire duration of totality, from 2nd to 3rd contact. It looks nice in the ZWO video, very red. The eclipse was a beautiful sight naked eye and through the finder scopes with that prominence.
The ZWO exposure control with the FireCapture I found to be too slow to follow the rapidly changing conditions of an eclipse, especially one hampered by clouds. I could not change the exposure fast enough. Perhaps with more experience with FireCapture I would have not had that problem.
