Annular Eclipse 31 May 2003

We arrived at Dornoch, newly famous for Madonna's wedding, at about 3.30am, in plenty of time for the 4.30am eclipse. The weather was poor -- low visibility, with cloud and fog. It didn't look good.

We were by the beach, with a (theoretically) clear view over the sea to the north-east where the sun would rise. Just up a hill from the carpark were the grounds of the Royal Dornoch Golf Club, so we set up our equipment on a small patch of rough.

We were among the first to arrive, but very soon more cars started to pull up and disgorge glum-looking eclipse chasers armed with tripods and cameras. All took care not to leave the golf club with mysterious sets of extra holes on the green.

The picture shows Chris fiddling with our Meade ETX125EC telescope on its first field use, with an Olympus OM1 camera on the rear port. To the left is our Canon AE1 with a Tamron 500mm catadioptric lens, which had served us well for the 2001 Zambian eclipse.

Next

Image details