The following pictures were taken near the city Pforzheim in southern Germany, very near to the center line of the total eclipse. It was very cloudy this day, but numerous gaps frequently provided a good visibility. Since I had no solar filter for my camera optics, I used some clouds of the “right density” for filtering throughout the partial phases.

The partial phase before the total eclipse:

An unintentional triple exposure of the total solar eclipse. Because of my excitement and the complete darkness, I lost the control over the camera. Unfortunately, this single picture is the only result.

If you ever have the chance to take a picture of a total solar eclipse, practise the camera operation in darkness beforehand, until you are fast enough! And some time later on…

Equipment

Pentax “Program A” SLR with winder and remote release, tripod, Vivitar Series 1 tele zoom 70-210 mm (set at 210 mm) with Kenko 2x tele-converter, thus giving a total 420 mm focal length. Kodak Gold ISO 100 print film. The partial phases were shot at f/16 aperture and automatic shutter speed.