A three-hour photoshoot    

Among others gathered under a darkening Texas sky Oct. 14 was UTRGV business junior Constantine Poulos, his Nikon DSLR camera, a 200-millimeter lens and a tripod.

Poulos traveled to Corpus Christi with his family to view his first annular solar eclipse, during which the sun, moon and Earth align, casting a shadow on the planet and hushing the birds.

Over the span of three hours, the astrophotographer took individual exposures of different stages of the eclipse and compiled them into a mosaic using Adobe Photoshop.

During the event, the moon is “far enough” from the Earth so that it “doesn’t take up all of the sun, so it’s not a total eclipse,” Poulus told The Rider last Thursday.

“You still see a ring of the sun, which is why it’s called the ‘Ring of Fire,’” Poulos said. “ … It’s a rather rare event. It happens, I think, every few years in different parts of the world, but one happening in Texas is very rare.”

While a total solar eclipse covers the sun completely, resulting in even darker skies, an annular eclipse is when the moon only takes up 90% of the sun, according to Juan Madrid, an assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at UTRGV.

Poulos said he became interested in astrophotography after taking Madrid’s Introduction to Astronomy I class.

Madrid said viewing a solar eclipse with the naked eye can cause blindness and recommends using special solar eclipse glasses. 

“The issue is that your eyes are going to act as that magnifying glass and you’re going to end up burning your eyes or your retinas if you look at the sun for too long,” he said while putting on a pair of the protective glasses.

Poulos said the next event is a total solar eclipse on April 8.

“Luckily, [the best place to view it] is in Texas, but it’s all the way up in the Fredericksburg-Kerrville area,” he said, adding that he intends to attend the event to take more photos.

Madrid said the April solar eclipse will take place in the middle of the day and result in total darkness. He explained that a few centuries ago, before the ability to predict solar eclipses, “people would completely panic.”

However, he said there were civilizations that could “predict eclipses with great accuracy,” including the Mayans, who knew how to predict eclipses centuries in advance.

“There are some states in the country that have not seen a solar eclipse in over 100 years,” he said. “We’re a little bit lucky here in South Texas because we got this eclipse … and we are also going to have the total solar eclipse next April, which is going to be spectacular. So, this was like an appetizer for us.”

Poulos encourages people to view a solar eclipse at least once. 

“It’s a beautiful experience,” he said. “Everyone should experience it.”