![](https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1578/25554269751_4a66f8109d_z.jpg)
On 9 March 2016, a large part of the Pacific, including South East Asia and Australia was treated to a rare celestial event, a solar eclipse. Unfortunately, Singaporeans are only able to see a partial eclipse, with the 87% of the sun being covered by the moon. It’s still a rare event nonetheless, with the last solar eclipse here being 18 years ago in 1998. And until this day, I have not once seen a solar eclipse, though I have seen and photographed the more common lunar eclipse.
![](https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1579/25646926835_b353089d9a_z.jpg)
With the eclipse slated to start at 7:22am and reaching its maximum at 8:23am, it’s perfect timing of me to catch it just before work. I set off much earlier than normal and got to the rooftop of my building. I didn’t manage to get solar filters on time, so I mounted a 10-stop ND filter on my Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm f/4 lens. To maximise the magnification, I used my old Nikon V1 camera. With a crop factor of 2.7x, this gives me an effective focal length of 540mm to shoot the eclipse. The 10-stop ND filter reduced the brightness enough for me to take proper photos of it. Composing through the LCD also meant that I didn’t have to look at the sun through the optics of a traditional DSLR setup, which can be harmful to the eyes.
![My camera setup for shooting the eclipse.](http://www.ckphoto.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/IMG_4020-1024x768.jpg)
The eclipse was already in progress when I arrived, and wanting to capture a bit of the clouds rather than having just a crescent-like object, I had inadvertently set the exposure to be too bright for most of the eclipse. I only realised this much later, which explains the almost-white crescent shaped sun you see in the composite above. I also brought along 2 pieces of cardboard, one of which had a pinhole, to try out the pinhole projection method of viewing the eclipse safely. It sure is a novel way to view it.
![Pinhole projection of the sun at 8:16am.](http://www.ckphoto.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/IMG_4007-1024x768.jpg)
One thing I realised is that because this is not a total eclipse, the sun is not fully covered by the moon at its peak. Despite having 87% coverage, the surroundings are still reasonably bright, resembling the even golden hour twilight. Hence, it’s still as dangerous to look at the sun without protection at this time.
![The beautiful light shortly after maximum eclipse.](http://www.ckphoto.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/IMG_4018-1024x682.jpg)
The next eclipse visible in Singapore will be on 26 December 2019, and it will be a total eclipse. Hopefully, I’ll be able to catch that as well.
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