Starship Asterisk*

The Climber and the Eclipse

Explanation: What should you do if your rock climbing picture is photobombed by a total eclipse of the Sun? Rejoice -- because your planning paid off. After months of considering different venues, and a week of scouting different locations in Oregon's Smith Rock State Park, a group of photographers and rock climbers led by Ted Hesser, Martina Tibell, and Michael Shainblum settled on picturesque 100-meter tall Monkey Face tower as the dramatic foreground for their images of the pending total solar eclipse. Tension mounted as the eclipse time approached, planned juxtapositions were scrutinized, and the placement of rock climber Tommy Smith was adjusted. Right on schedule, though, the Moon moved in front of the Sun, and Smith moved in front of the Moon, just as planned. The solar eclipse image displayed here actually shows a diamond ring, an eclipse phase when a bit of the distant Sun is still visible beyond the Moon's surface.

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why can I see stars in the moon?

Bob m wrote:why can I see stars in the moon?

Could be hot pixels, dust, bugs, or pretty much anything but stars.

Why is the eclipse so big in the picture, but when I saw it... here in Oregon...it was not so big...is it just perspective?
We had trees, etc, around... but even then, not this dynamic... the only thing I can think of is distance from the camera to person. If up closer it would look smaller...I wonder how far way that was taken.

Other than that, it is a great shot, and image...

:---[===] *

geckzilla wrote:

Bob m wrote:why can I see stars in the moon?

Could be hot pixels, dust, bugs, or pretty much anything but stars.

I wondered that, but zooming in they appear to show the same trailing as the stars to the right of the climber. Would be interested to hear what they are.

It is not a photobomb if it is the intended subject of the photo.

Was this the only attempt? I assume not. Otherwise, they deserve credit for the plan and successful execution. Most things don't always work the first time and every time.

Knight of Clear Skies wrote:

geckzilla wrote:

Bob m wrote:why can I see stars in the moon?

Could be hot pixels, dust, bugs, or pretty much anything but stars.

I wondered that, but zooming in they appear to show the same trailing as the stars to the right of the climber. Would be interested to hear what they are.

Can we assume they are stars on the right? If not then you will need other evidence.

Boomer12k wrote:
Why is the eclipse so big in the picture, but when I saw it... here in Oregon...it was not so big...is it just perspective?
We had trees, etc, around... but even then, not this dynamic... the only thing I can think of is distance from the camera to person. If up closer it would look smaller...I wonder how far way that was taken.

Both the Sun & Moon are ~110 times as far away as they are across.

Both look only about ~10 feet across relative to the climber.

Hence, the climber was about ~1100 feet away from the telephoto lens.

Confused wrote:

Knight of Clear Skies wrote:

geckzilla wrote:
Could be hot pixels, dust, bugs, or pretty much anything but stars.

I wondered that, but zooming in they appear to show the same trailing as the stars to the right of the climber. Would be interested to hear what they are.

Can we assume they are stars on the right? If not then you will need other evidence.

Five very bright stars within 20 arcminutes of each other (The Pleiades are ~110 arcminutes wide.)

neufer wrote:Five very bright stars within 20 arcminutes of each other (The Pleiades are ~110 arcminutes wide.)

I was wondering if the camera had been left in position until nightfall and they had been composited in later (using a longer exposure), but that seems unlikely. Perhaps the 'trailing' is caused by the action of the shutter moving the camera slightly, the outline around the rock and climber is a similar width. The small streaks could well be insects or dust spots on the lens.

That's a beautiful shot. But good grief, man!

With all the involved planning, why not take the extra five or 10 minutes to touch up the dust bunnies that are sooo distracting.

One letter is wrong in the video link, it should be: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgAksIb1NGo

Mystery solved. There is a short video here which shows lots of insects flying through the shot, and a fine selection of images before and after totality.

Wow, what a way to experience the eclipse! Excellent image!

He could have left the bug bright spots in deliberately in an attempt to short-circuit "fake" or "Photoshopped" comments which seem to abound when someone produces a beautiful image well beyond the average person's capabilties. Superb image!!!

Greg Parker wrote:He could have left the bug bright spots in deliberately in an attempt to short-circuit "fake" or "Photoshopped" comments which seem to abound when someone produces a beautiful image well beyond the average person's capabilties. Superb image!!!

I like the spots. I immediately recognized them as bugs or floating seeds, as I saw the same thing visually from Wyoming and caught some in my photos, as well. I think they add another layer of depth.

BobStein-VisiBone wrote:One letter is wrong in the video link, it should be: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgAksIb1NGo

Thanks for pointing this out. Which letter is wrong? I just tried to fix this by cursor-copying the YouTube string -- but the same error results. Any ideas why?

So... it's the bugs doing the photo-bombing.

RJN wrote:

BobStein-VisiBone wrote:One letter is wrong in the video link, it should be: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgAksIb1NGo

Thanks for pointing this out. Which letter is wrong? I just tried to fix this by cursor-copying the YouTube string -- but the same error results. Any ideas why?

Not sure what's going wrong with your copy/paste, but the difference is that the second from last character needs to be a capital "G", not the lower case "g" you have in the caption link.

I call BS on this one. I plugged in his location at Monkey Face Rock, north of Redmond. He would have had to be standing north of the the rock tower facing south east. The diamond ring would have appeared at roughly 2 and 7 o’clock, not 5 o’clock like in the picture. The little trapezoid pattern of stars to the right don’t show up in any of my planetarium apps. I’ve yet to see a diamond ring image with the much corona visible, except this one. I guess the "stars" on the disk of the moon are either "the ones the astronauts had to navigate around when the went to the moon" or the moon really is "made of swiss cheese" and that's sunlight shining through. And of course, the eclipse is out of focus, which hides a lot of photoshop flaws, while the rock and climber are in focus. Who shots an eclipse and focuses on the foreground? A BS shot all the way around. Reasonably good photoshop work, but it does an injustice to those of us who do real astro imaging.

DonTaylor wrote:I call BS on this one.

I call BS on you. Maybe you should read the other comments before adding your own. Maybe you should follow the links and read about how this image was made, how many people were there when it was made, and watch the related video.

In the NASA APOD's text, I have now added the astrophotographers name to the front of the list of people leading this great photographic effort.
- RJN

Who said there is no i9ntelligent life here ? and very artistic ) Maybe in Wash DC but here ? Vast amounts populate thisplace. I watche NASA tv yedsterday and it was a tribute to the Voyager space program and there was a lady on the end of the panel, whose name was " Anna " . Very passionate. Who is she ? And the others not only passionate, also PHD's in science. Very happy to see the other side of cable tv. My father always told me not to watch just one channel Macular degeneration makes it a bit more challenging.

Having been to Smith Rock a number of times, I immediately recognised these as bugs.

Smith Rock is an extraordinary place under ordinary circumstances, it must have been amazing during the eclipse!

Chris Peterson wrote:the difference is that the second from last character needs to be a capital "G", not the lower case "g" you have in the caption link.

Thanks (again). That fixed it.