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This composition displays the various phases of the eclipse, starting from the first contact through to totality, and then moving on to the last contact.
Photograph details
Camera: Canon 5Da Mark II
400 mm – f/8 – 1/60-1/1000 – ISO 200
For more details please visit my blog Hunting for Eclipses
In the very early stages of totality, the so-called Bailey’s beads can be seen, which are optical-light effects that naturally occur during a total solar eclipse, observable only for a few moments, at the second contact (or first internal contact) and at the third contact (or second internal contact) in the solar corona near the lunar edge. They are due to the irregular topography of the lunar surface, thus of the edge of the lunar disk as observed from Earth, which creates grains or luminous pearls due to the passage of sunlight, shining through certain areas of the Moon (predominantly depressions such as valleys, seas, and craters) and not through others (such as mountainous elevations).
