My wife and I went to Chile for my 4th and her 3rd total solar eclipse. We went with a group that had an exclusive site reserved on the centerline of the eclipse path high above the tiny village of La Higuera. Traveling overseas with telescopes and tracking mounts is not my idea of fun so I decided to do something I haven't tried before - a wide-angle composite showing the entire event. In this case, we were treated to a 6-contact eclipse. The normal 4 contacts plus something special that made our group cheer.
1st contact is when the leading edge of the moon just starts to block the sun.
2nd contact is when the leading edge of the moon totally blocks the sun. This is when totality starts and the sun's corona is visible.
3rd contact is when the trailing edge of the moon just starts to unblock the sun. This is when totality ends, many times with a nice "diamond ring" display.
4th contact is when the trailing edge of the moon stops blocking the sun.
Within 2 minutes of 4th contact, 5th contact occurred as the sun started setting behind the mountains with 6th contact when it fully disappeared. We had a totally clear sky all day long and the low angle of the eclipse made for easy viewing without straining our necks.
Note that Venus is the point of light near the 5th sun from the bottom. Mercury and Mars were too dim for me to capture.
Photographer: Rick Scott
Date / time: July 2, 2019 at 3:19 - 5:48 PM EST
Mount: Fixed camera tripod
Camera: Canon PowerShot G1 X
Filter: Baader Solar Film ND5 for the partial phases
Exposure (partial phases): 1/400 sec, f/8, ISO 100 in raw mode
Exposure (totality): 1/2 sec, f/8, ISO 100 in raw mode
Processed in Adobe Photoshop CS6.
Updated: July 17, 2019