Contains:  Solar system body or event
Total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024 from Russellville, Arkansas, USA, darkdesertdome

Total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024 from Russellville, Arkansas, USA

Total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024 from Russellville, Arkansas, USA, darkdesertdome

Total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024 from Russellville, Arkansas, USA

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Rather than trying to maximize detail in the corona at all costs (which I don't have the skills to accomplish anyway), I decided to try to replicate what my eye saw as much as possible with this HDR image, bringing out a few of the delicate details but not making the image too "overbaked".  Hopefully I succeeded, at least in part, though nothing really captures the glory of the actual event as seen by the naked eye, as anyone who witnessed it will attest.

All shots (Sony ARW files) were calibrated first with flats, darks, and dark flats in PixInsight, stretched to approximate the native Sony processing algorithm, converted to TIFF files, then pulled over to Photoshop for manual alignment.  Calibrated luminance shots from each respective bracket were ordered in layers from longest (on the bottom) to shortest (on the top) and masked with the respective image immediately below it, and opacities were then adjusted from Layers 1-12 (above the base image) at 50%, 33%, 25%, 20%, 17%, 14%, 11%, 9%, 7%, and 5% to produce a seamless blend.  After flattening layers, the images from each of the 3 brackets were averaged together to produce a single master luminance image.  Chrominance data was added from a separately processed single bracketed stack of ARW files opened directly in Photoshop, to ensure the best color calibration per the intrinsic Sony camera algorithm (without further color calibration steps).  To enhance coronal detail, high-pass filtering was employed at a series of pixel scales (1000, 500, 250, 125, 60, and 30) with 50-75% opacities.  In addition, radial enhancement was also performed using the method described by Sean Walker in Sky and Telescope in 2020, and blended in with the high-pass filtered image.  GradientXterminator was used in combination with an inverted object mask to flatten the background and further reduce the dynamic range.  The moon was processed separately with high-pass filtering followed by HDRMT in PixInsight on an inverted version as described by Adam Block in his excellent YouTube tutorial, and blended in with careful masking.  Prominences were enhanced by careful masking and blending in of shorter exposure frames.  Minor improvements in background stars were achieved on star-only images using StarXterminator and blended back in.  A few other tweaks were also made by various techniques, but these were the major steps I used that I can remember, for those who are interested.

This was my second total eclipse (the first was in Aug. 2017), and it was no less stunning than the first.  I hope many of you were also lucky enough to be in the path of totality under clear skies.

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Total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024 from Russellville, Arkansas, USA, darkdesertdome