Solar Eclipse over the Moon Valley

On April 30th, 2022, the partial solar eclipse was visible over South America, especially in Chile and Argentina. The deepest coverage on the ground was visible by sunset in the south of Chile, where the Moon covered about 40 % of the Sun. I was lucky to watch this unusual sunset eclipse over the Moon Valley, located west of San Pedro de Atacama in Chile. When starting to watch the phenomenon, many people local came to the viewpoint located just in front of me, not knowing anything about the event and just wanting to enjoy a regular sunset. When I informed them about the progressing eclipse, they were just so excited! The image shows the sequence of the whole 54-minute-long eclipse over the horizon, foreground image was taken just at sunset time when the last “pearl” of the Sun was about to disappear. At the same moment, the sky started to shine very dusty way as dust from the Hunga Tonga volcano appeared in the Chilean sky again (as every night from January). Used Canon 6D, Tamron 70-200mm@80mm, f4.5, ISO 200, vary exposures (for eclipse used AstroSolar Baader folia).

I would like to acknowledge Tomáš Slovinský, who supported me with this photographic idea.

After the eclipse, people enjoyed the volcanic sunset caused by the ash of the Hunga Tonga volcano high in the atmosphere when the eclipsed sun was located below the horizon and illuminated this ash.