All the town were ready for the show. Children and teenagers enjoyed it !

As the lunar limb approached thrid contact during the annular eclipse of 2005-10-03, Baily's beads were recorded. Caused by light flooding through valleys and dips in the lunar profile, I was a little skeptical as to whether the effect being recorded was real or caused by atmospheric boiling in this particular eclipse. After comparison with a suitable limb profile diagram from Fred Espenak' superb eclipse site, it looks like these dots are indeed, Baily's Beads.

#1 These eclipse posters were all around the city so the locals had no excuse!

#2 Scene from one of the main public observing sites - out by the Madrid planetarium. (Note press helicopter watching us watching the eclipse.)

The annular eclipse from near the Egyptian Temple in Madrid, Spain.

Photo details: Canon 20D with EF 17-40mm f/4 L USM at 17mm f/8, 43 exposures of 1/500s at ISO 100 at 4 minute intervals and one foreground frame half an hour after 4th contact.

Solar eclipse pinhole photography. The effect is really GREAT... Bravo for the idea.....

Circular shadows through tree leaves during the annular phase of the eclipse.

Date + Time : Oct 3, 2005 / 9:40 (first) - 12:29 (last) UT Location : Campillo de Altobuey, Espana Lens: Canon EF 70-300mm DO USM @ 300mm Tools: Baader-Planetarium AstroSolar filter foil Camera: Canon EOS 20D digital camera Exposure Time(s): 1/1000 seconds, f/8, ISO 100 each Notes: I composed the single Sun images with the landscape photograph.

Thanks to idyllic aegean skies, today's solar eclipse was another reminder of the dynamic nature of the heavens above us and a tremendous prelude to next spring's total eclipse whose path of totality includes the Greek isle of Kastelorizo. Our two closest celestial neighbours put on another tremendous show in just under three hours where the goddess Selene passed in front of the Sun. In spite of the approximately 65% coverage at eclipse maximum, a noticeable difference in the ambient lighting, particularly that involving reflection from tiles on the ground, was noticeable. The greatest challenge proved to be the some anxious moments before the start of the eclipse when attempting to reach focus as perfectly as possible and in the absence of any sunspots. Best wishes from Greece!

The crescent sun, reflected from a pond in Paris.

The integral light images of the annular solar eclipse were taken with a Nikon D70 and an Orion 80ED and the hydrogen alpha images were taken with a modified EOS300d and a Coronado PST. Image 3 shows a comparison between integral light and hydrogen alpha light with images taken at identical times.