“First” 2024 Totality Image

It’s really about the 3rd or 4th attempt to merge multiple exposures to get an HDR image.

I have relatives in Jackson, MO and the 2024 Eclipse was passing within a hundred meters of their house, so we turned it into an eclipse party with a barbeque and family social. It also allowed me to set up the telescope the night before and get it polar aligned very well so that the mount tracked all day with only one or two tweaks to keep things dead center, and those were not really necessary.

This short video on YouTube (which has no audio and only a very short text description) was my starting point. You can find lots of videos showing you how to combine your multiple images with Photoshop, Lightroom, or some other expensive rent-a-program. While I could probably carve out enough time to only have to pay for a single month and get all my images processed by locking myself in the basement until it’s done, I’d like the option to come back and poke at the images as I learn more. That would me keeping or reactivating the subscription every time I want to edit. No thanks.