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SGL 2021 Analemma Challenge Special!


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The analemma is the figure of eight track of the sun at a specific point in time each day over the course of the year.  It can be captured photographically but requires, time, patience, attention to detail and committment.  Are you up for it?  Well executed analemma pictures are few and far between.  

Here is an excellent article which explains how to achieve a successful result https://www.instructables.com/Capture-the-Analemma-of-the-Sun/  

Having captured the analemma you can travel to a stunning location for your foreground.  This isn't cheating, in fact it is essential since any useable photos of the sun require everything else to be blacked out anyway!

It would be marvellous to see what SGL members can achieve with this.  Of course it takes a year to complete so this challenge is going to run until the end of April 2022.  

Please send in "work in process" images as you go along.

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This is today's thing learned.  I had no idea it made that sort of shape.  In fact if it was April 1st I'd surely be wondering, but as it isn't it must be today's thing learned!

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Oh, look.......

I woke up this morning and had remembered that my parents sundial has an 'equation of time' printed on it to adjust the shadow position by a certain number of minutes at different times of year and that this was an uneven wave of changing magnitude.  I wondered if this was due to the Analemma effect and it was - the shape is drawn on the graphs here:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equation_of_time#:~:text=The United States Naval Observatory,sun the sign is negative.  I just thought this might be of additional interest.

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21 hours ago, Davey-T said:

Is there a minimum number of images, can we Photoshop in the gaps 😂😂😂😂.

Just got my first image of the Sun since November.

Dave

Haha!!  Don't you dare!!!!

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21 hours ago, Davey-T said:

Is there a minimum number of images, can we Photoshop in the gaps 😂😂😂😂.

Just got my first image of the Sun since November.

Dave

The NOAA website has a solar calculations Excel spreadsheet that gives the solar analemma for every day for any year from anywhere in the world.  Using that and Photoshop together with your single image you should be able to complete the task by the end of the day! 😆😆😆

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Now this sounds (and looks) an interesting challenge.  1) I will have to remember to actually take the photos, 2/ remember the time and spot I am meant to photograph the sun at and 3/ hope for enough sunny days to actually get enough shots in :D 

However I will give it a go nonetheless...

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On 03/03/2021 at 14:42, Seelive said:

The NOAA website has a solar calculations Excel spreadsheet that gives the solar analemma for every day for any year from anywhere in the world.  Using that and Photoshop together with your single image you should be able to complete the task by the end of the day! 😆😆😆

If you train for a year, you could learn to wave the camera in the just the right way, and complete it in a couple seconds.

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I decided to try making a start on this a couple of days ago.  I have purchased a K&F variable neutral density filter for £27 and am using a Canon 80D with a Tokina zoom lens at 16mm (minimum f/l)  I have found an OKish transit which allows me to image from my garden using a position which doesn't need to be disturbed.  To obtain an accurate alignment between camera and transits I am using a grid which shows up in live view.  I've actually realised that it is the tripod which needs the aligning and the camera simply helps to achieve this.  Once done you can move the camera to a different point if, for example, your transits block a large part of the sky.  However you then still need a fixed point to align the camera in both it's veritcal and horizontal axis.  Think of it like polar aligning a mount and then moving the scope to a consistent alt az position.  The photo shows my tripod and camera azimuth transit.  The left edge of the fence post lined up with right edge of the chimney pot.  The altitde alignment point is the top of the minaret like top of our summer house which I line up on the bottom horizontal grid line.  Also here is my first sun shot take at 12.00 GMT  07/03/2021 using an atomic clock app on my phone.  The filter just about blocks everything else out.  Next year needs a visit to somewhere extra nice for a background photo!

It took me a while to get my head around everything and should now be more straight forward, providing the sun pops out at mid day everynow and then.

For all the photoshoppers out there, it's the fun of the chase that makes it worthwhile!!

BTW I am, of course, not entering myself for this challenge, just tagging along.

 

Analemma_Position_fix-2.jpg

Analemma.jpg

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I had thought that in post processing to compile the images I could just line every image up by using the building line at the bottom of the image frame, and then it wouldn't matter if the rest of the images were not exactly the same as once all overlaid the edge stacking artifacts could be cropped out. Though I'm going about this in a less documented way to take part in a minimum equipment approach.

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On 09/03/2021 at 15:37, MartinB said:

Next year needs a visit to somewhere extra nice for a background photo!

...But if you change location, your Analemma will also change... so you need to find somewhere nice in Derbyshire, which isn't too hard anyway :)

I've only just decided to have a go at this, although still need to work out where, when and how 😂

Mike

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7 hours ago, mikeyj1 said:

...But if you change location, your Analemma will also change... so you need to find somewhere nice in Derbyshire, which isn't too hard anyway :)

I've only just decided to have a go at this, although still need to work out where, when and how 😂

Mike

Check out the link in the initial post, lots of good advice there.

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  • 1 month later...
On 01/03/2021 at 03:45, MartinB said:

The analemma is the figure of eight track of the sun at a specific point in time each day over the course of the year.  It can be captured photographically but requires, time, patience, attention to detail and committment.  Are you up for it?  Well executed analemma pictures are few and far between.  

Here is an excellent article which explains how to achieve a successful result https://www.instructables.com/Capture-the-Analemma-of-the-Sun/  

Having captured the analemma you can travel to a stunning location for your foreground.  This isn't cheating, in fact it is essential since any useable photos of the sun require everything else to be blacked out anyway!

It would be marvellous to see what SGL members can achieve with this.  Of course it takes a year to complete so this challenge is going to run until the end of April 2022.  

Please send in "work in process" images as you go along.

how can I  sign up for this challenge 

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45 minutes ago, goddasgirl2021 said:

how can I  sign up for this challenge 

You don't need to sign up,  simply collect and submit your entry in this thread within the specified time frame.  

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@MartinB You put into words above a thought that keeps occurring to me.  That is that you must surely need to avoid the temptation to line the centre of the image up with the sun each time.  Instead yòu must need a steady set of points that you can refer to and keep the  the scope aligned to every day and then let the sun do the shifting.  NB for the avoidance of doubt I won't participate in this challenge,  but it is a very interesting topic.

Edited by JOC
Fat fingers on a phone - I didn't write the original whilst drunk I promise!
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8 hours ago, JOC said:

@MartinB You put into words above a thought that keeps occurring to me.  That is that must surely need to avoid the temptation to line the centre of the image.  Instead yòu must need a steady set of points that you can realigned the scope to ever day and then let the sun do the shiftin.  NB for the avoidance of doubt I won't participate in this challenge,  but it is a very interesting topicv.

That is the nub of it.

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I'm not sure if this counts but I did an analemma from my back garden but it took me years to complete due to cloudy weather. You have to be absolutely on the second accurate and if the Sun doesn't shine you have to wait for another year, it takes ages! I took this over a period of mainly 2016 and then 2017,18 and 19 to fill the gaps. I used the location of my image as the backdrop, I didn't know I could go elsewhere to super-impose it. The image is therefore the genuine view.

here are the links, they were all taken at 11:00 GMT

Analemma 2019-12-21 annotated version 1 2019-12-21 Analemma 2016-2019 version 2 2019-12-21 Analemma 2016-2019 version 3

Alexandra

 

 

 

Edited by Montana
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