Ye Olde Photographer took the images seen here with his Canon EOS M5 mirror-less SLR equipped with a Canon EF 70-300 f/4-5.6 IS telephoto lens. With the 1.6 crop factor that reaches to a 480mm equivalent in 35mm full frame terms. A Canon adapter was used to mate the lens to the EF-M mount. This time we splurged on a 67 mm Hoya ProND100000 filter. That provided a smoother optical surface and more neutral color scheme.

In addition YOP acquired a Benro TMA27A Series 2 Mach3 aluminum tripod which has only 3 leg sections of substantial diameter and provides a sturdy mount. The tripod was mated with a Benro GD3WH 3-Way geared head which offered a nice smooth adjustment as the sun moved across the field of view. The Benro equipment was a considerable expense but should be useful for other projects besides eclipse photography.

The EOS M5 is a 24 megapixel camera, so YOP feels no guilt in cropping the images to "zoom" in, centering a bit in the process. This camera also has an articulating LCD screen on the back which eliminated fiddling with the right angle viewfinder attachments used in 2017.

The main obstacle in 2024 was that the easily accessible parts of New York state and westward where totality would occur were shrouded with clouds. As the event was barely 24 hours after returning from an overseas trip, it was decided to skip the travel and shoot from the deck at the rear of the house. There the eclipse was 90.4-something percent obscuration; e.g., not total, but expectations were low anyway. As it turned out, there were occasional breaks in the cloud cover to permit getting a few shots. After all, the 2017 exercise was relatively successful and did get some examples of totality.

(mn:pq notation under photos is hours and minutes Eastern Daylight Time, 08 April 2024.)